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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/wwworst-app-store.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/wwworst-app-store.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c07a491 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/wwworst-app-store.html @@ -0,0 +1,230 @@ +<!--#include virtual="/server/html5-header.html" --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> +<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> +<title>The WWWorst App Store +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> + <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/wwworst-app-store.translist" --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> +<div class="reduced-width"> +<h2>The WWWorst App Store</h2> + +<address class="byline">by Alexandre Oliva</address> +<div class="thin"></div> + +<p>Picture the most abusive app store.</p> + +<p>Programs in it are meant to run on your own computer.</p> + +<p>However, you have to be online to run them.</p> + +<p>Every time you start them, they contact the app store.</p> + +<p>If there is an updated version, it's installed automatically, no +questions asked. You'd rather run the earlier version? Tough.</p> + +<p>If the app store decides you're no longer welcome, the program won't +start any more.</p> + +<p>If the app store servers are offline, or if you are, it won't start +either.</p> + +<div class="important"> +<p>Programs in this app store must also hold your data in the app store's +servers.</p> + +<p>If the program won't start, you can't get to the data on the servers +any more.</p> + +<p>You may have downloaded backups of your data, but you'd have to figure +out how to decode them without the program.</p> +</div> + +<p>Sounds like a nightmare? It is. But it's also very real.</p> + +<p>Well-known app stores are approaching this level of nastiness.</p> + +<p>But they are just catching up with the real thing.</p> + +<p>The most abusive app store is the business-driven perversion of the +old user-empowering distributed hypertext system called “the Web.”</p> + +<p>Users have been encouraged to adopt “web apps” for much of their +computing, paving the way for other app stores to follow suit.</p> + +<div class="important"> +<p>“Web apps” are most often distributed as JavaScript (though Java and +Flash have served similar purposes), automatically installed and +executed on your browser.</p> + +<p>But the problem is not that they're in JavaScript, or that it's your +browser that runs them. It's that:</p> + +<ul> +<li>you don't have control over what the program does;</li> +<li>you don't have control over when you can run it;</li> +<li>you don't have control over your own data.</li> +</ul> + +<p>The app store owner takes all that control away from you, thereby +gaining control over you.</p> + +<p>You lose when the JavaScript code is nonfree software.<br /> +<a href="/philosophy/javascript-trap.html"> +https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html</a></p> + +<p>But you also lose when it is (nominally) free software!</p> +</div> + +<p>When the app / web site has so much control over what runs on +your computer, the effect “is equivalent to using a nonfree program +with surveillance features and a universal back door.” <br /> +<a href="/philosophy/network-services-arent-free-or-nonfree.html"> +https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/network-services-arent-free-or-nonfree.html</a> <br /> + +<a href="/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html"> +https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html</a> </p> + +<p>The owner gets all the freedom, and you, the user, get none.</p> + +<p>That's not a self-respectful way to do your computing.</p> + +<p>It invades your privacy, it keeps you and your data hostage, it takes +away your agency and your freedom when it comes to your digital life.</p> + +<hr class="column-limit" /> + +<p>The web used to be a wonderful way to share information.</p> + +<p>Web apps and mandatory JavaScript have turned it into the worst app +store.</p> + +<p>It is time to separate the WWWonderful from the WWWorst practices.</p> + +<p>Here are some ways to help:</p> + +<ul> +<li>request web sites that require JavaScript execution to offer either: + <ul> + <li>alternate means of access to information they publish, or</li> + <li>alternate means of delivery for their apps;</li> + </ul> +</li> + +<li>promote free browser extensions that control JavaScript execution;<br /> +<a href="/software/librejs/">https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/</a></li> + +<li>beware of apps that are mere front ends for SaaSS;<br /> +<a href="/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html"> +https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html</a></li> + +<li>demand software you use to be delivered in freedom-respecting ways;</li> + +<li>promote hypertext systems that do not grant servers control over users.<br /> +<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol)"> +https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol)</a><br /> +<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)"> +https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)</a></li> +</ul> + +<p>More generally:</p> + +<ul> +<li>as a self-respecting user, reject the abusive practices whenever you can;<br /> +<a href="/philosophy/saying-no-even-once.html"> +https://gnu.org/philosophy/saying-no-even-once.html</a></li> + +<li>discourage automatic execution of downloaded code;<br /> +<a href="https://www.fsfla.org/blogs/lxo/pub/who-is-afraid-of-spectre-and-meltdown.en.html"> +https://www.fsfla.org/blogs/lxo/pub/who-is-afraid-of-spectre-and-meltdown.en.html</a></li> + +<li>as a network service operator, set a user-respecting example;<br /> +<a href="/philosophy/network-services-arent-free-or-nonfree.html"> +https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/network-services-arent-free-or-nonfree.html</a></li> + +<li>spread awareness of the problem, and advice on solving and avoiding it.<br /> +<a href="/help/help-javascript.html"> +https://www.gnu.org/help/help-javascript.html</a></li> +</ul> + +<p>Now, if you wish your site to give its users a taste of how the +WWWorst app store feels to us, add to web pages you control the +following JavaScriptlet:</p> + +<p class="emph-box"> +document.body.textContent = 'Please disable JavaScript to view this site.'</p> + +<p>If you wish, make “disable JavaScript” a link to this article.</p> + +<hr class="column-limit" /> + +<p>Thanks to Richard Stallman for the inspiration to write about this +issue, and for the encouragement to publish it.</p> + +<p><em>2021-04-01 update:</em> thanks to KE0VVT for letting me know that +textContent can't have links; you need innerHTML for that.</p> +</div> + +</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> +<div id="footer" class="contentinfo"> +<div class="unprintable"> + +<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to +<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. +There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> +the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent +to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> + +<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, + replace it with the translation of these two: + + We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality + translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. + Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard + to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> + <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> + + <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of + our web pages, see <a + href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations + README</a>. --> +Please see the <a +href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations +README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations +of this article.</p> +</div> + +<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to + files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should + be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this + without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. + Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the + document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the + document was modified, or published. + + If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. + Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying + years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable + year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including + being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). + + There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers + Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> + +<p>Copyright © 2021 Alexandre Oliva</p> + +<p>This page is licensed under the <a rel="license" +href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative +Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.</p> + +<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> + +<p class="unprintable">Updated: +<!-- timestamp start --> +$Date: 2021/04/05 18:30:56 $ +<!-- timestamp end --> +</p> +</div> +</div> +</body> +</html> |