harladsinsteden

And does this have any actual impact on either the OS itself or its users?

Why is that important? If the point is well made, if the content is interesting, why should I care whether a human or an LLM wrote it?

Most of us don't seem to care anymore if the _code_ is written by AI, so why should we care if other _content_ is written by AI?

It was better because it was, well, less.

Constraints tend to make you enjoy something more. I agree that a lot of the things that annoy me today weren't present back then. But a lot of other things that I take for granted these days also weren't present back then.

Was it better? No, I don't think so.

I don't know where this nostalgia is coming from. "The Internet" has never been this super perfect place on a pedestal some people make it sound like. The Internet is what you make of it. Not more, not less.

Elon might want someone like her...

No, absolutely not. There is no "IT insists" in our company. Believe it or not we trust our people to do the right thing and to handle their equipment accordingly. There are a couple of applications that are forced by the device management system but other than that: Do what _you_ think works for _you_.

What kind of numbers would be acceptable to you?

> staff always want a refresh regardless if the laptop is good enough or not

My personal experience disagrees. A lot of colleagues are absolutely happy with keeping their machines for quite some time. A lot of it - believe it or not - is simply inertia. Apple has made switching MacBooks super easy but still the process of going through the migration process from one machine to the next simply isn't worth the trouble for a lot of them (and I include myself in that group as well).

If all your people are looking for is the latest and greatest gadget then you may simply have the wrong people in your team.

What exactly does "heavy use" mean? My MacBook Pro is now in its fourth year of daily development work. It doesn't show any kind of wear. So far I don't see any reason to replace it in the years to come. If nothing major changes I think I'll get another four years out of it.

> I still believe I qualify as a nerd.

And you absolutely should! There is not _the_ nerd archetype and never has been.

And why exactly do you feel obligated to mention that? Do you have a problem with porn? Why?

Life finds a way...

> I know if the potential ulterior motives.

And you think the US tech giants don't have any ulterior motives?!

Well, I'm all for making money but the way it was tried here sounds like a pretty bad idea.

Developers (or power users for that matter) aren't really known to be generous with their personal money for recurring software fees. But this is the primary target group. I want value in return for my money. If you have monthly recurring costs then I can understand the monthly fee. If not then it's a rip-off.

Can you try? Of course. But I guess I'm not the only one who has been pushed away from that particular software product. Even if it's good I will not give it another try. First impressions count.

What was your justification for the monthly fee in the first place?

There is a model that worked for decades: If you spent a _significant_ amount of work enhancing an existing tool you'd release a new major version. The would be a discount for license holders of the old version. Why reinvent the world over and over again?