A takedown of Microsoft's signature product appears at the linked article in Slate. Razib of Gene Expression and Professor Bainbridge agree. So do I.
"What you type is what you get" should be the fundamental principle of any word processor from which deviations are made only deliberately and when absolutely necessary. The interface is bad. And, Microsoft still hasn't learned the most fundamental principle that has made Apple, and all of the ideas that Microsoft has stolen from Apple, great: Less is more. A software program is not automatically better because it has more features. The ideal software program has all of the feature you need, and none of the features you don't. And, this idea really, really matters in a product that is used by hundreds of millions of people.
1 comment:
20 years ago, Microsoft Word was 20 years ahead of its time. Now, it's OK.
That Slate author says he "came of age" in the age of Word. He never got to appreciate 80x25, font cartridges, or dot matrix.
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