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[–] 34 points 7 months ago (9 children)

Before phones that was the only way to install apps though.

Maybe we should have a term for the inverse, like 'wallgardening', or 'bootlocking', or 'corputing', or 'inshilling'? 🤔

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  • [–] 7 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    Before phones

    But the discussion is specifically about phones..? I've never heard anyone use sideloading in a different context

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago* (4 children)

    Phones are just computers except they fit in your pocket and have a cellular connection. Distinction without a (meaningful) difference

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Phones are a specific type of computer. I wonder if some madlad hates the term "smart phone" so much that they're out there calling them computers and confusing everyone.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

    smart phone literally means phone with computer or computer-like abilities, contrary to popular belief, smartphones existed before the iPhone and in fact didn't have to be a locked down slab of glass

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  • [–] -1 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, it's about phones because they changed established practice, but then why use a new word for what was established practice and not the 'new', phone-specific, practice of limiting app availability?

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    Sideloading is a more specific term than just "installing", it's more about where you got the software, the process of installing it. So people started using a more specific term to distinguish it from other types of installing.

    Why people choose to adopt one word or another, I dunno. We just started calling it sideloading and that's been the term for as long as I remember (though very early on I didn't read or write much in English)

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