4 ms·

I don’t know what your interests are, but an analogy I would propose is if your car had a menu that let you set the brake balance and fuel mixture. I know what

by atonse 4y ago

I don’t know what your interests are, but an analogy I would propose is if your car had a menu that let you set the brake balance and fuel mixture. I know what those things are because I’m a fan of f1 racing. But even I wouldn’t care past a “huh that’s cool” Yes, most people wouldn’t care or even understand that, and same with their search engine. It would confuse them if they got to it. And it isn’t worth keeping it open ended just to please the 1% of nerds, most of which would tinker once and move on. So then it is good to tell non-tech people “you can trust the list” I for one much prefer the apple approach for mainstream users. It gives them a solid set of defaults. If there’s a search engine that’s better than what’s on that list, then we know how to add it and it will make it to the list eventually.

deafpolygon 4y ago
Weird, because it's an option in Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox on the desktop, as well as on mobile. They (Safari on iOS) account for 48.6% of the mobile browser market (with Chrome taking 45.11%) according to statcounter. On the desktop, they drop to 15.5% with Chrome taking the lion's share at 61.79%. It's such a relatively common feature of all but one browser. When you add a search engine, most of the time, it's enough to add in the "%s" string for your search keyword.. and figure out where it goes. For example, with Google it is www.google.com/search?q=%s. > I for one much prefer the apple approach for mainstream users. It gives them a solid set of defaults. Such a weird way to think. Is your view of society such that people are just dumb and need to be coddled?
- emodendroket 4y ago
  Can’t speak for the other guy but my view is that the phone isn’t my primary computing device and I don’t really want to tinker with it that much.
  - deafpolygon 4y ago
    Pretty soon, your primary device will be made of the same "stuffs" your phone is. Will you care then? Or will it be too late?
    - emodendroket 4y ago
      Maybe it will, but then again, I've been hearing this warning for around ten years already. What would I do differently anyway? Buy an Android phone with its own restrictions?
      - fsflover 4y ago
        How about Librem 5 smartphone?
        emodendroket 4y ago
        I had to look it up. Seems I fork over two grand, wait a year to even get it, and then instead of having any of the apps I want to use I get desktop Linux apps on a touchscreen. Where do I sign?
        fsflover 4y ago
        > Seems I fork over two grand, wait a year to even get it You are mixing Librem 5 USA ($2000, shipped within 10 days) and Librem 5 ($1300, long queue due to missing CPUs). > and then instead of having any of the apps I want All apps I want are there. My daily driver now. Which ones are you missing? Android apps can also work with Waydroid. Apart from that, there is Pinephone, slower and cheaper.
- atonse 4y ago
  I never said they’re dumb. I said they don’t care. Most people don’t care about these things. I am able to see the 50 things I can do every single day without having to think too hard and I am grateful for that. I don’t care to know why the elevator I’m riding in is safe. I just care that it is. I don’t want to even have the option of tuning the torque on the elevator motor. Or to tune the right temperature on my cappuccino machine to ensure optimal frothing or whatever. Or to care that 103.5 FM in the radio isn’t exactly in the 103.50000000 MHz. I’m glad that someone made the choice for me so I can enjoy the end product and get on with my life.
  - deafpolygon 4y ago
    How does this apply to being able to choose your own default search engine?
    - atonse 4y ago
      I think it has to do with the use case of being able to add a new search engine that isn’t in the list is in the realm of extremely obscure features, so it isn’t obvious that leaving it out is actually hurting consumers. I’m not trying to be some kind of Apple apologist. My point is simply that this is an obscure setting and there might be decent reason and more downsides to not add it, rather than some nefarious anti-consumer move.

by atonse 4y ago

deafpolygon 4y ago

Weird, because it's an option in Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Firefox on the desktop, as well as on mobile. They (Safari on iOS) account for 48.6% of the mobile browser market (with Chrome taking 45.11%) according to statcounter. On the desktop, they drop to 15.5% with Chrome taking the lion's share at 61.79%. It's such a relatively common feature of all but one browser. When you add a search engine, most of the time, it's enough to add in the "%s" string for your search keyword.. and figure out where it goes. For example, with Google it is www.google.com/search?q=%s. > I for one much prefer the apple approach for mainstream users. It gives them a solid set of defaults. Such a weird way to think. Is your view of society such that people are just dumb and need to be coddled?

emodendroket 4y ago
Can’t speak for the other guy but my view is that the phone isn’t my primary computing device and I don’t really want to tinker with it that much.
- deafpolygon 4y ago
  Pretty soon, your primary device will be made of the same "stuffs" your phone is. Will you care then? Or will it be too late?
  - emodendroket 4y ago
    Maybe it will, but then again, I've been hearing this warning for around ten years already. What would I do differently anyway? Buy an Android phone with its own restrictions?
    - fsflover 4y ago
      How about Librem 5 smartphone?
      - emodendroket 4y ago
        I had to look it up. Seems I fork over two grand, wait a year to even get it, and then instead of having any of the apps I want to use I get desktop Linux apps on a touchscreen. Where do I sign?
        fsflover 4y ago
        > Seems I fork over two grand, wait a year to even get it You are mixing Librem 5 USA ($2000, shipped within 10 days) and Librem 5 ($1300, long queue due to missing CPUs). > and then instead of having any of the apps I want All apps I want are there. My daily driver now. Which ones are you missing? Android apps can also work with Waydroid. Apart from that, there is Pinephone, slower and cheaper.
atonse 4y ago
I never said they’re dumb. I said they don’t care. Most people don’t care about these things. I am able to see the 50 things I can do every single day without having to think too hard and I am grateful for that. I don’t care to know why the elevator I’m riding in is safe. I just care that it is. I don’t want to even have the option of tuning the torque on the elevator motor. Or to tune the right temperature on my cappuccino machine to ensure optimal frothing or whatever. Or to care that 103.5 FM in the radio isn’t exactly in the 103.50000000 MHz. I’m glad that someone made the choice for me so I can enjoy the end product and get on with my life.
- deafpolygon 4y ago
  How does this apply to being able to choose your own default search engine?
  - atonse 4y ago
    I think it has to do with the use case of being able to add a new search engine that isn’t in the list is in the realm of extremely obscure features, so it isn’t obvious that leaving it out is actually hurting consumers. I’m not trying to be some kind of Apple apologist. My point is simply that this is an obscure setting and there might be decent reason and more downsides to not add it, rather than some nefarious anti-consumer move.