Software Bloat Requires Better CPU Investment.
Also Firefox Code is Real and Google Remembers Desktops.

The Case for Permanent Hardware Upgrades

John Carmack, a highly regarded engineering veteran, suggested the world could operate on much older hardware if modern software teams prioritized efficiency. This observation is the digital equivalent of demanding the accounting department stop using 4K video editing software for quarterly expense reports. The suggestion is technically correct; it is fiscally irresponsible from a tech-giant perspective, as the market is not built on a lack of new hardware sales. It is a volume business.

The comment section quickly turned into a collective sigh of the overworked; a chorus of people who have watched their ten year old laptop slow down under the weight of an updated chat client. One user pointed out that the entire problem boils down to a fundamental misalignment between the interests of hardware companies and software developers. When the problem can be solved by throwing a new CPU at it, the incentive to optimize the code drops to near zero, which is the only number that seems to trend downward consistently in the industry.

Google Rediscover the Desktop Paradigm

Google is apparently building its own Android desktop mode, giving mobile users a workspace that looks suspiciously like a desktop computer interface. The new feature, spotted in a recent leak, suggests Google has remembered that some people own monitors and keyboards and might want to look at more than three things at once. This follows in the footsteps of Samsung's DeX and the entire history of operating systems created since the 1980s; it is the ultimate case of the left hand finally checking what the right hand was doing five years ago.

The internal review board at Google must have found the "Desktop-Shaped Hole" in the company's product portfolio. They are calling this a new initiative; everyone else is calling it "Wednesday" and wondering if it will make it past the next company-wide reorganization. The concept of converting a mobile device into a desktop is an elegant one, but the implementation is always messy, usually involving a half dozen adapters and the quiet abandonment of the project eighteen months later.

Mozilla Firefox Code is Not a Myth

Mozilla Firefox, a browser many of us have forgotten to uninstall, has suddenly appeared on the main stage due to a popular link to its Official GitHub repository. The overwhelming attention suggests that many people believed Firefox was either written in magic marker on a whiteboard or maintained by a lone systems administrator who works exclusively in an underground bunker. It is a relief to see the code is public and organized.

This surge in interest makes the browser feel less like a forgotten ghost and more like a barely-staffed department that just filed its TPS report on time for once. The comments section is a mix of nostalgia and genuine surprise that a large organization has decided to use a standard version control system; a revolutionary concept in this day and age.

Briefs

• GNU Screen Vulnerabilities: Multiple security issues were found in GNU Screen; a utility many sysadmins treat as their digital comfort blanket. It turns out the comfort blanket has a few holes in it, which is why we cannot have nice things.
• Nextcloud versus Google: Nextcloud is crying foul over its app rejection from the Google Play Store. The battle between a small cloud provider and a titan of industry feels a lot like arguing with HR over the color of the approved expense report pen.
• PDF to Text: A deep dive into why extracting text from a PDF remains a challenging problem. This confirms that the format was designed by an elder god who hates clean data and enjoys watching humanity suffer through misalignment issues.