jmjmMay 22, 2023

Lessons, living with parents with dementia: when an app on their phone spontaneously changes it's icon, it's a fucking disaster.

Some Google engineer launched a feature that got them a promotion and now my mom can't use her phone anymore. Silicon Valley is incapable of imagining a user who isn't a 27 year old white man.

Show threadrobMay 22, 2023
@jmjm that happens to people I know who have no dementia. Neither Google's marketers not their UX people live in the real world.
Show threadSteven ReedMay 22, 2023
@robparsons
Hell, I'm in my 40s and I find it slows *me* down significantly. On my desktop/laptop I put a fair amount of energy into making new versions of things look like the old ones, but that's usually hard or impossible on mobile :(
@jmjm
Show threadrobMay 22, 2023
@srtcd424 @jmjm yup. Like Windows 11. They will have to prise W10 from my cold dead hands. (I am making detailed plans to migrate to Linux.)
Show threadrastilinMay 22, 2023

@robparsons @srtcd424 @jmjm

Me too. I've started running it on one of the older machines to get used to it. It feels that with Windows 11 you're effectively using a terminal that you're renting.

Show threadrobMay 22, 2023
@rastilin @srtcd424 @jmjm I'd kinda like to do that, but I fear my "dealing with stuff that isn't out of the box" skills are not quite up to it.
Show threadSteven ReedMay 22, 2023
@robparsons
Could use WSL or Linux in a VM and gradually move functions/ tasks over one by one? Not sure what X servers are available for Windows these days but I bet there are some.
@rastilin
Show threadrastilin

@srtcd424 @robparsons

My Windows 10 machine is a cut down AME version that doesn't have the windows store and never will.

The Windows store, aside from being generally terrible, undermines the Windows system as a general OS that you own, as do automatic updates. If they can force push software to your machine, it's no longer your machine. You can wake up on any morning to find out that some business critical software no longer works, or the machine doesn't boot, or some other problem.

I've never tried WSL, but I don't see the point to it as long as cygwin exists. Except that cygwin is not controlled by Microsoft.

May 22, 2023 at 5:35pmWeb