Usability is a bug, not a feature

Very interesting post from Rupert Goodwins over at El Reg. Like Paul, he is sick of the enshitification of products and has some very good points.

The key is that for big business improved usability means less income, because you aren’t being pushed to ads for new subscriptions or new products that they are trying to foist upon you…

His line: Usability is a bug, not a feature, in this world sums it up very nicely, I think.

I also liked:

You can ask for a picture of “an eight-legged piebald Telly Tubby juggling with the flaming heads of Elon Musk, Groucho Marx and Arnold Palmer.” You can’t ask “Play all media files on VLC from now on.” Nor will you ever. That would mean genuine productivity gains that pry the corporate feeding proboscides from your life.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/31/opinion_column_big_tech/