SortedPC.net

Faster, better hardware has driven bigger, more sophisticated software applications - but do they do the job any better?

I have to admit to being behind the curve when it comes to Microsoft Office - I'm still using Office XP (or 2002) on my laptop and Office 2000 on my desktop computers. But am I the only one who really doesn't notice any functional difference between Word 2000 and Word XP - apart from a rather dinkier, but irritating illogical, Track Changes interface? Since XP, Microsoft have launched Office 2003 and 2007 - I wonder what are the need-to-have features I've denied myself by not upgrading?

I subscribe to the excellent CNet News, including Lee Koo's Community Help & How-To which had a discussion on Why Does Vista Run So Slowly? in its January 4 edition. Lee gave credit to another CNet member, xjohnhamx, who wote this useful comment on The Evolution of an Operating System. Now, I wouldn't demur from xjohnhamx's logic and clearly there is a real opportunity for software authors to improve the functionality of their software by exploiting impoved hardware: faster processors, better caching, faster memory and larger hard disks. But I can't help thinking that Microsoft have lost the plot when it comes to Word XP. My laptop is four years old (i.e. it's younger that the version of Office that I'm running) and whirrs and groans every time I start Word.

Not only is it painfully slow to load but, once loaded, it's prone to both temporary freezing and occasional crashes. To be honest, I've taken to using Notepad and Wordpad, essentially unchanged from Windows 95, for any text editing tasks that don't need sophisticated formatting. To edit this post, I used the web entry facility in the Drupal blog module, which is fast and reliable and uses HTML or CSS for formatting - perhaps trickier to use but more predictable than Word!

Now I'm not suggesting - like some hardcore, black teeshirted geek - that the Emacs text editor is the answer to all text entry tasks. I recognise that Word has been a landmark software product - making life easier and more productive for millions of people over the past twenty years. But there is a sweet spot between sophisticated functionality and pure bloatware - and I think that Microsoft Office is missing that sweet spot!

7 January 2008

Trackback URL for this post: