The Author – Bart Busschots
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Sep
6
Pondering Apple’s App Store Conundrum
Filed Under Computers & Tech on September 6, 2020 | Leave a Comment
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the whole App Store model in the last couple of months, and that goes double this month with Epic’s choice to use the release of the next major version of their iconic Fortnite game as an opportunity to pick a fight with Apple.
Three things have become extremely clear to me. Firstly, there are no saints or Satans in this drama. Secondly there are no simple solutions — every possible way forward I can conceive of involves tradeoffs. Which makes my third realisation all the more stark — things simply can’t continue as they are. Users are increasingly finding themselves stuck in the middle and having a worse experience for it, and regulators all around the world are taking note. The status quo simply cannot stand, so change is coming, the question is simply what change, and who’ll be in the driving seat.
When I started writing this post I had no idea how I’d end it. I chose to write it precisely because I needed to organise my thoughts, and writing helps me do that. It took a while, but eventually the fog cleared and I was able to marshal my thoughts into a coherent suggestion for how Apple could resolve all this in a positive way.
TL;DR — I think Apple should take the initiative and act before they have a poor solution forced on them, and that they don’t need to throw everything out and start over, but can evolve the current system into one that has a bright future by making just a few important changes.
Nov
9
Why I’m No Longer Recommending FileZilla or SourceForge
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on November 9, 2014 | 2 Comments
I haven’t been a full-time Windows user in a long time, but I do have to use it from time-to-time, and I am often asked for recommendations for nerdier software like FTP clients by Windows users. For many years my stock answer was the same, if you’re on Windows and you need a free FTP client, get FileZilla. This week that advice bit me, and the person I gave it to, in the backside badly.
FileZilla’s project page directs people to a .exe installer hosted on SourceForge. Trusting that I would not recommend malicious software, the person who asked my advice downloaded the installer without reading the fine print and installed FileZilla – they got a lot more than they bargained for! That .exe installer did do what you would expect, and installed FileZilla, but it did more than that, it hijacked their browser and installed adware. Suddenly they were getting popups with ads telling them they could optimise their PC, and websites which don’t host ads suddenly started to contain ads!