Luke M
The futility of trying to master non-free interfaces
2025-03-17
I've come to realise that the tools I've mastered in my younger years are either now locked behind an expensive subscription, or have changed so significantly that going back to them would require an enormous amount of effort to relearn them.
I'm not a luddic cumudgeon. Much of the tech industry has definitely gotten more complicated, and often worse.
There are many problems that eventuate with for-profit software, such as licensing changes, billing structure changes, privacy policy changes, and monetisation changes. This article will focus on user interface changes.
As an initial example, I spent a lot of time learning Adobe Photoshop 6 when it came out. Eventually new versions of this software were gated behind a subscription. I could not justify the cost, because graphic design was something I did in my spare time on the side. So I just stopped. But now, even if I was to get a job that required that I use a newer version of Adobe Photoshop, I would have no idea how to use it. The interface will have changed enough to make my prior experience completely invalid.
To varying extents, a lot of the software that I've used has changed its interface in minor or major ways for the benefit of shareholders; some names include Hamachi, Figma, GitHub, 1Password, macOS, Windows, JIRA.
The problem with closed-source tools isn't the threat that they can charge more, it's the fact that I have no control over how they change the interface. In fact, they are likely to change the interface to suit them, for their own reasons, ignoring my needs as a user.
This is a pattern that echoes throughout the tech industry over and over again; a software company establishes a useful product and service, then acquires the majority of users, becomes public, and is beholden to investors to increase profits year on year. As a result, must gut its teams, raise prices, implement more creative monetisation patterns, and focus on features that market well (UI redesigns), in order to survive. A failure to do this will eventually result in stagnation then liquidation.
When we use software in any form, it is essentially an interface between us and a set of behaviours on a computer. In order for us to be productive, we need to master the interface. The prerequisite for this, is that the interface needs to remain stable enough for us to develop a subconscious mastery of it.
For-profit companies do not care about this. If their market research shows that revamping the user interface (again) will result in an increase in sales, they'll do it, again and again. Every time that happens, your mastery of the interface is either partially or fully deleted, forever.
You cannot trust non-free interfaces.
I have worked with older developers. Almost invariably, they are dissatisfied with the current state of software- mostly because they are sick of learning new interfaces for the same sets of behaviours. I completely understand this. In fact, I think that as we all gain experience and get older, we'll all become like this. At some point, I'm also going to ask myself, "How many times do I have to relearn an interface to do the same damn thing?"
I am not saying change is bad. To some extent you can't avoid change. Interfaces can and do change for the better. An example is requiring multi-factor authentication, instead of relying on obtuse and annoying password rules. FOSS software does change its interface as well, but this is almost always done in the best interest of the community. But the people who are making the decision to change for-profit interfaces will never and can never put your interests as a user ahead of their need for profit.
My strategy is to master free and open-source tools; open-source operating systems, programming languages, databases, scripting languages, and deployment tools. I'm slowly evaluating each piece of software I rely on, and picking a FOSS alternative. Because to me, my own mastery of an interface is too important to leave in the hands of the people who wish to profit off of me.
I encourage you to think critically about which software interfaces you rely on, and whether you are comfortable with leaving your mastery of those interfaces in the hands of for-profit companies.