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Agreed. We have the entire history of personal computing to know the consequences of these changes. Industry experts still state, ad nauseam, that side loading
by quitit 3y ago
Agreed. We have the entire history of personal computing to know the consequences of these changes.
Industry experts still state, ad nauseam, that side loading and 3rd party app stores are the overwhelming source of Android malware. (Source: Nokia Threat Intelligence report: literally every single year it is issued.)
There are better solutions available, such as directly addressing developer's complaints, rather than hoping a competitor will materialise:
- Requiring google spin off the approval process into an independent, audited entity.
- Legislate a maximum price for transaction fees (like how some markets do with bank fees)
- Legislate a maximum price for listing/admin fees (like how some markets do with staple goods)
What isn't the solution is removing all guard rails from the number 1 source of malware.
Also I don't care much for deemphasising the role of a trusted app store. This is mainly harmful to startups and small developers, since the likes of Spotify can fly solo and undercut smaller developers which rely on Google’s store for visibility and user trust in transactions. Few will hand over their banking details to these smaller developers, especially if they’re overseas or using a different currency.
An entire generation of people were scared of, or did not meaningfully use computers because of malware. Yet this same generation is not scared of smartphones and tablet computers and contributes significant spend to the app ecosystem. I fear that once legislators and court rooms bring back the risks of computing in the '90s, it will take us back to square 1.
- g-b-r 3y ago> An entire generation of people were scared of, or did not meaningfully use computers because of malware Sorry but that's just a ridiculous and entirely false claim
- dragonwriter 3y ago> An entire generation of people were scared of, or did not meaningfully use computers because of malware. Which entire generation was this?
- scarface_74 3y agoI personally will install any crap on my iPhone mostly with assurances that it can’t do any damage to my phone. On the other hand supposedly reputable companies like Zoom have been found to install secret backdoor on Mac’s - a full web server - causing a massive vulnerability. I’m much more cautious about installing something on my Mac or work PC.
- quitit 3y agoIt's interesting to me what someone on HN wouldn't be aware of computer aversion behaviours and malware related technophobia. Since it's not only extensively studied but reported upon frequently. It is also trivial to observe directly, often within our own network of family/friends, and forms the foundation of the marketing behind so many anti-virus products. The generation in my remark is the segment of people who did not meaningfully engage computers due to fears of malware and hacking, the same people who now have no issue carrying a smartphone with them everywhere they go. Do you legitimately think these people didn't exist? Even though post iPhone, digital device usage has significantly out paced population growth, and become a societal necessity.
- dragonwriter 3y ago> It's interesting to me what someone on HN wouldn't be aware of computer aversion behaviours and malware related technophobia. I'm aware of them, and I've seen them across numerous generations with lots of members of the same generations being active computer users. What I am not aware of and no one has provided any support for is the claim that an entire generations refused computer use for the particular reasons stated upthread, the people that avoided computer use mostly did it for ither reasons, and the people with hacking concerns were mostly computer users, though they often had atypical usage patterns (sometimes reasonably related to avoiding hacking, sometimes heavily cargo culted.)
- g-b-r 3y agoA single monopolistic store gives raise to all kinds of problems anyhow, at least unless it's _entirely_ controlled by a trustworthy entity devoting enough resources to its management. Check how happy developers are with it. And you're enormously overestimating the security checks that are performed on apps.