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I used to work in residential construction, and have done pretty much everything from foundations to electrical to roofing. And so generally, if something needs

I used to work in residential construction, and have done pretty much everything from foundations to electrical to roofing. And so generally, if something needs to be done on my house, even relatively major stuff, I do it, or I could if I wanted to. But there is a world of people who have no idea how to do even the most basic things, and there is a whole industry set up to extract money from them. So maybe not the best analogy but I see it the same way with computers, there has been a bifurcation between consumer tech that is designed to maximally extract money from the lay-public, and tech the way it is used by professionals, experts etc. The consumer world continues to drift away from the professional world, and I agree it's getting worse, but I think that's just a symptom of the tech becoming commercial. Open source has never been more active and widely used, I have more options to run more kinds of os/code on more kinds of hardware than I ever have before. So yeah, businesses have hollowed out the consumer version, same as if you hire a sears roofing crew to come do your roof, you are getting the minimum product for maximum cost. And that's a problem. But it's not necessarily an existential threat to our continuing to have computers we can use the way we want to.

AnthonyMouse 6y ago
Your analogy doesn't hold. If someone needs a new plug for their dryer, they might want to hire an electrician instead of doing it themselves. But they can hire any electrician. It doesn't have to be from the company who makes the dryer, whose electrician charges 30% above market and requires you to use that company's electrical panel which in turn requires you to use that company's stove and refrigerator and buy your electricity from their power company and pay your bills with their credit card whose agreement prohibits you from having any competing credit cards.
- iujjkfjdkkdkf 6y ago
  I agree you can find flaws in the analogy, but my main point is that there is a difference between how things are designed for "consumers" vs professionals. The electrician in your example sees the world and their options for fixing electrical problems very differently than the average condo owner. On the other hand, I was reading yesterday about the Tonal home gym (not picking on it or promoting it, just top of mind), which is a subscription based home gym appliance that you have to pay monthly for, and, pay to have their techs come and install it, and pay them to come re install it you move. So your example is actually getting closer to reality.
  - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
    > I agree you can find flaws in the analogy, but my main point is that there is a difference between how things are designed for "consumers" vs professionals. The electrician in your example sees the world and their options for fixing electrical problems very differently than the average condo owner. None of the things are actually designed any differently. You can go to the Home Depot and buy the same plug as the electrician does. The only difference is that you're hiring someone else to do it instead of doing it yourself -- in a competitive non-vertically integrated market using standard modular parts. > On the other hand, I was reading yesterday about the Tonal home gym (not picking on it or promoting it, just top of mind), which is a subscription based home gym appliance that you have to pay monthly for, and, pay to have their techs come and install it, and pay them to come re install it you move. So your example is actually getting closer to reality. My example is a horrifying dystopia that people will regret not preventing. The fact that it's infecting other industries will only increase the overall amount of regret.
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aidenn0 6y ago
It wasn't that long ago that eevelopers would use HPUX/SGI/SUN/AIX workstations, sometimes even for developing software for other microcomputers. It's entirely possible that there was just a ~25 year blip in which workstation and consumer computing hardware was the same.
cblconfederate 6y ago
You missed the fact where you were able to work on houses because construction uses common open standards / which would not be possible with vertically integrated houses that only work with a specific brand of furniture

AnthonyMouse 6y ago

Your analogy doesn't hold. If someone needs a new plug for their dryer, they might want to hire an electrician instead of doing it themselves. But they can hire any electrician. It doesn't have to be from the company who makes the dryer, whose electrician charges 30% above market and requires you to use that company's electrical panel which in turn requires you to use that company's stove and refrigerator and buy your electricity from their power company and pay your bills with their credit card whose agreement prohibits you from having any competing credit cards.

iujjkfjdkkdkf 6y ago
I agree you can find flaws in the analogy, but my main point is that there is a difference between how things are designed for "consumers" vs professionals. The electrician in your example sees the world and their options for fixing electrical problems very differently than the average condo owner. On the other hand, I was reading yesterday about the Tonal home gym (not picking on it or promoting it, just top of mind), which is a subscription based home gym appliance that you have to pay monthly for, and, pay to have their techs come and install it, and pay them to come re install it you move. So your example is actually getting closer to reality.
- AnthonyMouse 6y ago
  > I agree you can find flaws in the analogy, but my main point is that there is a difference between how things are designed for "consumers" vs professionals. The electrician in your example sees the world and their options for fixing electrical problems very differently than the average condo owner. None of the things are actually designed any differently. You can go to the Home Depot and buy the same plug as the electrician does. The only difference is that you're hiring someone else to do it instead of doing it yourself -- in a competitive non-vertically integrated market using standard modular parts. > On the other hand, I was reading yesterday about the Tonal home gym (not picking on it or promoting it, just top of mind), which is a subscription based home gym appliance that you have to pay monthly for, and, pay to have their techs come and install it, and pay them to come re install it you move. So your example is actually getting closer to reality. My example is a horrifying dystopia that people will regret not preventing. The fact that it's infecting other industries will only increase the overall amount of regret.

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aidenn0 6y ago

It wasn't that long ago that eevelopers would use HPUX/SGI/SUN/AIX workstations, sometimes even for developing software for other microcomputers. It's entirely possible that there was just a ~25 year blip in which workstation and consumer computing hardware was the same.

cblconfederate 6y ago

You missed the fact where you were able to work on houses because construction uses common open standards / which would not be possible with vertically integrated houses that only work with a specific brand of furniture