Also, fuck xfinity and their BS. Can't even change wifi password without downloading an app.
It’s because an app allows them to collect all kinds of telemetry and usage data that they can’t get from a browser. Browsers inherently limit what kinds of data they can collect by walling them off, while an app gives them full control over what they collect.
and allows them to incorporate any bullshit code they like in fashions no sane browser would accept in a thousand years.
And send you (usually completely useless) notifications.
And the app icon acts as an little ad for their company / brand
Fuck Chrome-Remixes, all my homies use Firefox to defend the free web!
And if you want to take the extra step use Librewolf
I prefer to use Firefox because with Librewolf, Mozilla can't get telemetry data.
Internet years ago:
Site optimised for internet explorer 4.1, resolution 800x600
To view this website you need macromedia flash
This is the first thing I thought of as well. It's never been "just use what you want". It got better for a while as JavaScript and CSS normalized. Now it's trash again.
Honestly, this was the reality. Half the shit couldn't even be accessed without flash. Does nobody remember the flash on mobile drama?
ActiveX
Or Silverlight. None of these lockin attempts are new and they always failed. Might just take a while.
Companies don't like being beholden to other companies.
pLeAsE uSe cHrOmE fOr tHe bEsT eXpErIeNcE
I've been using the internet since 1996. Newsgroups is about all that was good back then. Oh and email.
Chrome has become the new IE6 and Google the Microsoft of the internet.
Today is a bit of a low point, but I don't think there was any perfect time.
Flash was a major issue during a lot of the "golden years" people are romanticizing. ActiveX was also, and still is, an issue for some parts of the world. Silverlight as well to a lesser extent
If there were any golden years, they probably were when the big three had similar market share between 2009 and 2014. But it was clear what was happening over those years, Chrome was eating IE and waning FF.
Yes apps are bad news.
What drives me mad is that 99.7% of the time you should be able to do everything through the browser without installing the 107th app. But they REALLY have to access your camera, microphone, files, location and body temperature in order to use the same shitty HTML wrapper just to show two input fields and some text.
Yep. Phone have gone horrible wrong and ended up in a duopoly. It is hard for new phone platform to get started. Hell, it's a pain in the ass just have Android without Google services installed. It's such anti-competitive and anti-privacy mess.
You speak correctly.
You are wise beyond your years. In respect I look at the late 90s as maybe my favorite period when the Internet was mostly run by (and used by) smart engineers and techies and not corrupted by misinformation and data mining. IRC was great at doing what discord does today. The web still had fun stuff and shareware was great to explore. Broadband was ramping up so speed was good for people who had it.
looks at IE6
Time is a flat circle
I was gonna post IE6. Internet technology was stagnated for a few years until Firefox lit a fire under everyone's ass.
Firefox defeated the ie monopoly hope it does the same to the chormium monopoly
"You must install Real Macromedia Java Player in order to view this video, then allow ActiveX controls."
Do not use their router. You are not required to. I have xfinity, and I use my own modem and my own router. No monthly rental fee. Just takes a little research before purchase.
Their gateway (basically a modem + router in one device) is to free to us because there's a government subsidized program in my area that lets you get cheap internet and with that cheap internet plan also includes $0 per month equipment rental, so it's free as long as we qualify for the subsidized plan.
Nobody in my household wants to spend extra money on a router that could impact speed and is redundant, since we already have one, and I certainly aint spending extra money on a router. Plus, it's extra ewaste.
But yea I get your point, most people don't have government subsidized internet like I do, so buying your own equipment is probably a better choice.
It saves me $10 per month, and that $120 per year is more than worth it. Plus, my home network is none of their business, and using your own equipment is your only means of privacy and control within your own network. I understand that not everyone cares, but consumers should be educated.
Also being bombarded with SIGN IN SIGN UP MAILING LIST COOKIES etc. Modern Internet sucks.
Not just the internet, consumer computing as a whole became a shitshow. You need accounts for everything, Microsoft pushes you hard to use their online service, the default becoming that you to log onto your own computer you need to go through their online Microsoft account, which is terribly unsafe (if your ms account gets hacked, the hacker had access to you system). After "software as a service" more or less has been normalised, I'm just waiting for hardware going down that path, too. I'd say it begins already that I had to create a NVIDIA account to actually update drivers. Soon, this account may not be free anymore.
To most issues like this there are workarounds, but sometimes you have to dig deep. So it's either you need to spend time to make things work like you want, or accept all this crap. For me, this is fine, because I like the tinkering. But I am also *administrating" most of my elder family members' computers, which is a nightmare because of that. "So I saved the document, where is it on my computer,?" - "If you used the default OneDrive crap, it just is not on your computer..."
I bring a sort of UserAgent Switcher vibe to the party that Big Tech don't really like.
Bro Microsoft gives me credit points (i opted out and they just forced it back down my throat a week later) for using edge. Little do they know im on firefox
"any browser you like" back then, eh?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.
At least there was antitrust lawsuits, google has been getting off scot-free with chromium
I'm just going to say that, as someone who has dealt with technology for over 30 years, and has worked in, on, and with the internet for probably ~20 years, there has never been a time where every webpage ever, has worked in any one browser. IE6 was close, but that was mainly because it was either the only option, or at least the only one people knew about. There were still blowhard sites that only worked in Netscape navigator, or whatever.... but the opposite was true as well, some things worked in IE that would refuse to function in Netscape/FF/opera.
Even during the supposed golden era of the past maybe ~3 years, just shortly prior to the app superiority complex of post 2020 internet, there were still sites that required IE. There were also sites that refused to function on IE.... I've had issues getting very normal webpages to even load on any browser, but then I fire up Firefox and it works perfectly and instantly. Yet, FF has its own incompatibilities.
So the initial premise of the joke is, for all intents and purposes, invalid. There has never been a time that you could pick literally any browser, and have access to everything that's on the internet.... nevermind that being true for every browser.
It's true that all mainstream sites worked in every browser, but that was always true.... sites like that make a point of making themselves available regardless of what bad decisions you make over what browser to use. Those sites come to you, in that way (so to speak). Some sites demand you go to them, which is to say that you must operate their site in the way they want you to.
The app-ocalypse is just the latest in a long trend of getting you to meet them on their terms.
Dude just don't use their router. All you need is the modem
Having your own router/access point can't be stressed enough.
And, you don't even need their modem. Sure it's an additional outlay of cash, but buying your own modem gets you a nice upgrade and no worries about someone connecting to the Xfinity access point that's bundled in their equipment.
And it pays for itself in less than a year
I would gladly go back to 1990s Internet, if I could avoid all the ads, tracking and spam.
Good ol 90s internet, home to Bonzi Buddy, browser toolbars, and referral click to collect Windows toolbars
But they run unnecessary JavaScript Frameworks just for a page which redirects you to the download.
Apps today are just the AOL keywords of the 90s prove me wrong
It's like if they were a physical location and trying to dictate what car you drive to get there. What business is it of theirs?
Not at all. If you know a bit about networking, you can log into the modem/router and set whatever you like.
Already tried:
Options all greyed out with a message telling you to go to xfinity.com/myxfi which just tells you to download the app
It is FAR cheaper to buy and maintain your own modem and router. I've bought an $80 cable modem less than once a decade. Last I checked, Comcast charges you about $8 a month to rent a modem. That modem I bought paid for itself before the first year was up and has kept on trucking since. Just make sure Comcast hasn't decided to bill you the modem rental for your own hardware, because they will try and they will not refund your money for their mistakes.