A look at the status quo is bleak

I feel as if my livelihood is being taken away from me, slowly at least anyway.

You see, we are just about to hit the third major computer industry 'compatibility break' in history. This is a generation-shift that occurs approximately every 20 years; a new technology and a 'new way of doing things' sweeps in and quickly makes the established 'way of doing things' obsolete and increasingly impractical. Technology changes every year of course, so the difference with these generation shifts is that 'the way of thinking' changes, severing compatibility with the past.

For example, the first generation shift occurred in the late '70s, centring around the availability of the Apple II computer. The "home micro" became a thing, and computers were no longer kits that one had to solder together. Productivity software appeared and the computer was no longer seen just as 'a complicated calculator' with reel-to-reel tape and line-printers as it was in the '60s.

This established what I will refer to as "the '80s way of doing things". The '80s was dominated by 8-bit productivity software on a dizzyingly wide variety of hardware, all largely incompatible.

The second generation shift occurred in 1996. This is the year that the Internet / 'Web overtook BBSes. I experienced one-side of this generation shift myself. In 1996 BBSes dropped dead and the PC + Internet very quickly established itself as 'the way of doing things'. The '80s way doing things suddenly become totally incompatible with this new model. '80s computers and their software were isolated silos of incompatibility, and BBS -- though an interconnected network -- was much the same. Your 1996 PC + AOL was an entirely different, inherently incompatible, ball game compared to your command line and dialing into each individual BBS.

That shift in 1996 established the generation of technology that has dominated for all of my life: Wintel. Nothing has truly changed since 1996 -- the technology has iteratively gotten more powerful and sophisticated, but 'the way of doing things' has never changed in this time. In 1996, I used Windows 95 to open Microsoft Word 6 and write a letter. In 2012, I can use Windows 7 to open Microsoft Word 2010 and write a letter, the graphics are a little different but the task is exactly the same. If I had time-warped from 1996 to now, it might look different, but I'd still recognise the Desktop and how to launch programmes and how to use the mouse. If I had time-warped from 1980 to 1996, then I would have next to no concept of how to operate the PC, there would be zero familiarity.

But now, the next generation shift is upon us. It is called iPhone, iPad, iOS, Android et al. It is a 'new way of doing things' that breaks all compatibility with the old way of doing things (mouse + keyboard).

Why is this a problem to me? Well, because the new way prevents me from outright doing many things I am used to be able to do at the moment.

If a PC is broken, I can load any software I want on to it, from external sources. I can take parts out of it and place them in other PCs. I can flexibly modify the PCs workings to solve any problem.

These new devices either have no flexibility, or are rapidly losing it. In many cases you cannot load any software from an external source of your choosing. You can only get software on the device on a strictly per-person basis, through an approved channel wholly dependent upon the machine working normally. This 'per-person basis' is the really troubling thing, why? Well it rules out a whole class of software that has long existed that is essential: portable / self-contained software that runs externally and doesn't integrate to the device permanently (does not have to be installed / uninstalled).

Portable and independently-functioning software covers the vast majority of the software I use for my work. If the device is infected, one needs to install an anti-virus from an external source. One needs to be able to work with the machine in a compromised environment where you cannot rely upon the internet connection, or even being able to install / uninstall software.

The push also to 'cloud storage' wrecks havoc with the notion of loading anything whatsoever into the device. It is a horribly unreliable system of dependence. The latest Google tablets don't have a card slot. There is no way to get data into them other than through the web. That makes diagnosis next to impossible in a compromised situation.

Honestly, it's quite depressing how quickly the world is running into a technological reliability disaster. I can't much bear the idea that every person must hand over every piece of their data to every company otherwise be unable to even switch on a computer.

Source: http://forum.camendesign.com/a_look_at_the_status_quo_is_bleak

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