LOL... I was in the same position. I graduated from high school in 88 and got my first job a couple of years later, working at a small insurance company running IBM AS/400. I had just gotten my job as an operator with a dream of becoming a programmer, and here comes IBM with its CASE tool. I truly thought the world was going to end.
A couple of years later, Microsoft came out with Visual Basic, and I thought, OMG, I'm toast. Secretaries are going to be writing code. I was a developer by this time, writing code in FoxPro and getting into PowerBuilder.
All this to say, "I've been in IT for many years, and companies promise a lot but rarely deliver completely on their promises." Do programmers and others in the tech field need to adapt? Yes. Is AI going to be disruptive to some extent? Yes. Are all jobs going away? No.
I bought a brand new Dell laptop with Windows 11 25H2 at the end of November 2025. The first patches released by Microsoft in December did not install. WTF!!!
If you go online, you will see a whole YouTube videos and articles on how to fix the issue. Let me tell you, after a considerable amount of time, I gave up.
I'm running Ubuntu 24.04 on my desktop, and I can't remember the last time I had issues applying patches.
Windows has problems all the time. There is widespread knowledge on how to troubleshoot and fix these problems.
Similar problems will have very different solutions for Linux. The knowledge of how to resolve them is much less widespread. I’ve had very good success in asking ChatGPT how to resolve Linux issues, probably better success then I would on Windows because the error messages on Linux are much more detailed.
A lot of the time the "solution" to problems on Windows is to reinstall/in-place upgrade because, as you said, Windows errors tend to be more generic so you can browse Google all you want but none of the instructions people provide will be of much help. So I'm not sure "widespread knowledge" is a point in favor of Windows when the errors frequently aren't specific enough to be reliably actionable.
Windows has a "check the Internet for solutions" option that never works. You can just let Claude code loose on your system and have it go fix your shit for you instead of copy and pasting anything.
I don't understand why individuals expect a corporation like Google, driven by profits, to give a sh*t. I would expect no less of Apple with IOS.
Individuals should look for and support alternatives. I'm currently working on a desktop running Ubuntu because I want an alternative to the duopoly of Windows and macOS.
Additionally, we should support open-source alternatives with our donations. I personally donate money every year to Ubuntu, the Gnome foundation, and Tor.
If you're worried about a for-profit company having sway over your computer, Ubuntu is not really the choice to make. Please consider running upstream Debian; there are very few downsides, but the upside is that it is run by an organization that is not (and never will be) driven by profits. Also, it seems a little silly to donate to Ubuntu, which is maintained by a for-profit company.
Ubuntu controls a big voting block in debian’s organization. They forced systemd in, for example.
Devuan is a good enough compromise for me. The OS is stable, and the only issues I’ve had involve hacking curl|bash scripts that fail to realize they should just install the debian version.
Nothing there supports there were a significant number / more than a minority of people against systemd in Debian outside Ubuntu, which was the extraordinary claim I was (implicitly) complaining against.
I see the convincing arguments against systemd, mostly wrt to the support of the FreeBSD kernel in Debian. I wasn't familiar with them, it's interesting, thanks.
> If you're worried about a for-profit company having sway over your computer, Ubuntu is not really the choice to make.
Why not? The point is not to not have anything supplied by a business. The point is to avoid being controlled by a business.
Ubuntu does not have the same hold over your computer that Google has over your phone. The software is open source. You can switch distros easily as it does not have lock-in.
The OS on desktop situation isn't comparable to the OS on mobile situation. You can buy any PC and expect being able to replace its OS. On phones, you have to look for the ones where it's possible, and depending on the phone, it's possible despite the efforts from the manufacturers for not allowing it.
Also in PC OSs, there isn't a corporation dictating what programs you are allowed to install. In iOS there is, and soon in Android too.
IMO, these corporations have managed to amass an amount of power where there's no longer consumer freedom. Therefore, there's no free market. We have reached a point where the law must intervene to restore capitalism.
I had eye surgery three weeks ago. Prior to my eye surgery, I emailed and called my health insurance to get a total out of pocket cost, none could be given. The only thing I heard over and over is your deductible is X.
I spoke to to the eye surgeon's billing department and the same happened. How the F* can it be like this? To top it off, I just got a bill for $300 after paying $1300.
Because once you become super rich, you also become an expert in everything. We no longer need people spending their entire lives researching and learning about a specific topic; we only need more billionaires.
Americans fantasize about factory work because, at that time in America, you could afford a home without a two-income family. Life was "easier" for many people.
Personally, I think we need to focus on making things like homes more affordable. This would go a long way toward alleviating people's feeling of being trapped.
It's definitely less of a factor compared to money, but I can't help wonder if in addition to being able to afford stuff, it's the idea that there used to be a "default" path that carried some sort of dignity. Dirty jobs have never been outright glamorous, but there's still a kind of respect that American society confers upon "traditional" industrial work - think the classic image of the humble American coal miner, factory worker, or farmer. "It ain't much, but it's honest work." I think the thought is that however you did in school and in the upper-class-employment rat race, anyone could find a stable, respectable, long-term job - probably even get trained on the job - in an industry that really matters, that does useful stuff for the country.
Now? If you fail to jump through all the office-job hoops of picking a fancy field, getting a degree, finding internships, dressing up nice, keeping a clean record, acing job interviews, etc. Or if those fancy jobs just aren't hiring near you. What are the "default" job options most people are left with? Working retail at Walmart? Putting fries in the bag at McDonalds? Janitorial? Driving a truck? Doordashing burritos?
Obviously the main thing the lack of stability and decent pay in these jobs, but when it comes to public perception and fantasizing, like you said, I wonder if a part of it is just that these service sector jobs feel... shittier. Less important for society.
Are there any demos showing how to manage an existing codebase? Everyone loves to demo how AI can create new programs with a snap, but the elephant in the room is how well AI works with existing codebases and manages things like naming conventions, APIs from other apps, etc.
That's an interesting question, and I spend plenty of time exploring this at my current client. The best tip I can give you right now is really - it depends.
For example .NET/Java have this horrendous convention of splitting files into separate locations by the hundreds onto the filesystem.
ie. com/yada/repository | com/yada/models | com/yada/controllers | com/yada/services | com/yada/dtos et al
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1507&v=J1-W9O3n7j8&feature=y... for an excellent discussion from folks sharing learnings that this is an anti-pattern for the current generation of AI assistants. By splitting the tests + everything related to the code being modified into separate files the LLM does worse.
Depending on the 'uniqueness' of the codebase and how it has been 'structured for humans' (vs being structured for LLMs - see above) then one will need to do some funky stuff with building custom MCP tools that teach the AI assistants how to work with the codebase...
I don't think you're right. People love the benefits they get from the cloud, mostly being able to access data from multiple devices and huge storage capabilities. The downsides are, unfortunately, often overlooked.
For non-techies, it is not immediate obvious what the downsides even are, or why they should matter.
Personally, they need to put the iPad on a two-year release cycle and focus on improving iPad OS.