RE: Software bloat

> > I expect some of us agree that .doc and .xls are what every office suite
> is
> > after in terms of compatibility. I'll also assume for practical reasons
> that
> 
> Some may. IMHO a little compatibility is a good thing, but too much
> will be detrimental. Windows NT would be a world-class Operating System
> if they hadn't done their damnedest to make it compatible with Windows 3.1
> and MS-DOS and OS-2 and Posix and Novell...


[PV] I agree. But the strategy was keeping customers and it's been
successful from that point of view. When they were in a position to abandon
backwards compatibility (a couple of years ago) they abandoned 16-bit
software compatibility and started ending life of most of their "old"
products.


> 
> > some of us also agree that the only way of not having "surprises"
> surfing
> > the net and especially using web apps is by running Internet Explorer.
> 
> Internet Explorer causes nasty surprises....

[PV] I suppose you're referring to security issues. That's the main reason
behind trying to move that lawyers firm (a customer of mine) to Linux. I
still can't because they use an IE-only online service for jurisprudence.

[...]

> > I'm not implying by any means these formats are good (or bad). I'm only
> > meaning there are ways to undermine Microsoft's power and I'm suggesting
> one
> > would be fighting them in their own field. In a way, that's how
> Microsoft
> 
> That's the worst military strategy in existence.

[PV] Mmmhhh, they did that against Netscape. And I would even say they did
that against every other sort-of-a-standard-at-the-time: (Xerox)Mac WIMP
model, Wordperfect, Lotus 123, you name it... As a matter of fact, all the
hype about Linux these days is about being so close to Windows that anyone
can use it.


 Instead we conquer where
> Microsoft isn't yet, we attack them in areas where we are stronger, and
> only when they have been sufficiently weakened we go for their main
> bastion.
> (by which time we may find they have starved)

[PV] Sounds nice, but not too realistic to me. :-)

> 
> Once Microsoft loses control over the desktop, compatibility with the
> worst
> of their products will not longer be very important. Or better, Intel PCs
> will no longer be the dominant form of digital device.

[PV] Well, I'll pray for that. My point is: once Microsoft has no way to tie
its customers, then we'll define new standards and it won't be easy for no
one to break that, since open source doesn't play by the market rules as MS
products do (that's why Bill can't buy it!). It's just another option. By
the way, the open source model is wide enough to keep a few fronts opened.

> 
> > I believe we're talking here about what keeps Linux from being massively
> > adopted in consumer desktops. I've given a humble opinion. I'm sure
> there's
> > a way to win Microsoft in its own domain. And I'm convinced we need to
> do
> > that before we set the standards on the internet, on office suites file
> > formats, etc.
> 
> OK, recently we tried to do some Linux on desktop promotion. We had rigged
> up some PCs (1000 MHz, 128 MB) with Fedora 1, KDE 3.1, Mozilla 1.5 or so,
> OpenOffice 1.1, Gimp something. This is about as Windowsish as it gets.
> I especially tried some writing with OpenOffice. While this may be a
> nearly
> perfect clone of MS Word (but apperently not good enough for some folks),
> the general impression is not good, and its so slow as to border on the
> unusable (and thas was the fastest computer I've ever used). I've been
> using StarOffice since version 3.1 and every new version was slower than
> its predecessor. KDE and Gnome take forever and a day to start, etc.
> So when I had to advise one visitor (with a rather slower box than that)
> if he should switch to Linux, the answer was yes, but you should use
> only light-weight apps and in the end Bill got to keep that customer until
> he buys a shiny new Pentium V.


[PV] Although I agree with Alex about using modern hardware for modern
software, I'm definitely against software bloat (I can't agree more with
Mozilla Firebird's UI design principles, for instance). That's precisely
where I find a lot can be improved about word processors. Bloated software
is a direct consequence of poor design.

I certainly pray for more people being concerned and making smaller, better
designed applications. Like my beloved Firebird.

Regards,

Pablo