this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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All that happened by design. The trend for decades has been to remove the user from the internal workings of the computer. This paved the way for expensive support packages, geek squads, and genius bars.
If we look at cars as an example, the future of computing looks grim. Who’s to say that there won’t be leased laptops with built in features behind paywalls in the next 10 years?
I don't think we need a sinister plan to explain how we got where we are.
Most people are interested in some outcome, and want the easiest process to achieve it, not to learn about the process. They want to play a computer game, not learn about graphics drivers. They want to take a picture and send it to their friends, not learn about communications protocols or camera settings.
It's not just tech. They want to cut their food, not learn to sharpen knives. They want to drive to their destinations, not maintain their cars. Maintenance-free tends to outsell serviceable in most product categories.
Geek Squad didn't come about because people didn't have the ability to access the inner workings of their computers, but because they didn't want to put in the effort to learn. Getting the defaults right so most people don't have to change settings before your product is useful is good design even when your product offers lots of access to the inner workings.
I do, however see the trend of software requiring remote attestation about the OS it's running on as sinister. Google even recently tried to bring that to the web.