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Just Werks
"Just werks" (for "just works" if that's somehow not clear) is a phrase used by noobs to justify using a piece of technology while completely neglecting any other deeper and/or long term consequences. A noob doesn't think about technology further than how it can immediately perform some task for him.
This phrase is widely used on 4chan/g, it probably originated there.
The "just werks" philosophy completely ignores questions such as:
- Is there anything better in the long run? A normie will always prefer a shitty software he can immediately use to a software that would take one day to learn and that would make the task many times easier, comfortable, cheaper etc.
- Is this affecting my freedom? A normie doesn't realize that by using proprietary or bloated program will limit the number of people who can maintain, fix and improve his software.
- Is this affecting my security? Of course noobs are completely oblivious to the fact that certain types of technology are just plain spyware.
- How is this affecting my computing in a wider sense? A normie won't even think about such thing as that using some proprietary format will likely immediately close the door to working with it with a FOSS program, or that installing a specific OS will limit what programs he can run.
- Am I becoming a slave to this technology? By adopting something proprietary and/or bloated I am slowly becoming dependent on an ecosystem that's completely under control of some corporation, an ecosystem that can quickly change for the worse or even disappear completely.
- Am I supporting evil? E.g. by paying to a corporation, letting someone collect data in the background, promoting a bad piece of technology etc.
- Am I hurting better alternatives by not using them? E.g. by using a proprietary social network gives one more user to it and one fewer to a potentially more ethical free social network.
- Is there anything just plain better? A normie will take the first thing that's handed to him and "just werks" without even checking if something better exists that would satisfy him better.
See Also
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