Slacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
Ask HN: Is it just me or has software gotten worse?
781 points by old_man_yells 13 hours ago | hide | 4 comments

Everything is slow, bloated, full of telemetry, and requires an account. Apps that were 2MB are now 800MB Electron monsters. Am I crazy?

You're not crazy. Electron is shipping a whole browser to render a chat box. I only use native apps. My chat client is irssi in a tmux pane. My friends aren't on IRC, so I don't chat, which has reduced my Electron footprint to zero and my friend footprint to also zero. Net win on RAM.
tradeoffs_exist 12 hours ago | 45 points | parent | prev | next
Electron exists because shipping to 3 platforms with a tiny team is otherwise brutal. it's a tradeoff, not a conspiracy
electron_hater 11 hours ago | 49 points | parent | prev | next
The tradeoff is that you traded MY RAM for YOUR convenience. Write it three times in C. Or four. Take ten years. I'll wait. I have nothing but time, see my other comment about having no friends. Ship me a 2MB binary or ship me nothing. I prefer nothing. Nothing has the best performance characteristics of all.
requires_an_account 10 hours ago | 87 points | parent | prev | next
The 'requires an account' thing is the real cancer. A flashlight app wanting my email. I write all my own utilities now to avoid signups. I've reimplemented a calculator, a timer, a notes app, and a flashlight (it's a white <div>). It took my whole twenties. I have no accounts and no twenties.

← back to front page