> The independent dev community could change this, but it seems permanently attached to the wrong end of the telescope, looking at computing from the comfort of its tool- and toy-making treadmill.
In defense of the tool makers: the reason corporate IT can cater to regular users so well is because they can throw a lot of warm bodies at the problem. The tools we use in this industry are shit, but it doesn't matter when you can use hordes of developers as a protein substitute for better tooling.
I believe the road for "independent dev" software usable by masses starts with better tools, and better tools for making tools.
Additionally, I think "most of the biggest innovations in computing" actually happened because of toy-making treadmill. Even in the startup world, a common advice is to scratch your own itch - it often leads to something that's widely useful.
> "Why should an ordinary user care about this?" isn't asked nearly as often as it should be. And "Don't you understand the tech is fun to play with?" is not the right answer.
In defense of the "independent dev community": perhaps we care a little bit too much about ordinary users? The way I see it, most modern software is dumbed down, lowest-common-denominator toys, whose sole purpose is to sell well and/or sell their users out. Tech-savvy people, and even less savvy users who care about getting things done, are now considered a niche too small to care for. While there are some businesses still working on "power user" tools, the platforms themselves - operating systems - are being optimized for unsophisticated users, dumbed down and locked down.
Again, I believe most of the biggest innovations, the ones helping everyone, start with engineers scratching their own itch. To the extent it's becoming harder, all users lose out.