Thread

1. dmdiefjeidnn · 1790567748 · focus · HN ↗

   I always find these ideas funny. Been working with computers for decades and never once have I thought software “malleable”. Maybe back when I had to actually type the program into my Speccy to get anything to work… but then again it wasn’t a “let’s make software malleable” situation, it was more of a “this is how we can distribute software right now” type of thing.

   Software was never malleable. User agency is a tale you tell yourselves to try and justify your rose-tinted glasses. Could things be better in computer world? Absolutely. But you could’ve ask us the same way back then and the answer would still be “absolutely”.

   1. sophrosyne42 · 1790573403 · focus · HN ↗

      Software has always been maleable. To think otherwise is a plain delusion. Go ahead and write a few bytes into a binary, or download some updates, and you'll see what I mean.

      The issue here is the legal barriers which set up a delusion of nonmaleability. Copyright and IP treat software and ideas as if they were fixed, unmaleable things; they are not.

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