Rant I'm an old man and I hate software updates

[mikeymikec]

The number one point on my list in this rant is when the default user interface aesthetics are altered for no reason.

Examples:

Android 12 - I've had this on my phone for at least a year and the phone for a year or two longer. In the entire time (up to a few weeks ago), the default sound when a timer went off in the Clock app was the same. Then they decided to change it. Why? What did this improve, functionally?

Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.1 (from 21.0) - they decided to change a few aesthetic facets of the default interface theme, from a vaguely sensible mouse pointer to a triangle with rounded edges, and how folders look by default (just two examples). I've changed them back, at least I have that option, though I've found that 21.1's general adherence to the altered options throughout the apps I use isn't as consistent as it was in 21.0, and consistency looks a lot more professional. I found it 'funny' that in order to get a consistent style of mouse pointer in Linux, I have to run a command to achieve that.

There's rarely any good reason to change the default theme. If you as a dev are thinking that you want to include some updated aesthetic elements then by all means include them AS AN OPTION, by all means draw attention to them in some unobtrusive manner.

Browsers - Microsoft has always excelled in trying to stop the user from using the browser because "something significant happened" in Microsoft's opinion, such as a software update. IE or Edge have historically often used elements like "let's help set up your browser", to which I'm clicking No / Fuck Off / Let Me Use The Software Already / Where's The Don't Spy On Me option. One would have thought that MS would have learned from Google and the evolution of search engines that minimalism and getting straight to the point ASAP is beneficial for everyone, but no. If MS likes to torture their users, that's no skin off my nose, right? Except that Firefox has started pulling this shit too. No, I don't want to choose a theme. I want to browse. If I want to fuck around with options, I'll find those options.

There's probably other stuff to complain about but I can't be a grumpy old man all day.

 

[biostud]

On one hand updates can bring new functionality, and on the other hand you tend to use just as much time tweaking your OS, to negate stupid updates. I'm just glad I know how to, and doesn't have to run any OS/browser as it is out of the box.

 

[Kaido]

I really hate the "update" right-click feature on Windows 11 on the desktop & File Explorer...now you have to click "Show more options" to get the original menu to get the full, original list of options. Bleh!

 

[pete6032]

Android seems to be the worst offender. Most updates seem to move things around in settings menus or change icons for no actual impact.

 

[mikeymikec]

I really hate the "update" right-click feature on Windows 11 on the desktop & File Explorer...now you have to click "Show more options" to get the original menu to get the full, original list of options. Bleh!

There's a registry tweak to revert to the classic context menu (though I find it irritating that registry tweaking would be needed to change a UI option).

Win11's UI is a dumpster fire of bad choices. It succeeds in one respect being 'look and work more like MacOS', which is an odd thing for the leading choice in the market to aspire to. That aside, I think there was one change in Win11 that I liked, I can't remember what it is now though.

Android seems to be the worst offender. Most updates seem to move things around in settings menus or change icons for no actual impact.

I want to know what it is that changed in the calculator app that makes me often go for the percent button when I meant to go for divide. The changes to the Clock app have pissed me off a fair bit because I use it all the time for cooking. Yeah, let's make the 'add a timer' button the same size as the 'start existing timer' button, then place it near it!

I'm starting to dread OS updates, and I'm starting to dread that too: so many of my technophobic customers dread updates too, the irony though was that they would dread updates to say XP/Vista/7, for which even the biggest updates changed nothing about the UI and the updates were optional. These days, the (Windows) updates regularly make UI changes and they're not optional!

 

[igor_kavinski]

OS updates are reflecting real life, in a sense. Everything is so fast paced now. Super hard to keep up. These pesky young people are super insecure so they keep introducing new stuff to keep their jobs.

 

[shortylickens]

OS updates are reflecting real life, in a sense. Everything is so fast paced now. Super hard to keep up. These pesky young people are super insecure so they keep introducing new stuff to keep their jobs.

Its more than that.
Its not just fast paced but everybody is desperate to "do something" either to impress others, or keep their job, or justify their existence.
We are pushing way too hard in the wrong direction, and unsurprisingly this is reflected very well in our pocket computers.

 

[Greenman]

The number one point on my list in this rant is when the default user interface aesthetics are altered for no reason.

Examples:

Android 12 - I've had this on my phone for at least a year and the phone for a year or two longer. In the entire time (up to a few weeks ago), the default sound when a timer went off in the Clock app was the same. Then they decided to change it. Why? What did this improve, functionally?

Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.1 (from 21.0) - they decided to change a few aesthetic facets of the default interface theme, from a vaguely sensible mouse pointer to a triangle with rounded edges, and how folders look by default (just two examples). I've changed them back, at least I have that option, though I've found that 21.1's general adherence to the altered options throughout the apps I use isn't as consistent as it was in 21.0, and consistency looks a lot more professional. I found it 'funny' that in order to get a consistent style of mouse pointer in Linux, I have to run a command to achieve that.

There's rarely any good reason to change the default theme. If you as a dev are thinking that you want to include some updated aesthetic elements then by all means include them AS AN OPTION, by all means draw attention to them in some unobtrusive manner.

Browsers - Microsoft has always excelled in trying to stop the user from using the browser because "something significant happened" in Microsoft's opinion, such as a software update. IE or Edge have historically often used elements like "let's help set up your browser", to which I'm clicking No / Fuck Off / Let Me Use The Software Already / Where's The Don't Spy On Me option. One would have thought that MS would have learned from Google and the evolution of search engines that minimalism and getting straight to the point ASAP is beneficial for everyone, but no. If MS likes to torture their users, that's no skin off my nose, right? Except that Firefox has started pulling this shit too. No, I don't want to choose a theme. I want to browse. If I want to fuck around with options, I'll find those options.

There's probably other stuff to complain about but I can't be a grumpy old man all day.

I'm right there with you brother. Most updates are rearranging and a paint job. Leave my phone alone, leave my computer alone. An even better idea, don't push your software out the door until it works.

 

[ch33zw1z]

In 10 years, AI will be building these instead of people, so we can rage at that instead

 

[purbeast0]

I went to update my MacBook last weekend because I was tired of the god damn "1" badge that never goes away until I do it. It's been there for probably a year or so lol.

Anyways I go to do it, and it failed upgrade midway through the cycle. I rebooted and same thing. I was basically stuck in this loop where it was trying to upgrade and wouldn't let me select my existing disk as startup disk. I googled and this is apparently a common issue and they had no solution to fixing it.

Thankfully as I was going to try and do a system restore with a bootable USB drive I made of my current OS, I found out you can hold a button at startup to select the startup disk, and I did that and could select my existing HDD and it booted up just fine after that. I then unmounted the update disk and deleted it, and everything is fine when rebooting.

So yeah, I am with the OP I don't like updating for the sake of updating. I turn off auto updates on my phone as well, but that is mainly because I hate the little blue dots that Apple puts on a new app version until you open it.

 

[purbeast0]

Android seems to be the worst offender. Most updates seem to move things around in settings menus or change icons for no actual impact.

Google has ALWAYS been terrible at UX.

You should try navigating the Android API docs. It's a fucking nightmare that will end up making you go in circles and clicking on dead links.

 

[brianmanahan]

it's been a while since ATOT had a mind-bending update

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Already did this thread:

Hey IT Guys ... KNOCK IT OFF!!!!!

I don't care about your job security changes for the sake of changes to show off your fancy new tricks. I don't care if you learned a new code gimmick. STOP changing stuff that works!!!! Proton Mail for one has changed stuff about six times in the last year. Banks keep changing stuff. I got...

forums.anandtech.com

.

 

[lxskllr]

My update world is pretty good. Android system can be a little irritating, but the programs I use are pretty static. Updates generally add features or fix bugs. Desktop is debian stable. Pretty much only security bug fixes for two years. Home is xfce, which has a glacial development pace, and work is plasma, but they don't tend to dick with much. None of it pesters me cause I turned the pesterers off.

 

[Fenixgoon]

pretty sure a firmware update nuked my NAS. through sheer luck i was able to recover the raid group. would have been ~4TB down the drain (music, movies, photography backups, various program installers)

 

[ch33zw1z]

pretty sure a firmware update nuked my NAS. through sheer luck i was able to recover the raid group. would have been ~4TB down the drain (music, movies, photography backups, various program installers)

yea, it’s tough like that. Gotta do the cold storage though 😉

I have a 12TB zfs2 truenas install. When I add stuff to it, I run a robocopy I have to backup the data back to my pc on a “hot backup”, then copy that out to some same size USB’s. It would suck to lose some of that stuff for sure

 

[Pohemi]

I control updates in Win10 with OOS ShutUp10 and disable the Smart/Auto update on my Android phone. I try to lockdown and control updating as best I can. I want it to update when I want it to, not popping up notifications for it when I'm in the middle of something on my system.

For the most part it works. I don't have the phone locked down as much as the PC...it'll still check for updates but at least it prompts me to do anything about it now. PC won't even check until I re-enable WinUpdate.

 

[MtnMan]

Android seems to be the worst offender. Most updates seem to move things around in settings menus or change icons for no actual impact.

But these updates are like getting a brand-new phone, because you will spend a lot of time learning your way around, just like setting up a new phone... all for free!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I do hate the "change for sake of change" updates too. Just look at Windows for example, they more or less perfected the UI, I'd say, around Windows 98-2000 era. Everything was easy to get to and made sense, and the UI itself was clean and simple. Clean crisp lines and borders, buttons etc. Then XP came out and was a pretty drastic change that took some getting used to, but you could at least revert to Windows Classic, which is the first thing I did on a XP system. Then Vista/7 completely changed everything again but at least Windows Classic was an option. Then Windows 8 came out. WTF is that shit? Even to this day I cannot get used to that crap. They made it better in windows 10 by bringing back the start menu but some dialog boxes are still using the WTF format, and it's very inconsistent throughout. There also appears to be two control panels, one is the more normal format and other is "new" and the whole UI is just all over the place. Overall terrible compared to the older versions, but we just have no choice but to get used to it. What I hate about it though is how windows and such are not as crisp. If you have multiple windows overlaping it's actually sometimes hard to tell where one starts and where one ends, there's not enough visual cues in UIs anymore such as borders and lines and stuff. Everything is just so, flat. Other OSes also kind of followed this format too. Even Linux to some extent, though not as bad. At least with Linux you tend to have more theme choices though.

 

[pcslookout]

I love updates.

 

[Lanyap]

I'm an old man and I hate software updates that change the default user interface aesthetics for no reason.

There, I said it.

 

[Lanyap]

I love updates.

No you don't.

 

[Captante]

Windows 10 seems to be mostly under control now that M$ has slowed the pace of update rollouts to something more reasonable... for awhile there I had updates pushed back 30 days.

All the over-anxious id10+'s are apparently on the Windows 11 "team" now.

As for Android, switch to Nova launcher Pro and you won't even notice 90% of the "changes" which are such a cause of distress. (I barely noticed between 11, 12 and now 13 on my s20 lol)

Frankly it's worth making the switch for the ability to "lock" icons/widgets in place alone!

 

[igor_kavinski]

All the over-anxious id10+'s are apparently on the Windows 11 "team" now.

Windows 10 may get relegated to security updates only status after 2025. Then it will be Win11 and possibly Win12 in 2026.

Win12 is supposed to be the intelligent OS. You won't need updates to screw up your UI. The AI will think of something while you sleep and when you wake up, voila!

"I took the liberty of re-arranging everything while you were asleep. I hope everything is to your liking".

"PUT EVERYTHING BACK THE WAY IT WAS!"

"I'm sorry. I do not understand that command."

 

[Captante]

I'll handle that inevitability the same way I did with Windows 7 EOL .... I'll "upgrade" (lol) when I'm forced to do so by security concerns and not before!



I don't give a rats a$$ about "shiny things" in my primary OS, I want stability and security above all else!

To be clear my gaming PC dual-boots 10 and 11 because I need to be familiar with the GUI (mainly) to work on other peoples PC's.... aside from updating it every few weeks I just about never use it.