Ink & Switch company blog
Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps
The original promise of personal computing was a new kind of clay. Instead, we got appliances: built far away, sealed, unchangeable. In this essay, we envision malleable software: tools that users can reshape with minimal friction to suit their unique needs.
- Points
- 294
- HN comments
- 189
- Submissions
- 2
- Cited by
- 7 commenters
Web & FrontendTools & Productivity2025
On Hacker News
| Submitted | Title on HN | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 10, 2025 | Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps by jessmartin | 294 | 114 |
| Sep 27, 2026 | Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps (2025) by evakhoury | 162 | 75 |
Cited in comments
Linked from 7 Hacker News comments by 7 different people, from Jun 2025 to Oct 2026.
Most recent:
- Leftium · Oct 31, 2026
- josephg · Jun 21, 2026
- allantoledo · Jan 17, 2026
- jauntywundrkind · Oct 28, 2025
- tablet · Aug 27, 2025
- jdauriemma · Aug 4, 2025
