It’s not new to me to feel uneasy when I find out some software I use has just gone through a \u201cmajor update.\u201d<\/p>\n
Take the case of the Jellyfin app for Roku OS<\/a>.<\/p>\n On March 26th<\/sup>, a major update \u2014 version 3.0.0 \u2014 was released, which the developers themselves dubbed as \u201c\ud83d\ude35\u200d\ud83d\udcabThe \u2018Will Someone Please Explain To Me What Is Going On\u2019 release \ud83e\udd37\u201d. Not a great sign. According to the changelog<\/a>, it was based on a fork that\u2019s quite different from the previous stable version it replaced.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t follow the development of the Jellyfin app for Roku OS, so I got a bit of a shock when I turned on the TV and saw this update. It\u2019s, well\u2026 different. The elements are all crammed on the screen, the exposed filters<\/a> are way too distracting (and the \u201cnot played\u201d filter is never remembered), and overall, it just looks off \u2014 subjective, I know.<\/p>\n By the way, I found out today that the old app was re-released on the Roku store as Jellyfin Legacy<\/a> on April 1st<\/sup>. What a relief to go back to the old UI! The reason for keeping it available is that version 3.0.0 doesn\u2019t work with older versions of the Jellyfin Server (10.7 and below). I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if someone who\u2019s been running a three years old outdated Jellyfin Server version will have the foresight to check the project\u2019s repository when faced with an incompatible Roku OS app update, only to eventually discover that there\u2019s a new \u2014 actually, the old \u2014 app available for download.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Back in the day, I used to get excited about \u201cmajor updates.\u201d \u201cOoh, check out those Windows 7 visual effects!\u201d \u201cApp XYZ is now easier to use!\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n Sometimes I wonder if I\u2019ve changed. I tend to think that\u2019s not really the case. There was a lot of room for improvement back then, and developers and designers, alongside us users, were all learning how to navigate new digital interfaces for a wide range of everyday activities. Today, it feels like most UI and UX changes are done for their own sake with little reasoning or obvious benefit to the end user.<\/p>\n Apple has been on this trend for a while now; the Settings apps debuting in macOS 13 Ventura<\/a>, in 2022, was the pinnacle (so far) of this dumb, even hostile, trend. (Here’s a good analysis<\/a>.) The possibility of a complete system overhaul<\/a> this September, as the rumor mill suggests, already fills me with a huge sense of dread.<\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting how this issue affects both proprietary software (like Apple\u2019s) and open-sourced ones (like Jellyfin), though it feels like it happens more often with proprietary\/closed software.<\/p>\n Is it too much to ask that they don\u2019t mess with what isn\u2019t broken? Or \u2014 even better \u2014 that they favor iterative improvements over abrupt changes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s not new to me to feel uneasy when I find out some software I use has just gone through a \u201cmajor update.\u201d Take the case of the Jellyfin app for Roku OS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":""},"categories":[1575],"tags":[1818,1820,1823],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56476"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56479,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56476\/revisions\/56479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![exposed filters<\/a> are way too distracting (and the \u201cnot played\u201d filter is never remembered), and overall, it just looks off \u2014 subjective, I know.<\/p>\nBy the way, I found out today that the old app was re-released on the Roku store as Jellyfin Legacy<\/a> on April 1st<\/sup>. What a relief to go back to the old UI! The reason for keeping it available is that version 3.0.0 doesn\u2019t work with older versions of the Jellyfin Server (10.7 and below). I couldn\u2019t help but wonder if someone who\u2019s been running a three years old outdated Jellyfin Server version will have the foresight to check the project\u2019s repository when faced with an incompatible Roku OS app update, only to eventually discover that there\u2019s a new \u2014 actually, the old \u2014 app available for download.<\/p>\n***<\/p>\nBack in the day, I used to get excited about \u201cmajor updates.\u201d \u201cOoh, check out those Windows 7 visual effects!\u201d \u201cApp XYZ is now easier to use!\u201d and so on.<\/p>\nSometimes I wonder if I\u2019ve changed. I tend to think that\u2019s not really the case. There was a lot of room for improvement back then, and developers and designers, alongside us users, were all learning how to navigate new digital interfaces for a wide range of everyday activities. Today, it feels like most UI and UX changes are done for their own sake with little reasoning or obvious benefit to the end user.<\/p>\nApple has been on this trend for a while now; the Settings apps debuting in macOS 13 Ventura<\/a>, in 2022, was the pinnacle (so far) of this dumb, even hostile, trend. (Here’s a good analysis<\/a>.) The possibility of a complete system overhaul<\/a> this September, as the rumor mill suggests, already fills me with a huge sense of dread.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s interesting how this issue affects both proprietary software (like Apple\u2019s) and open-sourced ones (like Jellyfin), though it feels like it happens more often with proprietary\/closed software.<\/p>\nIs it too much to ask that they don\u2019t mess with what isn\u2019t broken? Or \u2014 even better \u2014 that they favor iterative improvements over abrupt changes?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s not new to me to feel uneasy when I find out some software I use has just gone through a \u201cmajor update.\u201d Take the case of the Jellyfin app for Roku OS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":""},"categories":[1575],"tags":[1818,1820,1823],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56476"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56479,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56476\/revisions\/56479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/manualdousuario.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image.avif\"){kind=link}