Operating system decline and cultural death(wheybags.com)
wheybags.com
Operating system decline and cultural death
https://wheybags.com/blog/culturedeath.html
24 comments
Hardware, too. You used to be able to figure out what was going on with hardware with an oscilloscope. You could get the oscilloscope onto a pin of a chip. You could replace chips. Now all of that is far beyond most people's reach.
I have the same trepidations. It's getting damn near impossible to get a haircut or a surgical procedure or a parking place without carrying a cellphone. The trend is toward all technology that is permitted becoming mandatory, and all technology that is not mandatory is becoming forbidden.
So much of the free as in whatever software sector (and much of the telecomm infrastructure that it relies on) is now subject to change without notice, mostly because it is tolerated, funded or owned by very business-oriented mega-corporations who (note: corporations being people in the USA, please do not think I am casting aspersions on any of my flesh-and-blood brethren) have tempered their avarice to the extent that they want to move only somewhat faster than everyone else, and only break things that slow their progress. So the list of things that are going to get worse before they get better is bound to get longer before it gets shorter. Progress is our only product, love it or leave it. I could give you 37 or 38 pages of examples off the top of my head, but I don't want to die of legal fees.
That brings me to Viktor Frankl: "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way".
So much of the free as in whatever software sector (and much of the telecomm infrastructure that it relies on) is now subject to change without notice, mostly because it is tolerated, funded or owned by very business-oriented mega-corporations who (note: corporations being people in the USA, please do not think I am casting aspersions on any of my flesh-and-blood brethren) have tempered their avarice to the extent that they want to move only somewhat faster than everyone else, and only break things that slow their progress. So the list of things that are going to get worse before they get better is bound to get longer before it gets shorter. Progress is our only product, love it or leave it. I could give you 37 or 38 pages of examples off the top of my head, but I don't want to die of legal fees.
That brings me to Viktor Frankl: "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way".
I'd widen the scope to demand kids having unmediated, self-managed contact with reality, preferably physical one. Should be encouraged to tinker with everything, computers being only part of it. Not having any such kind of play is the original cultural death.
I'm curious how many people started their hobby or career by just dabbling in Paint or whatever other bundled Windows program. The equivalent of that does still exist to some extent (is Garageband included by default on iOS? Or MacOS for that matter?), but the world has clearly changed. And sure, there's a whole world of apps out there that you could go and download, but 90% of it is garbage, and the remaining 10% is locked behind a login and choice paralysis, so it'll never be discovered by kids today unless they get lucky (recommendations by other people, seeing someone else doing something cool and asking what that app is).
Ivory tower is right when you're talking about Linux. I've heard "Linux is for the big tech companies now" enough times to make me gag.
> To use a computer, especially for programming, is the purest form of creation that man has ever dreamed up.
Literature? Poetry? Sonnets? Film? Romance? Brewing? This is an incredibly uncultured take.
Reminder that only programmers, by and large, care about anyone’s digital creations. Anyone can appreciate romantic verse more than your C# program that spins a cube.
Literature? Poetry? Sonnets? Film? Romance? Brewing? This is an incredibly uncultured take.
Reminder that only programmers, by and large, care about anyone’s digital creations. Anyone can appreciate romantic verse more than your C# program that spins a cube.
I think you're misinterpreting what I meant. I was not trying to diminish the cultural importance of any other medium of expression. What I was getting at is that I feel the unique thing about programming is that the gap between thought and effect on the world is as small as can be. That it maps my thoughts onto external effects as directly and immediately as humanly possible. You can disagree if you like, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't baselessly accuse me of being uncultured.
Sorry, I agree with the sentiment of wanting a computing environment that’s easy for kids to approach and not too much walled garden, but “last bastion of hope is Windows”???
Maybe I should have made it more clear in the post itself but, what I was getting at is that windows is the last mainstream OS that is reasonably permissive. MacOS has gone too far down the walled garden road already, and besides, they never had decent backwards compatibility. And phones have just been dead from the start. Linux is too obscure, normal people never encounter in their daily lives unless they're already into tech. So, by process of elimination, there is only windows.
Your point about backwards compatibility is the key one, I think. Windows allows space for experimentation by accidental virtue of the side effect of being so good at back compatibility.
If Windows didn't have to support a gigantic universe of old-yet-critical software, Microsoft would have radically reduced the API and feature surface and Windows would be as locked down as MacOS is.
If you can play around on Windows today you probably should be thanking some person who wrote a VB5 program to control a nuclear reactor in 1996 and insisted that it talk to COM1: (gulp).
If Windows didn't have to support a gigantic universe of old-yet-critical software, Microsoft would have radically reduced the API and feature surface and Windows would be as locked down as MacOS is.
If you can play around on Windows today you probably should be thanking some person who wrote a VB5 program to control a nuclear reactor in 1996 and insisted that it talk to COM1: (gulp).
> If Windows didn't have to support a gigantic universe of old-yet-critical software
Interest point, but not exact.
MS have close to monopoly state and is very close to formal margins, where regulators must issue regulative measures.
As I know, nearly all companies achieved so huge share of US market, got warning from regulators, and most immediately hit brakes to limit their share and avoid measures. Examples from past are IBM, Commodore/Atari, etc.
But what interest, using some obvious things, like just strip API to limit share, considered by regulators as offense, so subject must not do direct things to limit his product, and only could slow innovations.
Interest point, but not exact.
MS have close to monopoly state and is very close to formal margins, where regulators must issue regulative measures.
As I know, nearly all companies achieved so huge share of US market, got warning from regulators, and most immediately hit brakes to limit their share and avoid measures. Examples from past are IBM, Commodore/Atari, etc.
But what interest, using some obvious things, like just strip API to limit share, considered by regulators as offense, so subject must not do direct things to limit his product, and only could slow innovations.
Your opinion is really interest and important, but it lack evidence.
What I mean, last years, I constantly gather information, on how countries grown their hackers community and programming industry, and at first I seen obvious things, but now with more info, things looking more complicated.
As example, I seen Eastern Europe and exUSSR, grown their hc and IT, mostly with cheap unlicensed local clones of PDP and IBM machines, and as I see, we in exUSSR know about Commodore/Atari and about consoles (I mean pre xBox), and we somewhere lack their taste, but we are already mature and even more or less competitive.
From other side, Japan have rich history of consoles and machines with extended graphic and sound capabilities (MSX, PC-98), and they have good achievements in enterprise machines and in hardware, but I don't see Japanese google, or Japanese facebook, or Japanese Oracle (databases). And I have not answer, how this happen.
What impress me even more - few years ago I got info, GDP in Asia/Africa and accessibility of compute devices grown very fast after Android appearance (I'm not sure if GDP connected, but smartphone became universal computing device with Android), so I see grow of games sales to Asia/Africa, why I notice - because their very specific culture, so gamedev have to made significant changes to game to enter their market. And this shocked me, as I release, Japanese just avoid to enter these markets, stay focused on their internal market and on West.
And BTW other side - East Europe and exUSSR was so poor, so having moderate access to really good Western computers, huge share of economy made accounting with pen and paper and abacus, some entities in middle 2000s. As I know, Japan have access to computers nearly as Americans, from at least middle 1980s, but looks like they lost something when most people switched from manuscript to keyboard.
What I mean, last years, I constantly gather information, on how countries grown their hackers community and programming industry, and at first I seen obvious things, but now with more info, things looking more complicated.
As example, I seen Eastern Europe and exUSSR, grown their hc and IT, mostly with cheap unlicensed local clones of PDP and IBM machines, and as I see, we in exUSSR know about Commodore/Atari and about consoles (I mean pre xBox), and we somewhere lack their taste, but we are already mature and even more or less competitive.
From other side, Japan have rich history of consoles and machines with extended graphic and sound capabilities (MSX, PC-98), and they have good achievements in enterprise machines and in hardware, but I don't see Japanese google, or Japanese facebook, or Japanese Oracle (databases). And I have not answer, how this happen.
What impress me even more - few years ago I got info, GDP in Asia/Africa and accessibility of compute devices grown very fast after Android appearance (I'm not sure if GDP connected, but smartphone became universal computing device with Android), so I see grow of games sales to Asia/Africa, why I notice - because their very specific culture, so gamedev have to made significant changes to game to enter their market. And this shocked me, as I release, Japanese just avoid to enter these markets, stay focused on their internal market and on West.
And BTW other side - East Europe and exUSSR was so poor, so having moderate access to really good Western computers, huge share of economy made accounting with pen and paper and abacus, some entities in middle 2000s. As I know, Japan have access to computers nearly as Americans, from at least middle 1980s, but looks like they lost something when most people switched from manuscript to keyboard.
For about, what could be good machine for hacking, I have ideas.
First, probably, 8-bitness is unavoidable, because all those current Raspberries, are relatively powerful computers, even usually could install Android there, so you understand what I want to say :)
- Machine for hackers should be limited, on RAM, on CPU speed, sure, with limited screen resolution, and limited sound, because otherwise, on some point, will become race of wallets, as high quality picture and sound are usually expensive.
From other side, graphics should not be too primitive, looks like good compromise are C64 or Atari-65 (not many static objects on background, but with hardware accelerated sprites).
Some time before, I thought, the best balance for hackers machine is C64, until I read some details about Enterprise-128 (or 64).
What differs E128(64) - their absolute unique video-adapter, capable to show few resolutions on one screen. Imagine classic arcade game - for them very usual to have on top part of screen some static background and some indicators of achievements, and whole game process running on lower part of screen. So in good design, we should somehow make top part with minimal possible efforts, but focus on lower part; and E128/64 is most close hardware to this.
For about real implementations, I'm impressed with esp-32 rainbow, but unfortunately, it is ZX Spectrum simulator, and I think it is impossible to do on those hardware C64 or E128. When time will accept, I'll try other cheap hardware platforms, as I hear, RP2040 could run separate C64 chips (but nobody have done whole C64 on multiple RP2040s), so will be multicore machine, but it's ok.
First, probably, 8-bitness is unavoidable, because all those current Raspberries, are relatively powerful computers, even usually could install Android there, so you understand what I want to say :)
- Machine for hackers should be limited, on RAM, on CPU speed, sure, with limited screen resolution, and limited sound, because otherwise, on some point, will become race of wallets, as high quality picture and sound are usually expensive.
From other side, graphics should not be too primitive, looks like good compromise are C64 or Atari-65 (not many static objects on background, but with hardware accelerated sprites).
Some time before, I thought, the best balance for hackers machine is C64, until I read some details about Enterprise-128 (or 64).
What differs E128(64) - their absolute unique video-adapter, capable to show few resolutions on one screen. Imagine classic arcade game - for them very usual to have on top part of screen some static background and some indicators of achievements, and whole game process running on lower part of screen. So in good design, we should somehow make top part with minimal possible efforts, but focus on lower part; and E128/64 is most close hardware to this.
For about real implementations, I'm impressed with esp-32 rainbow, but unfortunately, it is ZX Spectrum simulator, and I think it is impossible to do on those hardware C64 or E128. When time will accept, I'll try other cheap hardware platforms, as I hear, RP2040 could run separate C64 chips (but nobody have done whole C64 on multiple RP2040s), so will be multicore machine, but it's ok.
I agree. I've been trying to use linux as my daily driver for months but aside from using it for incredibly basic things (like web browsing and watching videos) its been a genuine chore. I've settled on fedora gnome as most likely to be the one I'll stick with but it still feels less polished than windows. Funnily enough I'm having compatibility issues- there are a bunch of extensions that promise to use to fix my experience with gnome but they're only compatible with previous versions.
This is not my experience at all I have been daily driving arch for months for work and hobby development without a single issue. In fact it’s easier to fix issues or keep things like my config working on arch than it was on macOS.
I've been daily driving mint for a year. I use it to program, watch videos and play games on steam (fairly powerful rig).
> In fact it’s easier to fix issues or keep things like my config working on arch than it was on macOS.
I didn't have to fix issues or keep my config working. It just works.
> In fact it’s easier to fix issues or keep things like my config working on arch than it was on macOS.
I didn't have to fix issues or keep my config working. It just works.
Haha, yeah I wanted to post very same question. Like WHAT? Maybe he have some retro computing in mind like WinXP (or Win7 at best). Win10 and up is uter crap.
This reminds me of Louis Rossman's Clippy rant. No, Clippy wasn't "just there to help". He represented not the end of some bygone era, but the beginning of the current one: in which operating systems attempt to get ahead of the user and shape their behavior to the vendor's needs, rather than simply doing what the user commands.
Similarly, Windows XP represented the beginning of the current, telemetry-encrusted, handholdy, locky-downy era in computing, not the idyllic past. It was the first Windows to feature product activation, and to send vital data about your system back to Microsoft for license enforcement purposes. When I read that news, I noped out of Windows pretty much for good.
It was also released in the era when Microsoft started seriously talking about Trustworthy Computing, whose fruition is the very problem the author laments. The only reasons why Windows back then wasn't even more locked down is because of backwards compatibility concerns, and with the DOJ breathing hotly down their necks they could ill afford the backlash if they tried. But the XP-era Palladium initiative is just now coming into reality, and may be in full force in Windows 12, which will doubtless require a signed code path from boot loader through application code.
There's also the issue that in the past, most Linux users had exposure to Unix, even if it was just their collegiate shell account, and so had some passing knowledge of Unix culture and values. People who weren't up to speed on this culture were richly rewarded for being at least willing to learn. These days, most Linux users come from a background of exclusively using Windows or (the non-Unixy bits of) macOS, are disappointed when Linux doesn't look and behave exactly like those, and if they be developers, feel the need to Change Fucking Everything so that it does. This perfectly explains GNOME. It's deeply embedded in GNOME's DNA. The founding document of GNOME is called "Let's Make Unix Not Suck", where the definition of "not suck" is literally "look and behave exactly like Windows". So we're already well into a culture of least-common-denominator-ism, even in the open source world, for ~20y and counting.
I dunno, maybe that last bit is a bit too "old man yells at cloud". But the 90s hit way different in computing, even compared to the immediately following decade. (Linux was legitimately cyberpunk. Instead of the anodyne, if not exactly welcoming, blue splash screen of Windows, we were greeted by the text-mode chatter of dozens of kernel and user-mode systems, each line having been written by some human whose name you could find by examining the source code or its history. The voices of the street finding its own uses for newly-cheap PCs.)
Similarly, Windows XP represented the beginning of the current, telemetry-encrusted, handholdy, locky-downy era in computing, not the idyllic past. It was the first Windows to feature product activation, and to send vital data about your system back to Microsoft for license enforcement purposes. When I read that news, I noped out of Windows pretty much for good.
It was also released in the era when Microsoft started seriously talking about Trustworthy Computing, whose fruition is the very problem the author laments. The only reasons why Windows back then wasn't even more locked down is because of backwards compatibility concerns, and with the DOJ breathing hotly down their necks they could ill afford the backlash if they tried. But the XP-era Palladium initiative is just now coming into reality, and may be in full force in Windows 12, which will doubtless require a signed code path from boot loader through application code.
There's also the issue that in the past, most Linux users had exposure to Unix, even if it was just their collegiate shell account, and so had some passing knowledge of Unix culture and values. People who weren't up to speed on this culture were richly rewarded for being at least willing to learn. These days, most Linux users come from a background of exclusively using Windows or (the non-Unixy bits of) macOS, are disappointed when Linux doesn't look and behave exactly like those, and if they be developers, feel the need to Change Fucking Everything so that it does. This perfectly explains GNOME. It's deeply embedded in GNOME's DNA. The founding document of GNOME is called "Let's Make Unix Not Suck", where the definition of "not suck" is literally "look and behave exactly like Windows". So we're already well into a culture of least-common-denominator-ism, even in the open source world, for ~20y and counting.
I dunno, maybe that last bit is a bit too "old man yells at cloud". But the 90s hit way different in computing, even compared to the immediately following decade. (Linux was legitimately cyberpunk. Instead of the anodyne, if not exactly welcoming, blue splash screen of Windows, we were greeted by the text-mode chatter of dozens of kernel and user-mode systems, each line having been written by some human whose name you could find by examining the source code or its history. The voices of the street finding its own uses for newly-cheap PCs.)
Oh, and if the author thought that modding Half-Life by changing a couple images around was creative freedom, his mind will be blown by 80s home computers, which booted directly into BASIC. Growing up, I learned that a computer is to be programmed as a pencil is to be written with, from machines whose first act upon power-on was to cry out to be programmed. Since 32-bit Windows, computers haven't even shipped with BASIC in a meaningful sense. Computing, for most people, boiled down to "using applications"—word processor, spreadsheet, browser. We've only just dumbed these down even more, including shortening the term to "apps".
A favorite video of mine to share is this Learn how to program your computer (1977):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZRyVxnJTh4
It "booted" into an IDE before you could turn on the monitor (sold separately). You were programming within 15 minutes--you had to be, there was nothing else to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZRyVxnJTh4
It "booted" into an IDE before you could turn on the monitor (sold separately). You were programming within 15 minutes--you had to be, there was nothing else to do.
I think the turning point was literally when we started booting into Windows. Before that, you had DOS, which is basically a program launcher and collection of system utilities. You could even run Windows from DOS by typing "win" (which ran "win.com"). You knew everything that was running on your computer, from the drivers you installed in CONFIG.SYS to the TSRs loaded in AUTOEXEC.BAT.
But then people started putting "win" at the end of AUTOEXEC.BAT, which is a personal choice, okay. And then Microsoft shipped Windows 95 and inverted the control structure. The computer then ran whatever Microsoft wanted it to run, and you could get a terminal "window" to run DOS commands. But you had ceded control of your computer to Microsoft and the gods of complexity.
But then people started putting "win" at the end of AUTOEXEC.BAT, which is a personal choice, okay. And then Microsoft shipped Windows 95 and inverted the control structure. The computer then ran whatever Microsoft wanted it to run, and you could get a terminal "window" to run DOS commands. But you had ceded control of your computer to Microsoft and the gods of complexity.
See the sibling comment to yours; I generally agree with you. The Mac had been doing this since 1984, though as of 1987 it bundled HyperCard, ameliorating the programmability situation somewhat. With the advent of the GUI it seems the tide shifted from "computers are for programming" to "computers are for running normie productivity apps". Nothing wrong with those apps, but unless I have the means to make it do what I want, I don't have a computer. I have an appliance—the dream of Gates and Jobs, all along. Providing even the means to program the thing, or to control it at a low level, became sort of anathema. Which is kind of ironic considering that modern GUIs were inspired by Smalltalk, whose programmability ran bone-deep.
My exact thoughts the last week.
We had programs like 'pidgin' that allowed chatting with different protocols, whereas now even I (a Linux nerd with 30 years IT experience) have no clue how to take a backup of my Whatsapp/Facetime/... conversations. Completely closed protocols are winning over open ones.
There is a similar process going on with websites; they used to be open and readable for everyone. Today I cannot access most pages that are sent to me via mail or that are linked in forums, unless I create an account and agree to share everything with 799 partners. Never mind that all links are now safelinks.protection.outlook.