It’s not sideloading and it never was

Brent Simmons, Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App:

What I want to see happen is for Apple to allow iPhone and iPad users to load — not sideload, a term I detest, because it assumes Apple’s side of things — whatever apps they want to. Because those devices are computers.

I’ve been calling it sideloading all along, but of course installing software is not sideloading! Words matter. The rhetorically framing affects how we think about them. We’re so used to locked down systems that installing software from anywhere other than Apple’s blessed App Store feels practically like a hack. Our expectations have been manipulated and now there’s no accountability for it. I think most about these low consumer expectations and lack of corporate accountability in the context of e-waste.

Smartphones are computers. They have an open-ended purpose. We expect to be able to use them for things in the future that we don’t use them for today. If you’ve ever downloaded an app in a pinch, like for hailing a cab or presenting your ticket for an event, then you’ve seen this in action. Despite smartphones’ open-ended purpose, they’re locked down like appliances. And based on how we talk about “sideloading” of software, that’s what we expect as consumers.

It’s refreshing to come across a re-framing of loading (formerly sideloading) because it’s something I’ve taken for granted for so long. And I can feel that I’ve grown quite cynical. I wouldn’t have re-examined this framing of loading software without someone else pointing it out. When I learn about most any of today’s products, I just think Well, what do you expect?, I get to feel smug, and then I move on. I think that cynicism has, ironically, caused me to give a pass for some consumer-hostile practices. So this is a gentle reminder to expect better because when we expect less and less, corporations get away with giving us just that.