gt0

I'd love to go back and get a Blackberry, the pre-QNX one, but I think Android is the least-bad option here. We need certain apps, and Android is the only way we'll get them.

I still sort of want to use it again, but can't quite find a reason to do so.

Code itself can absolutely be difficult, but it's seldom the most difficult part of a project. Generally the hard part is actually figuring out what you want, and how to achieve what you want, then the actual code is pretty straightforward in most cases.

I've been programming since the the 1980s and I'm not insulted by the idea that code isn't the hard part.

I think COBOL systems would be plenty maintainable if the owners of the systems invested in maintaining them. If companies just let people retire, attempt to hire replacements with unremarkable salaries, then maintenance is a problem.

If they paid salaries that reflected how critical this work is, I don't think it would be that big a problem to find and keep good developers.

We have critical economic infrastructure being treated as annoyance and a cost centre.

Those gaps are getting bigger all over the place, technical users generally just want all the bullshit to go away and just have a reliable and simple system, but no mainstream software companies want to sell it.

The processor inside it is approaching 4 years old and wasn't a good processor at launch.

I like how it looks, but I won't spend that much money on so little computer.

I don't like the interior. I think this style can work for some things, it reminds me of a NuPhy keyboard, blocky plastic that looks nice in some circumstances.

For me this is not a Ferrari-standard of car, Ferraris are strikingly beautiful, and this just isn't.

It has its annoyances, but I still like that style of saving.

Realistically though, I'm not going to build software for free any more than I'm going to tidy someone's garden for free.

FOSS has delivered some great software, it's also demonetised a lot of areas where software developers could be earning a living. I don't think software developers should feel any need to give away their efforts than any other professional should.

FOSS has created pricing race to the bottom in software, and taken away financial incentive for improvement, it's not a 100% net positive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit#1990s

I am a desktop app "believer" I like desktop apps, I like native desktop apps, but I also have to make software that makes economic sense, and following Apple's guidelines just doesn't make any sense for me, and a lot of other companies too.

That's fine, except no platform answers this.

Obviously Linux doesn't, but the Mac doesn't either. Apple of course has it's recommendation, but most developers do not take Apple's recommended path because of course, it's Apple-only, most developers make cross-platform apps these days.

Even if Microsoft decreed the one-and-one Windows development path, most developers are not taking that path.

It used to be the case that Mac developers used Apple tools, Windows developers used Microsoft tools, but those days are gone. Developers want to use Electron, or Qt, or some other system to support multiple platforms in one codebase.

Microsoft has less to do with this than the article makes out. I'm a desktop developer. I don't care what Microsoft recommends, or what Apple recommends, because neither work in the real world where supporting only their platform just isn't realistic.

Firefox is entirely optional, not a monopoly anywhere.

The problem for me isn't making bad web browsers, it's enforcing those bad browsers as the only option on a computer platform.