i have a deep and irrational hatred for the fact that some people call computer programs “apps” now of days
And it’s really not that unreasonable. What the user thinks of as an app could be more than 1 program. It makes sense to put an abstraction between users and programs because lots of sophisticated software use separate programs that the end user doesn’t care about, just the whole.
An application program is a computer program designed to carry out a specific task
A howitzer is a projectile weapon designed to fire a specific projectile
Rejoice, your paint guns are now all howitzers!
Thankfully the dictionaries get a little more specific. I do want an artillery capable paint gun though, that sounds rad
The Task Manager in Windows always had an “Applications” tab and a “Processes” tab, going back to Windows 98 at least. “Programs” was always too broad and restricted to being colloquial; the specific word was either application or executable.
What’s worth ranting about is whether people have stopped understanding “App” as short for something.
The l33t w4r3z d00dz were calling applications ‘appz’ since at least the '90s. Then there was that brief period where Apple tried to claim “app store” was short for “apple store” so no one else could say it…
Dude, me too, so much. Also I was made to feel real dumb trying to help my fiance last night with M$'s new Office. It’s an app first of all, so if Windows 11 doesn’t know already what to do with it with a specific file type you have to find it, but dumbass Windows 11 doesn’t let you just easily search for apps when you do “open with”, because that would make sense. So okay, I’ll open the file in Power Point. Where’s Power Point? Oh, you have to open the Microdick 365 app first, okay, click on PowerPoint in there and… it opens a mother fucking browser page. PowerPoint doesn’t exist as a program anymore, it’s a fucking web app.
Why the fuck does anyone pay for Office now, it’s a terrible system, especially when so many better alternatives exist!
The browser represents a political statement that the rendering of the web page ought to be under the control of the user. The app is a capitalist reaction to that statement.
The web browser is under the control of Google. The app is just a thing actually designed to run on your computer that can actually utilize its features.
And then the “app” “actually designed to run on your computer” is actually just chromium
I weirdly get depressed about this a lot. Like I just imagine some programmer guy, with the best intent in the world, adding in code to let websites know you’re using a phone so that you can make super good content that fits a phone perfectly and increase experience to every user.
Only for the next day some rich monopoly company being like “lol let’s use it to block access to our website, and force people onto our app”. :(
I know a couple of old head programmers in their 60s who deeply lament the world they’ve created. So… you’re not alone lmao.
“This website would look better if you downlo-”
NO! YOU WILL FEED ME IDIOT FASCIST TAKES FROM MY LOCAL CITY SUBREDDIT ON MY MOBILE BROWSER, AND YOU ARE GONNA LOAD IT!
Having to keep using the “desktop site” setting on mobile Firefox so that every website can just work without needing an app.
