Comment by justanotherc
6 years ago
> Nobody asked for applications to support "more combinations of OS, input methods and data storage and accessibility and whatever else
Really?! Just look at all the effort that people have spent their personal time contributing to projects like WINE for Linux for example. MANY many people want cross-compatability. I for one have certainly done a lot of waiting for things to become available for Linux, and very much appreciate all of the cross platform frameworks that exist and have existed in the past (WINE, Adobe Air, Electron, Cordova etc.) to enable cross platform software. I think they have been GREAT for the whole ecosystem, both for consumers and developers.
Making computers more accessible for visually or motor impaired has also been one of the great victories of modern software... and certainly not because developers have shoved it down peoples' throats. In fact they have had to REGULATE it in order to drag developers kicking and screaming into building accessible software.
As for input methods, that is just a natural evolution required from the proliferation of devices (desktops, smartphones, etc).
So sorry to say I don't think your statement is rooted in any kind of reality beyond what exists in your head.
Wine is a compatibility layer and in fact supports what i was saying in two fronts: first, it is something developers decided to do and second, the Windows application does not need to care about the 1% that uses Linux on desktop and force the cross-platform complexity and bloat on the Windows users, but instead the Linux users (who as you seem to imply do not mind that extra bloat) can use Wine and run the same application on their systems.
Accessibility is something that can be necessary, but certainly not in all situations. Though of all things, it is the one bit that the OS itself can support the most and relieve applications from having to do it themselves (of course this assumes that applications do not try to use the lowest common denominator of OS functionality in order to be cross platform and actually take advantage of the functionality their OS provides).
About the proliferation of devices, this is a great case where what i wrote about leaving things to other applications applies: instead of having a single application try to cater to a bunch of different devices and input methods (and thus providing a mediocre experience on all of them), it is better to have one application tailored for each device and input method.
And note that i'm not writing about what is being done but what about should be done. Of course this is in my head, otherwise i would say that things are actually nice now.