Bonum Certa Men Certa

Free, as in “App”

Article by Tom Grz

Web logo



Summary: "As everyday users, we need to be able to configure our applications, and this process must/needs to be made as easy and understandable as possible."

We had our computers which ran our programs -– and then after some years “programs” became “applications”. Now we have “Apps” which are ubiquitous, on our desktop computers, our tablets, and our phones. And the App is not at all what it seems to be.



"Now we have “Apps” which are ubiquitous, on our desktop computers, our tablets, and our phones. And the App is not at all what it seems to be."Back in the days, programs were very much task-directed. Applications took a bigger bite, providing a working environment within a specific domain. “Apps”, on the other hand, are pretty much all about “minimizing cognitive load”. When in doubt about something, bring-up an app. If you don’t have it already installed, install it. This is the short history of the dumbing-down of software.

We should applaud, and say “job well done” - software is simple now, like it was intended to be all along. You know: “KISS”. Keep it Simple was a rallying design principle, and it made complete sense: if we overwhelm the user with unnecessary difficulty, it'll spoil their day, and may even result in them abandoning the task.

The most commonly used platform for software today is the mobile phone. And the very last thing we want is for the user to leave our app. Almost everyone is familiar with the conventions and patterns of interaction that come with using their phone, and anything that differs from those expectations can create a sense of friction or even anxiety. To keep as close to expectations as possible for the user, the user “experience” is made consistent even across platforms, with familiar screens, icons, fonts, conventions, so that prior experience serves to flatten the learning curve. But the phone platform is severely limited: the small screen can only show a small amount of information, and typing on the screen is slow and fraught with mistakes. What we see then, moving to other platforms, is a strong tendency toward this lowest common denominator. Couple this curbing effect with range of abilities one finds across the vast masses of users from all possible walks of life who use phone apps, and the tendency to over-simplify things becomes strong.

"Keep it Simple was a rallying design principle, and it made complete sense: if we overwhelm the user with unnecessary difficulty, it'll spoil their day, and may even result in them abandoning the task."OK, let’s call it a “democratization of technology”. Except it isn’t. The very basis of the business model behind it is exploitative -- to say the least. Data is collected from the user incessantly, with every on-line action. Aral Balkan calls this business model people farming, and the depth of the practice is even worse than it appears: “People farmers also buy data from data brokers, share data with other people farmers, and even know when you use your credit card in brick and mortar stores.” And they combine all of this information to create profiles of you which are constantly analyzed, updated, and improved.

Strangely, people are not alarmed that there are sets of data being constantly collected and compiled about them. They may not care that they have electronic shadows projected on electronic walls in electronic caves they know nothing of. But they should be very concerned that these are not mere profiles, they are active models – in nature being closer to ghosts. The data sets are combined, collated, analyzed, and extrapolated into predictions. The predictions are used mainly for selling, selling goods, and increasingly for selling ideas and political candidates. “Selling” may not be the best word here - “manipulating behavior” is more precise. Google, Facebook and Microsoft and others - they hold your ghost hostage. These corporations wring predictions and manipulations of your very person out of these ghost images. All of this lies behind “your” app.

"Google, Facebook and Microsoft and others - they hold your ghost hostage. These corporations wring predictions and manipulations of your very person out of these ghost images. All of this lies behind “your” app."“Social networking” applications are the most insidious. As you communicate with friends and associates you inherently provide tremendous amounts of pertinent information: who, what, when and where, all including the contents of the messaging itself. Your very mood can be conveyed by the rhythms of your keystrokes and your word choices (along with the emoticons, of course!). One might not regard more professionally-oriented applications such as LinkedIn or GitHub to be in the same class of application as Facebook and Twitter, but they are in fact essentially the same, dedicated to the same business model.

So what should we be asking for instead? What we see of the app is only a surface, and a very shallow surface at that. As described above, there is a very strong drive to keep the app as simple as possible, yet engage the user in ways that prevent them from leaving – and interrupting the stream of data being collected. What we users must demand are applications with depth. Users must be allowed to configure their applications in such a way as to allow only that information which is needed to pass gets passed. All data streams must be documented, along with configuration instructions. Better yet, the data should never be collected! Users themselves must look for alternatives to the stalls where they are miked and the farms where they are corralled: Gnu Icecat can be a good replacement for Firefox and Chromium, while Diaspora* can be a good alternative to Facebook. These are only examples – much more has to be done in this field to free our data streams from streaming over to people whose interests are not in alignment with ours.

"One might not regard more professionally-oriented applications such as LinkedIn or GitHub to be in the same class of application as Facebook and Twitter, but they are in fact essentially the same, dedicated to the same business model."And how can we be certain that our applications are only doing what they are supposed to do? First-off, all source code must be made available. This is a good first step, but as we have seen with the Google Chromium Web browser and the Mozilla Firefox Web browser this is not nearly enough. The source code must be practically accessible as well as physically accessible. It should be modular, documented, and as simple as possible to understand and easy to modify and recompile. It should be shared software, GPL-compatible, so that others cannot subvert the code but must instead provide the same license.

As everyday users, we need to be able to configure our applications, and this process must/needs to be made as easy and understandable as possible. This probably requires a different kind of interface than we have been led into, and different kinds of instructions. These things will not happen unless we demand it. But demand these changes, these advancements in software we must. The alternative is to submit to being corralled, kept, milked and herded about like cattle.

Recent Techrights' Posts

New Video Report About Microsoft Cancelling Multi-Billion Dollar Projects
direct link to the video
Microsoft is Already Laying Off Lots of Contractors
cost-cutting at Microsoft takes a new "edge"
Coming Soon: Microsoft Fake Results, Mass Layoffs, and Silence About All the People Microsoft Pressured to "Quit" (So That They Don't Get Counted as Layoffs)
there will be more mass layoffs
Speed of GNU/Linux
The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
 
Google Spreading Misinformation and Lies
Google is in the propaganda business
statCounter: GNU/Linux Adoption Surging in Switzerland, Windows at All-time Low
What happened?
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Free Speech and Perfectionism in Design
Links for the day
What Fake News Looks Like (IBM)
IBM told a lie. The media then just blindly repeated this lie.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, April 28, 2025
China is Already Culling GAFAM (Not Just Microsoft Windows)
OS monoculture or "OS hegemony" may be coming to an end
The "Telephone Operating System in the Vatican" is 95 Years Old, Vatican Moved to GNU/Linux
Maybe Microsoft is down to zero already
If Tesla Shares (and Alleged Value) Fell 55% (From $489 to $222) in a Few Months Maybe It's Not Worth Anything At All (It's Just Gambling)
Tesla swasticars have turned from a "status symbol" into a "public embarrassment" and cause for casual humiliation
Chromebooks' Adoption in Sweden No Longer Depends on Schools
School breaks are when classrooms are shut
No, IBM is Not Investing $150 Billion in the US and It Doesn't Even Have That Kind of Money
Here we go again... media as a vehicle of lobbying and misinformation
Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things
violations against the EPO's very staff
New Leaks Coming Soon, We Maintain 100% Record of Successful Resistance to Censorship
We won't be told what we can and cannot say (especially when it's true)
Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share
99.8% to go!
BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
the FUD machine never rests
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs
Links for the day
Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict
Links for the day
Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop)
People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux)
Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire"
Links for the day
Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless
Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant
Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025