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I Don't Like It

Entry 1775, on 2016-03-04 at 14:42:07 (Rating 3, Computers)

I've been thinking about some of the conclusions I have reached after being an "IT expert" for many years. I use a lot of different computer, smartphone, tablet, and other products and I have a good sense of what is good, what is not so good, and what is just plain horrible. The odd thing is that it is often the most widely-used products from big companies which are the worst. I should say this applies mainly to software rather than hardware.

For example, after many years I no longer use any Microsoft or Adobe products because they are just so, well... not necessarily bad, but just totally average, uninspiring, and unintuitive. And the worst thing is that this unfortunate situation is even creeping into the one company I have higher expectations of: Apple.

I don't know how many times I have ranted about the inadequacies of Microsoft Word. I work almost entirely with Macs but on the occasions when I do Windows support I have issues there as well. It's not that Word lacks capabilities - it can do almost anything - it's more the way it does it. It's unreliable, unpredictable, unintuitive, and uninspiring.

When I use other word processors I know that I can create a document hundreds of pages long with lots of graphics and it will still print (or more likely convert to PDF) accurately. I know I will be able to work with the document without it becoming slow even on a high performance computer. And I know it won't become corrupted in some way. But not with Word. I can almost guarantee something will go wrong with a project of any significant degree of complexity.

But I shouldn't just pick on Microsoft. What about the second biggest software company, Adobe? Well I have always loved Photoshop, and I still use it occasionally. But Adobe products suffer from poor interface design, slow performance, crazy licensing schemes, and other problems which really shouldn't exist.

And just to show that I really am an "equal opportunity" critic of different products and companies, what about Apple? Well in general I like Apple programs because even though they do a smaller range of tasks, they do them really well. Apple's word processor, Pages, for example never fails me. It doesn't do quite as much as Word (although it does everything even a power user like me needs) but I know it will do everthing I want it to reliably.

But Apple have a few notable failures. Let's get the "elephant in the room" out of the way first: iTunes. Everyone seems to hate iTunes - especially Windows users - and I can see why. It is probably the program I have most problems with (remember I don't use Microsoft software). But it's not just poor reliability; it's an inconsistent, illogical, confused user interface which is possibly even worse.

Apple have made a few other mistakes over the years too, both on the Mac and on "iDevices" (iPod, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch). For example, the whole Lion operating system was a backward step in many ways, especially in terms of functionality of the built-in apps.

No one thinks that creating modern systems or apps is easy, because there are so many variables which need to be taken into account, especially in the environment the program will be used in and how the user will use it. But the leaders in this area (Microsoft, Adobe, Apple) seem to be the ones doing the worst job in many cases. Why is that, especially considering the huge resources they have? Why can small companies or individuals often make better products?

No doubt it is partly because of the corporate culture where policies and rules have more influence than good design and engineering decisions. Partly it is because of the need to support previous code bases, file formats, and interface designs. And partly it is due to the simple law of diminishing returns. As more people interact in a project their contribution tends to be less about the core project and more about maintaining the complex set of interactions with other participants. So I'm sure that there is a point where having more people makes things worse rather than better.

When I look at the programs I actually use they can be broken into three categories: those which Apple supplies and are either well designed (Pages, Preview, Safari) or just the only real practical option (iTunes); those which I choose to use because they just work really well (TextWrangler, BBEdit, Pixelmator, Skim); and awesome, mostly non-commercial technical and programming tools (Apache, MySQL, PHP).

I think everyone wins when smaller, innovative programmers can challenge the big guys. Unfortunately just for compatibility with other users and to fulfill poorly considered policies I do have to use inferior software like Microsoft Word occasionally. But I don't like it.

Comment 1 (4477) by Anonymous on 2016-03-09 at 12:21:05:

What's the point in all this complaining about Word? It's the program everyone uses so it can't be that bad, can it. Maybe if you made some effort in how to use it properly you could join the rest of us who use it and are quite happy.

Comment 2 (4478) by OJB on 2016-03-10 at 15:23:24:

Well you have a point. I guess complaining has little effect. Or maybe it might at least show other computers users who hate Word that they're not alone and that there are alternatives. Regarding using it properly: I have been using Microsoft programs since the start and I am pretty familiar with how to "use them properly". The problem is, even when you use them properly they still suck!

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