The Modern App
The author critiques modern web apps for being overly complex, bloated, and dependent on heavy JavaScript frameworks. He advocates for simpler, more performant approaches using core web technologies and server-side rendering.
Background
- David Bushell is a UK-based web designer and front-end developer who writes about web standards, design, and technology.
- This piece critiques the direction of modern software development, arguing that many "modern" apps are actually worse than their predecessors—more bloated, slower, less functional, and more hostile to users.
- Bushell contrasts "old" apps (simple, fast, focused, respectful of user choices) with "modern" apps (electron-based, slow to load, packed with AI features nobody asked for, subscription-modeled, and constantly demanding attention).
- Typical examples include Slack, VS Code, Spotify, and various AI-infused productivity tools—all of which consume far more RAM and CPU than the simple tasks they perform would seem to justify.
- The piece taps into an ongoing backlash among developers and power users against "enshittification" (the tendency of platforms to degrade over time as they chase growth and monetization).