
Ask HN: Why not have one app that does everything? - miguelrochefort
There are too many apps, websites, services, etc. The fragmentation is overwhelming. I don&#x27;t want a complex OS with hundreds of apps, each requiring their own credentials. I want a single unified interface which lets me communicate with people and machines, about the past and the future.<p>How come is nobody trying to build that unified experience, that &quot;one app that does everything&quot;? It seems like such an obvious next step, yet people seem to prefer making things increasingly more difficult.<p>Am I missing something?
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orionblastar
Because programs are finite in size and so is compuyer RAM and storage.

An app that does everything would be too big to run and crash the system
because it takes up too much memory.

Think of the OS as a Swiss Army Knife and each program is a blade that does
something. There is a limit of how many blades you can add and each blade has
to fit into a small space to function.

The smaller the app the faster it loads. The bigger the app the slower it
loads.

So you want different apps for different things.

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miguelrochefort
The swiss army knife analogy is not a good one. Software is dynamic, unlike
material tools. While a blade can't morph into a bottle opener, software can
morph into pretty much anything.

There's no reason for having multiple apps when they all share 90% of
features.

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orionblastar
I tried to use something in the real world to explain something on a computer.

Actually 90% of the features come from using preexisting libraries like
Node.js etc. The business logic and UI/UX are usually different between
different apps.

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miguelrochefort
Name two apps that don't share at least 50% of their business logic.

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orionblastar
MS-Word and Wordperfect if they did there would be some kind of lawsuit.

Games that use Unreal Engine and games that use the Doom engine.

Same thing, different name, different code, different logic to solve the
problems.

Edit: Why the downvotes? I gave some examples as requested. There are many
different ways to solve a problem and they don't have to use the same
algorithms to get the same results. If my examples are wrong, tell me why they
are wrong.

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angersock
Have you tried emacs?

Also, how would the same app:

\- Help me design 3D models

\- Help me write a poem

\- Help me fight space aliens

\- Help me balance my budget.

Those interfaces are all vastly different. The idea that they should be
unified is misguided.

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kirankn
You mean, like a "browser" ?

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miguelrochefort
The browser is not unified. Every website has its own unique and distinct UI.
Believe it or not, but for a person to sell pizza online, they need to
actually describe the position of pixels on the screen. That's insane.

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Tagbert
Define "everything"

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miguelrochefort
"Everything" was used for convenience, and is likely hyperbolic. Let's say 80%
of all features you currently need in apps. It should be trivial to replace
most CRUD-like apps, not so much specialized 3D or multimedia apps.

Things like Uber, Pizza Hut, Walgreens, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Hacker
News, Yelp, Netflix, Maps, Gmail, Slack, Trello, Pocket, Evernote, etc.

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orian
Google Now ;-)

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miguelrochefort
Google Now doesn't let me hail a cab, order a pizza, sell my couch, etc.

