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The Greatest Mac Word Processor Ever?

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Wired has an insightful and amusing report on the great love Mac users felt, and in some cases still feel, for Microsoft Word 5.1:

    To fans, Word 5.1 approached perfection: It struck the ideal balance between powerful features and ease of use. While it was simple enough for school kids to use, it facilitated the most complex publishing projects.

    Indeed, for some, Word 5.1 was so flexible it became a one-stop shop for all their computer needs. It was used for writing, but also as an address book, a to-do list and a calendar.


Which begs the question: at what point do we no longer need new features? Certainly, some programs can always use improvements to speed, but Word 6 was roundly criticized for adding so many features, many of which users found unneccesary and bogged the program down.

The article continues with a wish from some users that MS will port 5.1 to OS X. The big question is: is there any money in it? If the program is fast and efficient, with only the whistles and bells needed, would people be willing to pay for it, even though the basis for that program is old, and specifially lacks features that might slow it down.

We sort of see this in the browser battle, with Safari and Firefox facing off against the bloated Internet Explorer. But of course, all those programs are free. QuickClicksCommentsTell-a-Friend


Article URL:
http://www.applelinks.com/index.php/more/1597



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