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08 Dec 2009
It killed the dinosaurs and it's killing us. As if that wasn't bad enough, our software is going the same way. Try as we might, the constant drive for things to get bigger seems irresistible. Bloatware rules. In an age in which every hardware device seems to be shrinking to near invisibility, why is it that the same isn't happening to our software? Isn't it about time that we demanded less, not more?
The problem is not just the amount of disk space and RAM that is taken up by ever-expanding software applications, it is also the proliferation of features. To take just one example, I am sure that, whatever you need, "there's an app for that" but I have no imminent need to share bread recipes by shaking my phone in the vicinity of a fellow bakery enthusiast. Isn't it supposed to be a phone?
It is said that a key skill in fine art is knowing when to stop; the most important advice given to chefs striving for their third Michelin star is to simplify. So why is it that, in our industry, "feature rich" is seen as a virtue?
Feature rich is certainly not an attractive attribute for the security-conscious or for anyone who needs good performance. Less is more. Every new feature adds another potential vulnerability and performance hit yet, in many cases, the features are often unwanted or unused (for instance, I'd quite like to be using a word processor that doesn't have a built-in programming language to write this article).
We should use our influence as consumers to demand less from vendors, not more, and save our IT systems from the same fate as the overly complex, global financial systems.
It's our own fault. Email clients have to parse hundreds of data formats, any one of which might be exploited to compromise our security, because we can't resist sending emails stuffed with embedded and attached content in myriad forms.
Why send HTML emails with Word attachments when all we're sending is some simple text? Why not embrace the beauty and simplicity of inline, plain Ascii? We're content with it for SMS, why the need for baroque encrustations? Take comfort in the joy of text.
Small is beautiful: Kylie Minogue, Schubert lieder, haiku, Fermat's little theorem, nanotechnology. In spite of the trend towards quantity over quality, there are some software products that resist the tide and fight the flab.
The motto of SQLite is: 'Small. Fast. Reliable. Choose any three'. And some of the most dangerous software is small: the Slammer worm was only 376 bytes long but managed to infect 90 per cent of all the vulnerable machines on the internet within 10 minutes. Some 200,000 machines were infected. It was its small size that made it so potent, and it was the complexity of the software it targeted that provided the vulnerability it exploited.
It hasn't always been this way. In the early days of computing, software was severely limited by the hardware on which it ran. The 3D wireframe graphics of Elite were a marvel of software engineering, a concrete example of simple but subtle algorithmic ingenuity. One of the oldest and still one of the best operating environments is the Unix shell, allowing complex tasks to be performed by piping output from one simple command to another, each command designed to do one thing well.
Let's strive to regain what we have lost. Our software needs to get in shape, lose a few pounds, become stronger and more robust. From us all, the rallying cry should go out to software vendors big and small: we demand less!
Dr Tim Watson is head of the Department of Computer Technology at De Montfort University
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Do you agree?
Worst Bloatware in history
Two most prevalent bloatware: Norton/SEP and Vista. The world would be a better place without them
Posted by: Anonymous 15 Dec 2009
100% Agree, I hope Developers listen to you more!
I hope what you said happens, I believe "Performance" should always be matter, also, the new features usually hurt instead help. for example when I install my windows and a few essential suits I see I've 3 or 4 Mail programs which I use none of them, why use a mail client for my 6 mail accounts when I can use 1 web-based mail to check all other 5 accounts via the POP access it offer? I said it just as an example. I agree with you about the example you said for Word editor, I really love notepad!! fast-secure and stable!! almost 90 of my works can be done via it instead of Microsoft Word, when I click it, it open in same moment, but for Microsoft Word I've to wait and then it would save a large file which has nothing different for me when I just want to save an address with some comments or even a blog post as you said! in above I saw a comment of Antiviruses, It's another pain! we use Antivirus for some thing: 1.Prevent the Spywares Stole our data, 2. Prevent Damages Malware cause, 3. Prevent Slow down which viruses cause. ok No.3 is very important, but most of times the Antiviruses slow down our works more than malware, don't they? maybe they don't eat resources like before, but yet they are annoying! deal with Firewalls bugs which cause networking problems, or the WebShields proxy which slow down web browsing, their conflicts and... I wish to see more people who think like you and they work more and help us enjoy our computers more than before.
Posted by: Omid Farhang 14 Dec 2009
I can't resist a plug
We at Sunbelt Software have NO BLOATWARE as our mantra for our anti-virus and anti-spyware products. We listen to our customers, and we constantly harp on "Fast, Lean, Mean, Easy and Inexpensive." As a user, I can't agree more. Now I need 1GB of RAM on XP just to be productive.
Posted by: Curt Larson 11 Dec 2009
Complicated a topic as the bloatware
I agree fully that there is simply too much bloatware in some areas but not all, I also agree people may benefit highly from the use of scaled down software as opposed to bloat, however... there are a lot of people who like more, more more, there are also a good majority that have no idea either way, there are those who care, but use it anyway, then there are those who strive to use only lighter software. I myself love software that is light, fast and is just great at what it does, I like my software separate, not packaged into spaghetti. It is unfortunate but it's all about marketing strategy in the end, isn't it? I would like to think many who have a software product on the market would rather not deal with all the bells and whistles, this I've heard directly from some of them, it's a PITA to deal with but once again, that's what sells. The bloatware wars are still going strong and some do it to be competitive with other software in fear their software may look, "inferior" if they don't have all the bells and whistles the next guy has. And in truth, they are not wrong. I hear this from customers, college students and every day people, well.... this software has all this and that in it, and they fall for it. If I tell them otherwise, they ignore it anyway. So what do we do about it? Get a half million people who have no idea what bloatware is to simply stop using it? I don't think that will happen, the computer is to many like having electricity or heat and they will not simply quit using it. Plus we may in fact unintentionally punish some who are only trying to be competitive in the software market. I would love to see lighter software, but it's not going to be up to consumers to change this. It's very easy to look from your or my perspective and hope everyone may agree, but that's very unrealistic. Can you imagine an antivirus suddenly pulling all the features\bloat out and trying to sell it for the same price? Then you would get attention alright, but not the positive kind. The other thing, you fail to mention needed bloat, as anti-virus software has to keep up with all sorts of new definitions, it's going to get bloated and not by choice. This is the same for anti-spyware types, etc... it's bloat that can't be helped. I'm not talking being to email, wash your windows, clean out your car in one click type features here, just basic definitions and such. Also, how much less bloat do you suggest? Is there a line to be drawn per each software? I for one admit I like a more feature rich desktop than a 98 or 95 desktop, looks wise I mean. Computers are becoming more powerful than ever, I would have hated to spend almost a grand on a PC that used only a text editor. Many computers nowadays can handle the bloatware fairly easy regardless how you or I fell about it. I recall an older generation asking why we even need these "stupid" machines at all. Now that is truly going back to basics no? We can keep going.. before there were cars, before they had shoes, before they had clothes, before the wheel was invented... Progress, no matter if we like it or not, it's digital progress and I do feel it will even itself out. It's like a fad, it hits, stays for some time, then it goes away or at least subsides. It may not in every area but it's not going away, this new generation is all about MORE, and no matter how we look at it, like it or not, this is probably the way it's going to stay.
Posted by: PChammer 10 Dec 2009
Agree
You Sir are an intelligent man :) Unfortunately... I don't think developers will listen to you though. Bloat is how they make their money (Adobe Reader 80mb ish now ??).
Posted by: Richy 09 Dec 2009
AMEN!
The simplest solution is usually the right one (it was demonstrated, wasn't it?), best wine (usually) comes from smaller barrels and surely comes from small farms and smal pieces of land. And it's amazing what a tiny assembler proggy can do....
Posted by: Zio 09 Dec 2009
Trivialized
Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Why do people choose a text package which facilitates programing ? Because it means that they can, for example, construct an invoice document which performs trivial calculations, without the need for an expensive accounting package. It's precisely because an e-mail may contain rich content that so many people use e-mail for so many different types of communication, from sharing photos with grandma, to playing an embedded 'Happy Birthday' song. The issue isn't necessarily the number of features, but the amazingly poor standard of engineering which goes into the implementation of those features. As a veteran software developer (over 20 years) I have seen some of the best code (very rare indeed) and some of the worst code (all too common) ever written. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that the vast majority of people who are employed to write software should be doing something else. So, don't blame the feature set, blame the feature implementation.
Posted by: Smitty 09 Dec 2009
Even geeks bloat
Your article has been relevant ever since the commercial boom in IT. But one thing that puzzles me is how FOSS programs are also being bloated and at the same time made into overly paedagogic sillyness with big animated buttons on fancy backgrounds leaving no creative freedom for the end user. Dumbing down users only makes for ever diminishing usability of the programs. So programs ought to be: Simpler. Why not use the US navy term KiSS ("Keep It Simple, Stupid"). More modular, so that the user can do what he/she pleases in the order of choice, and with possibility of automation through batch execution. Help users get to higher levels of excelence. Instead of dumbing down users, please help them get more advanced with good help texts including good examples of advanced use, and with help programs/texts/books containing usefull reference tables. Thanks for a good article. Regards, Anders Otte (Denmark, a little north of Copenhagen)
Posted by: Anders Otte 09 Dec 2009
You CAN influence the software houses
Don't buy /use their software. There are smaller pdf readers out there than ADOBE's. There are smaller office suites available than MS' and who says you have to upgrade?
Posted by: Peter 09 Dec 2009
Oh, yes, yes, yes .....
... YEEEEEEEESSSSSS
Posted by: MrSums 08 Dec 2009
?Diet? Antivirus Kicking Bloatware into Touch
I couldn?t agree more, the bloatware phenomenon has long been a problem in the antivirus market. If productivity is threatened by security measures, users will work around them or remove them altogether, causing dangerous repercussions and opening them up to numerous threats. The next generation of antivirus solutions need to be built specifically to ease the burden on PC performance while still providing world-class anti-malware security. A recent Tolly Group test that included both antivirus scanning performance and system resource use found that new solutions that have been built from the ground up ? such as Sunbelt Software?s VIPRE® Enterprise ? significantly outperformed competing legacy products by many of the biggest names in the industry through lower system resource usage and faster scanning speed. This superior performance reduces computer costs and increases productivity compared to the significant resource tax imposed by competing ?bloatware? security products.
Posted by: David Parkin, Sales Director EMEA, Sunbelt Software 08 Dec 2009
Consumers have ZERO control over bloat!
What ivory tower do you live in? I'm an IT admin who wishes it were possible to influence such things. Instead, I have to deal with products like Adobe Reader, which now includes Adobe AIR and an Adobe.com installation. Java, which auto-updates with "install adware toolbars!" checked by default. It goes on, and we bitterly complain to deaf ears. Don't blame me or my users for the bloat in, say Microsoft Office! Most of them would be perfectly content with Office 95, and have no idea about the 95% of features they don't need in Office 2003. Yes, 2003 - we only upgrade when forced to by the manufacturer's lack of support. You have put the cart before the horse. Software manufacturers code to benefit their business model. That means more and more partner add-ins, more self-serving attempts to create or corner a unique market. More "features" nobody wants, to justify a new version and make more money. NONE of this is user-driven. If consumers could affect what software sellers cram in their packages, would Windows Vista have even come to market? Also, I-phone apps cannot be compared to mainstream software packages. They lack the massive user base, massive money at stake, and the "lock-in" of the Windows/Office pairing. If you find ANYONE at Adobe, Microsoft, Sun, or other big players who will listen to your "less bloat, please", by all means forward me their number. You won't. You'll be stonewalled behind the business plan, which requires more self-serving code be crammed into each successive version.
Posted by: Mark Dobbs 08 Dec 2009