Loud software

A lot of popular software is loud. It shows me notifications, popups, and all the new features I don’t care about. I want to make the case, that quiet software is better. Quiet software is there for me if I need it, it does its job but otherwise gets out of my way as much as possible.

Let me elaborate: I grew up with an Atari ST, then got my first PC with Windows 95, and soon after switched to Linux. Back then on the Atari ST, it was reasonable to have only one program open. Even with Microsoft Windows 95, this held up because the hardware and the many crashes were the limiting factors. The programs were single purpose and cross communication between programs and the operating system was rare. To display additional information the status bar within the program was used or a message box was created by the program.

Then with Microsoft Windows XP popup alerts became a thing. From there it went downhill fast with the formal introduction of notifications and the notification center. Third-party vendors noticed what was possible and started to use them. And what is possible gets overused and abused. Nowadays you can get notifications for every e-mail, slack, and teams message. The preinstalled malware (read antivirus) even gives me a notification that it found no threats on my PC. Thanks for nothing!

On smartphones, it is even worse. There they are called push-notifications, and they do exactly that. On every possible occasion, they send you a notification, that makes the phone beep and vibrate like a hamster on ecstasy only to finally display a message on the lock screen. Every single one breaks your current focus and makes you crave instant gratification by looking at the notification.

What I crave is the opposite, I want quiet software! Software, that does nothing until I ask for it. Ideally per default, without searching through endless settings. No notifications and no nonsense. No flashy animations and other stuff that distracts me from getting work done.