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I wonder if there is enough market demand for dumb and basic products that follow the Unix philosophy of doing one thing well. This may just be nostalgia talkin

I wonder if there is enough market demand for dumb and basic products that follow the Unix philosophy of doing one thing well. This may just be nostalgia talking, but I miss pre-iPhone technology. A TV with no connectivity features, a car UI with actual buttons and knobs, a phone with one-handed usability, laptops with ethernet ports, home appliances without Wi-Fi. Yes, I'm in the minority or maybe I'm just getting old.

EricE 2y ago
There is a market but not enough profit in serving it, unfortunately. Maybe if more people were aware/cared there could be. There are car companies now bragging about retaining physical controls so there might be hope longer term. Sadly most people seem perfectly OK giving up their privacy. Maybe if more people get affected by things like higher or dropped insurance the word will get out and more importantly, start sinking in to people.
- tomrod 2y ago
  > There is a market but not enough profit in serving it, unfortunately. There would be if they tried, perhaps?
duped 2y ago
The irony of the Unix philosophy is that it's the antithesis of a computer. The entire point of a computer is to be a machine that can do anything if it's connected to the right hardware. As computers are cheap and reliable now it's not surprising to me that we can make products that do more than one thing, and it's desirable to consumers. The problem is when manufacturers start making these computers do things customers don't want and hiding it from them. And that's what regulation should support, since the market can't pick and choose which useful bits of an arbitrary machine are allowed to be used in a product when the manufacturer can reprogram it at will and never tells you what it does.
- malcolmgreaves 2y ago
  Unix philosophy: connect simple programs together to create more complex programs.
bombcar 2y ago
All of these things exist, but they're designed for the commercial market and are usually MUCH more expensive than the consumer products. For the car, check out any commercial rental truck, even today those will have very basic setups. Why? Because the people buying it aren't the people driving it, so they ONLY care about the legal minimums and what they need for the workers to get their jobs done.
fsflover 2y ago
> a phone with one-handed usability How about a Pinephone with SXMo?

EricE 2y ago

There is a market but not enough profit in serving it, unfortunately. Maybe if more people were aware/cared there could be. There are car companies now bragging about retaining physical controls so there might be hope longer term. Sadly most people seem perfectly OK giving up their privacy. Maybe if more people get affected by things like higher or dropped insurance the word will get out and more importantly, start sinking in to people.

tomrod 2y ago
> There is a market but not enough profit in serving it, unfortunately. There would be if they tried, perhaps?

duped 2y ago

The irony of the Unix philosophy is that it's the antithesis of a computer. The entire point of a computer is to be a machine that can do anything if it's connected to the right hardware. As computers are cheap and reliable now it's not surprising to me that we can make products that do more than one thing, and it's desirable to consumers. The problem is when manufacturers start making these computers do things customers don't want and hiding it from them. And that's what regulation should support, since the market can't pick and choose which useful bits of an arbitrary machine are allowed to be used in a product when the manufacturer can reprogram it at will and never tells you what it does.

malcolmgreaves 2y ago
Unix philosophy: connect simple programs together to create more complex programs.

bombcar 2y ago

All of these things exist, but they're designed for the commercial market and are usually MUCH more expensive than the consumer products. For the car, check out any commercial rental truck, even today those will have very basic setups. Why? Because the people buying it aren't the people driving it, so they ONLY care about the legal minimums and what they need for the workers to get their jobs done.

fsflover 2y ago

> a phone with one-handed usability How about a Pinephone with SXMo?