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Super Apps Are Terrible for People—and Great for Companies (www.wired.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Apps that offer to "do it all" will subject users to even more exploitation and surveillance, while large tech companies profit.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

Maybe the "do one thing and do it well" paradigm was not a bad idea after all.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And if you make the apps composable then you get all the benefits of an everything app and still have the benefits of competition and specialization. Unfortunately even apps built on open protocols fall on the trap of trying to do everything on their own (look at how Mastodon implemented DMs in the worst possible way instead of delegating it to a chat app and how people keep requesting video hosting on Lemmy).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Mastodon do not have chats and DMs are just a side effect of selecting post visibilty. Thankfully, I much prefer just creating a link to proper chat in bio.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

Was just about to comment the same thing. Unix philosophy should be taught in schools. Every high schooler that doesn't experience education-induced gag reflex when they see Windows is failed by the system.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

I think the issue is that on mobile especially, switching contexts between apps is incredibly difficult compared to desktop and as such it's easier for one app maker to include everything so it can contest switch more easily. The "share" mechanisms on Android and iOS are great for the common use cases but harder for more nuanced things.

That and keeping you within their ecosystem drives engagement which increases profit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Depends. Web browser? Absolutely not. Small directory listing utility (ls)? Of course.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh I want my web browser to do exactly one thing. Reasonably parse HTML, JS and CSS of the websites I visit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

How about block intrusive ads?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Hmm. Not really tbh. As long as it doesn’t inject ads on to the web page (like Edge did to Download Chrome page) I’m fine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

How about reasonably allow for multitasking?