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Why We Can't Have Nice Software
(hachyderm.io)
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this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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Programming
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Products are developed and in that process technology is created. Once the technical problems have been solved, manufacturers seek to remove as much cost from the process as possible and this generally degrades the durability of the product. The biggest problem with a lot of technology is that virtually no consideration is given to the long term maintenance of the product. There's no way to interface the system with other parts and re-use the product. We throw it away and buy the next thing because that's good for capitalism but it's horrible for people and the environment.
Consequence:
Software can only be good, when enough people WANT to work on it and with it along the complete life-cycle. There's a critical amount of developers/contributors/testers and (feedback providing) users.
Hence a lot of critical consumer stuff is based on popular opensource.
Also, we're entering an aera where the difference between hardware/firmware/software gets increasingly blurred. So all of this applies to more and more hardware, too.
The vast majority of people are techno illiterate, even within firms that make technology. A handful of people (relatively speaking) are making most of the stuff. Everyone else is just feeding that process. The legal system is set up to motivate the concealment of information about products. You cannot find the documentation to repair embedded systems, even if you have the desire to fix them and the 'right to repair'.
In our village we have a wildly popular 'repair cafe' where people bring their faulty electrical items to be repaired by volunteers. People don't want to toss their duff appliances in landfill but we need the tools and education.