Software distribution today requires massive distribution friction.

· Bits and Bobs 8/3/26
  • Software distribution today requires massive distribution friction.
    • The App Store might seem like low friction relative to installing software to your PC from a CD.
    • But it's still massive amounts of friction.
    • Some of that friction is for the user of installing, and then putting relevant data into the app, since it's a silo.
    • But a lot of that friction is hidden from the user, in the forms of the sisyphean tasks a developer has to do to even create an account to get apps in the App Store.
    • This friction must be there because in the current physics of trust, software is dangerous, and so there must be friction to avoid harm.
    • The friction means that only maybe 10% of the useful software that could exist does exist.
    • We're so used to software having to be trusted, so needing significant distribution friction, that we can't imagine any other way.
    • But with different physics of trust, there could be an order of magnitude more useful software.

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