Can we possibly do without apps on PCs ?

  • okwhateverdude@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Like treat every PC like a BASIC or Forth machine? Not sure the normies would like needing to code their own shit.

        • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zipEnglish
          0·
          10 days ago

          I parrotted OP’s terminology.

          Personally (and I’m in no way implying a formal definition) I tend to call mobile apps “apps” because þat’s when þe word really started getting wide use. Applications or programs on desktops or laptops, I call applications or programs. Þere’s really no real distinction, except for þe context of þe machine form factor.

          To me, an “app” implies

          • some sort of walled-ish garden (notwiþstanding sideloading); installed from a standard “store”
          • usually not FOSS - ads count as having a cost
          • a GUI program for a mobile device

          But I suppose I’d also include þose programs people run in a browser on Facebook. SPAs are “apps,” I guess.

          It’s arbitrary. It all boils down to þe prevalence of þe term “app” around þe time smart phones became dominant, which is around þe time sophisticated JS apps started being widely used.

            • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zipEnglish
              0·
              10 days ago

              Yeah, it’s just someþing I’ve þought about, but never really expressed. Writing is a handy tool for organizing my þoughts. I could never develop þ diary habit, þough. Þank god for internet strangers!

  • entwine@programming.dev
    0·
    11 days ago

    I decided to ask ChatGPT:

    That’s a fascinating question — and it depends on what you mean by “apps.”

    If we mean traditional installed applications (like Word, Photoshop, VSCode, etc.), then yes, it’s increasingly possible to get by without them — but only in certain scenarios. Here’s how it breaks down:

    <a bunch of bullet points and emojis>

    So once again, Lemmy users show how STUPID they are for not realizing how fascinating this question is. Get clanked, meatbags.

  • zamithal@programming.dev
    0·
    10 days ago

    These comments are all so aggressive, let me try answering this in a less rude way.

    App is short for application, at the end of the day no matter where you install an app from an app is a packaged chunk of software meant to accomplish a task. Microsoft word is an app, chrome is an app, flappy bird is an app, calculator is an app, any “program” that you launch is an app.

    Now where the waters get muddy is app stores. App stores such as the apple store or Google play are apps specifically built to help you install other apps. The intent of these is to provide users a safe location they can search for other apps and install them without fear of viruses and receive updates automatically. Windows and Linux have their own app stores too, the windows store, though sad and decrepit is supposed to provide the same assurances as Mac’s app store.

    Now can you use the computer without apps? Yes! Your computer just won’t do much since you’ve forgone your calculator, games, and any other purpose built software you might have installed.

    Can you use the computer without the “app store”? Yes! You can install the application from anywhere, it doesn’t need to be the app store. Apple and Google get a cut of the money made by apps sold on the app store. Because of this they are incentives to discourage users from installing apps from elsewhere. They’ve called installing apps from elsewhere “side loading” in order to make it sound scary and not normal but it is in fact the normal way we have been installing apps since before these app stores arrived.

    The last type of app I want to call out because it’s a bit different. Web apps are apps you can use by going to a web page. These apps are installed on someone else’s computer and you get to use it when you open the page. It’s still an app, you just don’t have to install it. There are special types of computers (for example. Chromebooks) that are built around these types of apps.

    Hope this helps!

    • IMALlama@lemmy.world
      0·
      10 days ago

      Spot on answer.

      While I totally agree with you, it really does seem like we’re moving back towards the era of centralized committing, at least for mainstream computing. More and more “desktop” applications are really electron apps with a good chunk of the compute happening server side. That’s before you start to consider the many browser based word processing products, etc.

        • Rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          10 days ago

          No, it doesn’t.

          It might feel “aggressively confrontational” to you, but I find your weird tone policing to be “aggressively confrontational”.

        • Pamasich@kbin.earth
          0·
          10 days ago

          This is the fediverse, I recommend finding peace with the fact you’ll run into different customs here.

          OP created a microblog post, which means Mastodon is the target audience, not Lemmy. For Mastodon, it’s essential to include mentions, even to the person you’re replying to, because otherwise Mastodon won’t notify the user of the reply.

          Since Mastodon is the target audience here, OP probably also expected replies to come from that side of the fediverse, not the threadiverse. Their instance by default doesn’t display your instance’s name next to your name, nor does it display your software there. So they probably weren’t aware the user they were replying to used Lemmy. Hence the mention.

      • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
        0·
        10 days ago

        No it is not. This has nothing to do with programming.

        Programming is writing in a programming language so the computer can execute it.

        This post mentions no programming language, nor any set of programming languages. It isn’t either something that applies to all languages.

        In short, it has nothing to do with programming