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Ask HN: Why is most software lacking important functionalities?
And why it often doesn't get addressed even though clearly many people need that? What can I try to do myself to bring change?
A few examples:
1. No full text search in (Firefox) bookmarks without turning to extensions or external apps¹.
2. No way to export a chat log in Signal without turning to external tools¹.
3. No way for both mobile and desktop email clients to have customized replies (do it the Markdown way instead of the "On date x user y said ...").
3.1 No cross platform way to have threaded emails. On desktop there are many possibilities while on mobile (Android) k-9 email comes the closest, though it's listed rather than threaded, the way it is on Thunderbird or Gmail website.
¹It adds a dependency to maintain and extra effort to the workflow. It also breaks interoperability between platforms. We're talking about basic functionalities that should be built-in so in my opinion it makes even less sense to outsource it.
- JohnFen 2y agoI think a large part of it is that it's fashionable in the industry to pretty much just produce software that does the bare minimum necessary. It's a cost reduction exercise. That it makes software less useful and often ignores user needs doesn't factor in on that spreadsheet.