Hacker News

points by z0r 2 days ago | 0 comments

Before the 2010s ruined software, you generally:

- Purchased or downloaded a software package.

- Installed it onto your local machine.

After that you were free to do what you liked with the software.

Now software generally:

- Runs on someone else's computer, or is at least locked behind a login.

- Is served to you through a web browser.

- May be revoked or changed without notice at any time.

For this reason, regardless of reliability or capability, software was generally better in the past.

[–] drnick1 2 days ago

At the same time, there is a lot more high quality FOSS nowadays. And AI is making it increasingly easy to write small or not so small utilities.

[–] z0r 2 days ago

This is very true, and my complaints aren't about open source or even AI written software!

[–] carlosjobim 2 days ago

MacOS has a very healthy app market and you will usually find the highest quality apps in existence for any task available for a cheap price. Real apps that you install just like in the old days.

[–] devilsdata 2 days ago

I've also noticed that certain app stores on Linux are catching up a little. I use MacOS as a daily driver, and can attest to the fact that the apps have been and are definitely higher quality. But I briefly had to use desktop linux, and was surprised at the quality of some of the apps available on the Bazaar store (I used GNOME on Fedora).

[–] M95D 2 days ago

I never had MacOS. Is it really true?

- What you buy is yours forver?

- Even if the company's servers go offline?

- Even if you change your PC?

- Apple can't remove it from your machine whenever they like?

- You can back up the installer and license and reinstall it later? Offline?

[–] carlosjobim 2 days ago

For most apps yes to all. A traditional app is just a file that you can put anywhere and transfer to anywhere and run. Some apps you install like on Windows or Linux, but most apps are just a standalone file.

[–] silent_cal 2 days ago

Do you have some examples?

[–] carlosjobim 2 days ago

Sublime Text, BusyCal, Logic, Affinity, NetNewsWire, TablePlus, Transmit, Zotero, Mac Mail, Cakedesk.

Let's flip it: Do you have some examples of software needed that is not available as a regular install for MacOS? Not saying it doesn't exist, but you can almost always find high quality local software.

[–] johnnyanmac 2 days ago

All popular modern popular software? You don't get to "install" media apps anymore. Many games are simply thin clients into someone else's server. Office and many professional productivity tools (Adobe) converted from "software you buy and install" to "software you pay a monthly subscription to keep using". all your chat apps are basically mini web-browsers under the hood in terms of overhead instead of a small thin-client.

These are the largest pieces of software people use, and there's more bloat and less control than ever.

[–] carlosjobim 2 days ago

All these apps are modern and of the highest quality. All of them very popular except the last I listed. Not mentioned are the many high quality apps included with MacOS, including the Music.app (iTunes), which doesn't need any Internet connection to play your MP3s.

Games I don't care about, for those a PC or console is most likely your better option.

> Office and many professional productivity tools (Adobe) converted from "software you buy and install" to "software you pay a monthly subscription to keep using".

MacOS comes with a free office suite which is perfectly capable for personal or small business use. Affinity is a great alternative to Photoshop that is free, although the new version 3 now checks your license when you run the app. Affinity 2 was software you buy and install. You can otherwise buy Pixelmator Pro for $50 from Apple.

> all your chat apps are basically mini web-browsers

The included iMessage is probably not.

I haven't been in a situation where there wasn't a great traditional app available for purchase or for free for the tasks I needed.

Of course if your task is "I specifically need Microsoft Office/Adobe Photoshop and nothing else" rather than "I need to get this or that done", then you are stuck.

[–] johnnyanmac 2 days ago

I'm not saying there is not high quality software that doesn't require a subscription. I'm simply saying most people's core apps do not fit in that model.

As an analog, I don't feel it's much value to ay "Facebook sucks, use Hacker News" (or any of the hundred other social media that are not a data harvesting platform). The existence of (more) ethical alternativea doesn't erase that fact that most are on unethical software. Likewise, there being efficient software doesn't invalidate that most people are on electron powered services that each take up GB's of data.

[–] carlosjobim 2 days ago

Okay, but if somebody doesn't want to solve their own problem then I'm not going to loose sleep over it. There is a solution for those, but HN has turned somewhat into an endless complain venting space. Discussions seem to follow this pattern:

User 1: There are no good cars anymore!

User 2: You can get this car A or this car B which are good.

User 1: But I have car C which isn't good!

I didn't claim in my original comment that all or most software was high quality. I said that high quality software is generally available for MacOS. Then it's up to each person what they do.

[–] RunSet 2 days ago

"Helmlet" lets users close a Macbook's lid without its going to sleep- even with no external monitor connected- for a mere €3.99. No subscription!

https://helmlet.app/en/

[–] chalmovsky 2 days ago

I let my mac snort some instead to keep it awake: https://github.com/chalmovsky/snort

I wanted to call it pervitin but then I learned about the ugly historical connotation.

[–] garciansmith 2 days ago

I feel like I'm missing something because I don't understand how this wouldn't be just an OS system setting. Certainly not an app that you would pay for (or use an example of some great feature). That's just a option in KDE's system settings. And when I used to use Gnome 3, and Unity before that, and Gnome 2... just a setting.

[–] jen20 2 days ago

IA Writer, IA Presenter, everything from Omni Group, Acorn, Procreate, Capo, Sketch.

[–] wpm 2 days ago

I think Omni Group requires an Omni account login to use any or most of their apps.

[–] jen20 2 days ago

I haven't experienced that, but bought all of their products I use via the Mac App Store. I imagine they need some kind of activation if you download them from elsewhere.