The most obnoxious case of needy apps I witnessed was when I disabled Google Play Services on a OnePlus phone. Every default app (including Phone and SMS!) would spam notifications saying something like "Google Play not found, functionality is limited" every minute or two, while the real impact was minimal.

Idk man, Linux seems not like this at all. But windows and the rest of corpo-software-hell, yeah.

The one area I would sorta disagree is on updates, although only inasmuch as they’re needed for security fixes on things connected to the internet. But if it’s not connected? No, no updates needed unless I encounter a bug or they add a new feature I really want.

This is someone who needs to start using FOSS stuff.

All of this is so on the nose except the updates bit.

Sorry, mate, but if you skip an update because you don't feel like keeping up and it's because there's a massive security flaw that leaves your PC up to easy compromise, that's genuinely a bad thing.

Yeah, most times updates are just new features but if you're not paying attention you have no idea if it's a feature update or a security update, do you?

If only you have physical access to your computers and they're firewalled properly sure, maybe it's safe enough, but the vast majority of people don't have things firewalled properly at the very least.

I don't know, that's the only bit that seems a bit short-sighted to me, especially when it comes to more casual users.

ls never asks you to create an account or to update.

Don't give anyone ideas.

"Pay $2.99/mo to see hidden files!"

The reason I was working in IT support for a couple years and why that is the biggest team in my company's IT is because most people aren't tech savvy. The rest of this comment is written looking at a regular user: My mom.

The section on accounts I mostly agree with except for one thing: Accounts are used to sync things across devices. Syncthing is great and I personally use it. Does my mom use it? Heck no, she wouldn't even be able to set it up, let alone keep it working or repair it when it breaks. Google's cloud doesn't break, neither does Apple's or Microsoft's and all of those are already set up for her just by logging in once, when getting a new phone/PC.

Updates: Complete bullshit. The other comment already explains it well. Most updates contain security fixes, the smaller ones, made outside the regular update cycle, are usually to fix major security flaws and should be installed by everyone, not just my mom.

Notifications: Agree, even my mom complains about them and the only ones that are actually useful are the ones from communication apps.

Onboarding: I find it funny that the author writes that they don't care about Copilot, Figma make and calendar functions and just assumes that everyone else feels the same way. Does my mom care about those things? I don't know, I haven't asked her. That's what these onboardings are for. Telling the user that you have a certain feature after an update or on first start is needed, because most users will not search for it on their own. It's marketing and it's gone after you go through it once.

In conclusion: The author seems to not be aware that they are part of a very small group of people who don't need these things.