Comment by zrobotics
3 days ago
The only software I've been excited about an update for in years has been games, that seems like the only category where devs actually add features people are excited about. For example, the latest KCD2 patch added a fun but brief new quest [0].
Not universal though. Besides your example, even for single player games patches can be basically malicious. I've had Fallout 4 locked on updates for like 3 years at this point, everything Bethesda has added has degraded the experience for zero upside. But I can't think of any software besides a game where I have been anything but dreading an update in years. Slack wants to update? Great, it'll probably break/degrade my work flow in some minor way, and they're one of the lesser offenders on my work machine.
Lots of games’ updates break popular mods, introduce launchers and/or break linux compatibility and/or online mode, remove music with expired licenses, censor something and increase system requirements.
Sadly we’re way past the point where games became like all the other software in that regard
This would be less of a problem if patches are something you still installed deliberately - instead we have to fight Steam to let us play the games we already have a working install of.
I think games are the exception because they are
* relatively small purchases
* paid for directly by the user
* expected to be enjoyable
Most other software fails at least one of those tests, reducing the ability to shop around and make an informed decision.
We can't change the fact that commercial OS vendors are all feudal overlords now, but the lawmakers are letting them get away with it and that is something we might still be able to change.
We can also choose a different OS, at least for real (non-phone) personal computers.
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> * paid for directly by the user
hahahahah. Games are steering further and further to this not being true. Where each player explicitly doesn't pay for it, and instead they contain an increasing series of dark patterns in order to steer players to fleece their money in a series of microtransactions.
You have a good point, there are some games with terrible business models too. I just don’t play them, haha.
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I really look forward to new Fedora releases.
I really look forward to Pop OS updates... but it's because they broke a bunch of stuff and stripped most apps down to their basics.
Including the linux kernel.
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> The only software I've been excited about an update for in years has been games
I don't. The only thing i want to see when i want to play is: Please wait, downloading update.
KCD2 is number 1 of a small number of updates I am excited about.