Weekly Post #93

Posted on October 5, 2025

Customizability

Over the course of my tech journey I have always had a mixed stance on customizable software vs out of box experience.

Being a long time Archlinux (Linux) user, it has influenced my view of software from a customizability stand point. Most opensource software inherently have the philosophy of allowing users to customize to their hearts extent, often take the software to different tangents straying away from its original purpose. This got embodied into my thought process whenever I evaluated software. I was looking for the customizability factor, whether or not I actually needed it. The imaginary “What if” fear?

Since I moved from Linux to Apple eco system, there has been a mindset change. I have started to find a liking for out of the box, purpose driven software. Software that truly embodies the Unix philosophy of “Write programs that do one thing and do it well.”. Because of the open/free nature of opensource anyone can modify or add a new feature to the software to meet their usecase. This leaves the user(me) with a whole lot of customizability options leading to the customizability trap. I have started to favor software where I get what I want and not care about if I can customize it or if it lacks a feature that I most likely wouldn’t care about.

Having gone down the trap of customizability at various levels - it is a hard act to balance. And even Apple - a company I regard so highly when it comes to UI/UX couldn’t do much once they gave users more freedom of customizability. It shows that if you losen or remove the guardrails you have to deal with the consequences it brings.

The true power of a software isn’t in how much you can customize it but instead in never having the need to.