[Plug] RE: Software Bloat

[Gregory.Josephs@phila.gov]

Master and Servant says:

< quote >

based on your position on software bloat, you may enjoy
going and reading the following:
http://www.slate.com/webhead/99-07-06/webhead.asp


< unquote >


In the referenced article The Love Bloat, Andrew Shuman says:

< quote >

It is precisely because users can ignore the new releases from Microsoft or
Lotus or Corel that the software industry works overtime to add new features to
software, features that will convince users to spend $300 on an upgrade to do
the same computing as they're doing now, only with more bells and whistles and
excitement. The day that Microsoft fails to convince you to upgrade--i.e., to
buy a product that the malcontents call bloated--is the day that Redmond becomes
a ghost town. 

< unquote >

And I think that day is near.  MS Word 97 does stinky things like capitalizing
the initial of the word after a period whether I want it or not (which I usually
don't), and provides no way to turn this off (I refuse to tinker with the
Registry, since that is a notorious way to destabilize the system further).  It
won't let me select from the middle of one word to the middle of the next.  I
even object when it corrects hte to the, since I am a touch typist, my
finger-sense recognizes the error, and Word just gets in my way when I try to
correct it.

Linux has shown that software of its size and complexity can be developed as
Open Software.  What I see in recent versions of Office suggests that  the
WYSIWYG office-suite class of product has reached the limit of its useful size
and complexity, and is a prime candidate for redevelopment as Open Software.

I would love to see that - and so would big-system IT professionals, since they
also are opposed to upgrading ordinary office systems and their software every
two or three years, not to mention retraining ...

IMHO

GregJ
 

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