Design, Dependencies, and Developer Responsibility

Software developers are in a position of power. Most of the software that gets professionally developed is proprietary or is hidden away on remote servers, so end users are not allowed to see or modify its behavior; even were they allowed to change its behavior, we often use complicated tools that require years of experience to use effectively. While there may be a ‘market’, end users’ choice is limited: an end user may be able to choose between several implementations, but there are no software choices developed outside of the software-developer monoculture. In…