Scoble asks if Microsoft has a Speed problem. Examples of Microsoft Maps, Spaces and Hotmail are brought in. I couldn’t agree more. While the three products listed above have alternatives which match if not exceed the feature list provided by Microsoft, there are quite a few Microsoft solutions which still dominate in their relative section.
I’m talking about Microsoft Outlook. Even without Exchange it is a powerful and feature-laden piece of software which has no complete alternative. The same is the case for Microsoft Office. Sure there’s Open Office, Zoho and Google Docs but it’s only Word 2007 that gives me a built in reference manager for when I’m writing my essays. Most people may disagree with me but I believe Windows Media Player 11 is excellent as a media player.
All these have something common in them apart from the fact they’re developed by Microsoft. They are all bloated pie
ces of software. Add a couple of Gigs and browsing through Artists becomes a pain in WMP. having a huge .PST file in outlook slows it down to a crawl and Office in general can takes ages to start.
Microsoft really does need to start making leaner software. Scoble says “if you can’t make them fast, I just don’t want to have any part” ; and this is echoed by a lot of users too. Speed has always been of a lot of importance. But a lot more attention is paid to it right now especially since users see a lack of peformance improvement despite multifold increase in hardware.
Bhavishya Kanjhan
Greetings from Italy, i’m here for vacation in a wonderful Rimini 
December 12, 2008
I agree, there is no alternative to Outlook but many people are still unknown to its power. I’ve got 4 accounts set up on it but still don’t feel it’s slow. I’ve run this on a system with 1GB RAM, which is slowly becoming obsolete, and it runs like a dream. If people want a streamlined version with lesser features there’s always Outlook Express or now as it’s called, Windows Mail. And about WMP, even itunes is slow when loaded with quite a lot of music…it’s just a software thing!