[haxton]

I've been about it as "throwaway software." Why bother searching for someone else's mediocre LLM generated software when I can just as easily (and hopefully as cheaply) generate the same thing, but it just works for me

[fragmede]

Features. I could whip up a single-purpose image manipulation program to do whatever, but it's just easier to use an existing multi-purpose program with a bunch of features, unless I'm doing batch processing of files, but even then, using imagemagik or writing a gim-paint plugin is likely to be better than rolling my own from scratch.

[dangus]

I was actually surprised that this post wasn’t going to be about software trends. I think there could be more attention paid to software business concepts that are essentially throw away pump and dump schemes. E.g., all the VSCode forks for AI coding that are already collapsing away/being acquired and enshittified.

But back to the hardware, the hardware disposability isn’t a new phenomenon but it’s still a big problem and a catchy phrase to help bring more attention to the throw away nature of it would be a good start.

What really needs to be implemented is some kind of regulation on product features like built-in wear items and irreplaceable batteries, as well as software deprecation.

There are a number of ways it could be implemented that could effectively discourage these practices, just some possible ideas:

I think a recycling program similar to many states’ recycling deposits could work really well. Each product gets a recycling serial number, customers return them to a collection center and get paid a certain percentage of the original sale price/MSRP, perhaps that percent would go down the older the item is. The refund is paid for by the original manufacturer.