Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "improved"

Source - PC World

Sometimes a program's new version is actually worse than the previous one. Here are 13 apps we liked better before they were "improved"--plus tips on finding the earlier editions.

I am not posting the whole article as it is spread over many pages, but just the apps.

Instant Messengers
1. AOL Instant Messenger
2. ICQ
3. Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger

Media Players
4. Windows Media Player
5. MusicMatch Jukebox (Now Yahoo Music Jukebox)
6. WinAMP
7. iTunes
8. Quicktime Player

Image and Video Software
9. iMovie '08 (for the Mac)
10. Corel Paint Shop Pro
11. ACDSee

12. Adobe Reader
13. Eudora

The PC World site has posted links to the OldVersions.com site to get the old versions of many of the softwares.

This is an issue we all face with out popular softwares.
But i feel they missed out a few ones which should have made it to the list -

* Nero Suite ( Who would release nearly 3 4 updates of their old software when the new version is out!!)
* AdAware 2007 (18MB Download!!)

N

never used the mentioned messengers except the live one, so cant say much.

And , I do believe WMP 11 rox compared to any of the previous versions. They screwed up Jukebox ,yes, same goes to WinAMP and Quicktime . I hate iTunes, thz a memory hoggin b*stard.

Nothing to say about the editing software.

Biggest sucker was Adobe Reader, infct 8 was so heavy that i dwngraded to 7.

Yeah, Nero shudve made it to the list

where is WINDOWS VISTA. IT SHOULD BE ON TOP OF THE LIST. :confuse:

^^lol

^^..Nice laugh

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

fun2sh said:
where is WINDOWS VISTA. IT SHOULD BE ON TOP OF THE LIST. :confuse:

The mother of all blunders.LMAO.

IMO, Vista and Adobe Reader 8 are way too screwed up. The disadvantages overshadow the advantages.

I Don't Know Others But Wmp 11 Is Best

fun2sh said:
where is WINDOWS VISTA. IT SHOULD BE ON TOP OF THE LIST

good joke

for me !
but i take it, u didnt mean it as one ;-)

nice thread, btw

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

fun2sh said:
where is WINDOWS VISTA. IT SHOULD BE ON TOP OF THE LIST. :confuse:

Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!I couldn't agree more. Absolutely, BIGGEST BLUNDER!!!!!!!!!!

anandk said:
good joke for me !
but i take it, u didnt mean it as one

nice thread, btw

no i mean it. are ye vista dimag kharab kar diya hai. for each n everythin it keeps askin u need admin permission......

R

wmp11 is much better than other versions of wmp but still hangs a bit at the start.i think FF should be on that list too.i still remember when ff1.0 and ff 1.5 was released the boost in performance which is gone is ff 2.xx.

nowadays the new versions only mean fixed bugs and security improvements rather than a new interface and features which were associated with newer versions a few years back.

even spyware doctor has the same prob. now

I am typing this on a vista laptop. It isn't allowing me to save an image file to an external hardisk using opera. Today morning Vista Basic wasn't allowing my friend to add a file in D: partition to an iso file in C: partition using ultraiso. He got an "couldn't access file error". He had to copy it to c: drive before adding it. Vista takes ages to restart, shutdown or boot.

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

fun2sh said:
no i mean it. are ye vista dimag kharab kar diya hai. for each n everythin it keeps askin u need admin permission......

lol...just turn off UAC...

N

@ankur... now that... is a really bad suggestion

Adobe Reader pi$$ed me of after version 6 only, when it started to take eterninty to start. While i used it for some time, I moved to foxit soon after

Windows Vista is worst , IMAO XP was such best software . vista ruined microsoft . microsoft suld only make service packs for XP

S

^^ When XP came out, many people had similar reaction.... After SP2, it has reached wide acceptance from most Windows users.... Most probably, Vista also will face such lifecylce...

Arun

So you guys actually think XP is good?
:::ROFLs and LOLs thrown in for good measure:::

goobimama said:
So you guys actually think XP is good?
:::ROFLs and LOLs thrown in for good measure:::

Anything that gets the job done is good enuf !

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

Nav11aug said:
@ankur... now that... is a really bad suggestion

Well thats the only solution to the problem..
Either he can have his security or freedom from permission alerts..
I believe UAC is for beginners and not for intermediate or advanced users...

N

XP SP2 is sorta very good.. infact there was an article on ZDNET saying "Is Windows XP too good for Microsoft's own good? "

*blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=759

Most of the people complaining about Vista hardly use it.

Out of the 13 apps mentioned, I have used very few. I go with winamp and acrobat being spoilt but love the new WMP and messengers.

N

What is the problem with Adobe Reader 8?

I am yet to discover.

N

The problem is that there isn't a warning saying "Loading... ad infinitum"

And that there is very little memory to actually load the document after loading the program , the mammoth that it is.

N

Never took much time here. Loads perfectly.

N

how much RAM do you have and do you have it in your startup?

N

512MB Ram. Adobe Reader using 26MB without any file open. With file open, 41MB. Not Bad.

N

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

that is really strange , did you use Adobe Speedup or something to stop loading some of the plugins?

I don't understand why windows media player is in the list. I feel wmp11 is the best of all wmps. I stopped using winamp because of it.

N

@adithya .. same here...

N

recent versions of ACDSee are much bulky... takes ages to load. i uninstalled it immediately!

i still love to use ACDSee v2.4
its lite n integrates well with windows... with all functions i need to view images

WMP11 shouldn't be in the list.

Nero and Norton should be.

N

norton yes, norton

.

nero, acrobat/reader, vista, winamp, partition magic, ghost, daemon tools,
flashget, idm
Who uses norton? ;D

N

wht happened to Daemon Tools , itz as good as ever i feel ,or did i strt after twas already screwed up ??

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

Those who say Adobe reader is slow & eats more RAM compare it to Foxit reader, right? Well, tell me, how many features does Foxit supports compared to Adobe reader when showing a PDF file full of Multimedia, real time 3d animation & Models, encrypted forms, online tools etc..

Any software when loaded with features will get complex & eat more RAM, thats the holy truth of software industry. Deal with it. If you want to use a new software with many new features then get better hardware. If u don't want the new software then stick to the old hardware & stop complaining about resource usage of new software. Even Windows 98 with IE 4 opens Yahoo mail classic fine, even WMP 6.4 in Windows 2000 opens DivX files fine, just that the computer fails to playback a 480p DivX file because the computer was purchased in 1998 when 480p video did not exist.

Firefox 2.0 eats a lot of RAM, I understand there might be memory leaks & bugs, but compare Firefox 2.0 to 1.0 in features & then say firefox 2.0 eats more RAM for no reason.

Nero 5 was good & used to eat less RAM. Oh plz....Nero 5 didn't had Blu ray & HD DVD Burning support, it didn't feature new drive support, it didn't support direct DivX to mpeg2 conversion while making a DVD or Nero Recode support etc. If you have a old computer & if nero 5 is all u need & working fine for you cos u don't need the new features of nero 8 then why r u blaming nero 8 for becoming a memory hog? Just keep using Nero 5, Those who are running Nero 8 with 2 GB RAM don't have a problem using it. Either stick to what u have or stop whining when a software demands more RAM just cos it is providing 25 new features over the previous version.

We do need better & quality code, & that is why I prefer .net over any other developement environment. The code is very very small for many things. Zeeshan even made a fully working audio player based on WMP engine in 1 day of 1 MB only....(Work in progress, we are adding more features).

While the fact of evolution can't be avoided, the difference in performance of Foxit reader vs Adobe Acrobat reader is astonishing (at least on a 3Ghz CPU).

The point of this article is exactly that. It's about taking a perfectly working model, PDF, and screwing it up with all kinds of multimedia thingies that no one really needs. And to support those multimedia features which few people use, the rest have to roam around with a bloated app. Instead, a plugin model would have suited best... or maybe an Acrobat Reader Lite...

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

goobimama said:
While the fact of evolution can't be avoided, the difference in performance of Foxit reader vs Adobe Acrobat reader is astonishing (at least on a 3Ghz CPU).

Sure, plz use Adobe reader speedup or remove the useless plugins from the "plugins" folder of Adobe reader & u will get all the speed u were missing on a 3GHz CPU back. I m doing it here, & Foxit reader is one a portable app for me.

It's about taking a perfectly working model, PDF, and screwing it up with all kinds of multimedia thingies that no one really needs.

You obviously have not worked in a pro environment where distributing documents with forms, 3d data for CAD etc is essential & it should be cross platform. Adobe added those feature when people asked for it. No software company wastes resources & money developing a feature which no one asked for.

And to support those multimedia features which few people use, the rest have to roam around with a bloated app. Instead, a plugin model would have suited best... or maybe an Acrobat Reader Lite...

Adobe reader & Photoshop is the best example of plugin model, it is already there. Just read what I wrote above

Suppose Adobe provides Acrobat Lite, without any 3d model animation or encryption or integrated video playback etc. Fine, then one day the user find out that he needs to read a PDF which has these things but he can't cos he is using Adobe reader lite...now he has to download the full Adobe Reader again, wait for it to download & install so that he can read a document with a 3d model in it...gr8, I hope u go & answer to him when he asks " Why can't adobe provide this inbuilt already?

"

You wanna make adobe reader a "lite" application, go to the plugins folder & move the plugins to "Optional" folder

There is also high pressure on companies to roll out their products within a specific time limit due to competition so they end up releasing half baked buggy softwares which are then polished by subsequent patches.NER0 is a perfect example to this and so is Windows Vista.

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

goobimama said:
While the fact of evolution can't be avoided, the difference in performance of Foxit reader vs Adobe Acrobat reader is astonishing (at least on a 3Ghz CPU).

Just out of curiosity, how much time does it takes to load adobe reader there? Here it takes me 1 seconds to load the blank application.

Not sure about load times, didn't test it (but then again, on Vista everything's slow). But I find scrolling a document very choppy for one.

But I'll check up on the plugins though and remove half of them. Surprisingly, Adobe Acrobat, not the reader, works amazingly fast on the Mac. I've not tried reader on the mac, but it seems just as fast as preview.

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

goobimama said:
Not sure about load times, didn't test it (but then again, on Vista everything's slow). But I find scrolling a document very choppy for one.

Which graphics card u have? GeForce 7900 right? Did u enable hardware acceleration in Adobe reader under vista?

Last I found, scrolling a High res 3Ds Max bible 9 PDF is choppy even under Mac OS X' s Preview. So this cannot be blamed on the Adobe reader.

But I'll check up on the plugins though and remove half of them. Surprisingly, Adobe Acrobat, not the reader, works amazingly fast on the Mac. I've not tried reader on the mac, but it seems just as fast as preview.

U only require these plugins on Windows to run it...to bad u cannot slim Adobe reader on Mac, its a 108 MB app

*img388.imageshack.us/img388/8303/91958308pq5.jpg

vista behaves different on different hardware.....amd 3000+,2GB ddr,6600gt gave me sluggish performance against my new amd x2 5000, 1gb ddr2 , ati690g onboard....i dono why..

Vista uses dual core better then single core, even I agree to this.

What bad is there in winamp ?

Of course you can slim programs on a Mac. Just right click any .app, and show Package contents...

And of course, Xslimmer which you yourself recommended...

And as for winamp, anyone noticed it takes ages to start? It was a really light application meant for lightning fast music playing, but that's all gone now. I much too much prefer foobar2000's speed and playback quality..

Holy Mother of Porcupines and fiddle sticks! The default installation of Nero takes in 2GB of disk space! 2GB! And even if I disable all the other components and leave only the burning ROM and Nero Express, it still packs in 1.1GB. That's a lot of space for a burning app!

[Any recommendations for a good light burning app?]

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

goobimama said:
Of course you can slim programs on a Mac. Just right click any .app, and show Package contents...

U can't do this with adobe reader. Try it.

And as for winamp, anyone noticed it takes ages to start? It was a really light application meant for lightning fast music playing, but that's all gone now.

Did u try Winamp Lite

Holy Mother of Porcupines and fiddle sticks! The default installation of Nero takes in 2GB of disk space! 2GB! And even if I disable all the other components and leave only the burning ROM and Nero Express, it still packs in 1.1GB. That's a lot of space for a burning app!

What the...nero 8 was 120 MB only here, only the burning ROM. Try InfraRecorder if u find nero big

Okay there might be a glitch over there. I don't know what's happening, but whenever select "don't install this component" the space requirement goes into negative. So the minimal installation of Nero 8 with just Nero Burning ROM is going to use up -1980MB. I'm gonna save space if I use Nero

And as for slimming Adobe Reader, I don't have it on the mac, so I can't say for sure...

N

lolz... every one... install Nero

As the saying goes "Don't judge a guy by his signature"

.Vista is a pretty nice OS.Atleast hat's what I have come to believe from the little I have used it.

Softwares worth being in that list:
1)Nero.
2)Norton.
3)iTunes.

I see that many have mentioned Winamp here.When did they screw up with it??

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

goobimama said:
Okay there might be a glitch over there. I don't know what's happening, but whenever select "don't install this component" the space requirement goes into negative. So the minimal installation of Nero 8 with just Nero Burning ROM is going to use up -1980MB. I'm gonna save space if I use Nero

Why r u installing Nero 8 if u find it so big? Isn't Nero 7 burning DVDs for u fine & properly? I am still using nero 7.7.5 lite on Vista cos that does everything I need it to do.

Nero is bloated for sure. Since I still use XP, I'm happy with bundled Nero 6. I never installed Nero 7. Never gonna touch Nero 8. Sadly, there are no free alternatives to Nero for Vista which provide all the essential features and performance.

Secondly, winamp lite is nothing but winamp full. There is a difference in bundling, thats it. Internally its the same.

Milind, even I face the problem of eternal loading times. Try using the Classic Skin. It loads much faster this way for me.

Did anyone forget to add McAfee Security Products? They used to be good till version 8.0 but NA completely screwed it from then onwards.

i think ZONE ALARM should fall here ..

when all other softwares were modifying the UI .. they went against it and made a nasty interface,,,

i liked the old one than the new one ..

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

infra_red_dude said:
Nero is bloated for sure. Since I still use XP, I'm happy with bundled Nero 6. I never installed Nero 7. Never gonna touch Nero 8.

If u buy nero, there there is no better bundle then nero. I do agree that nero is a thick software requiring lots of hard disk space

Secondly, winamp lite is nothing but winamp full. There is a difference in bundling, thats it. Internally its the same.

Nope, Winamp Lite uses winamp classic skin, less memory usage & faster startup.

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

gx_saurav said:
If u buy nero, there there is no better bundle then nero. I do agree that nero is a thick software requiring lots of hard disk space

Yeah thats for sure. But ahead themselves must release a burner only version too.

gx_saurav said:
Nope, Winamp Lite uses winamp classic skin, less memory usage & faster startup.

What I meant was that with some settings the Full version can be made Lite version. Its not that the Lite version is a completely different software. Just some features and modern/new skin haf been removed (which can be disabled in the full version too).

Btw, tested the new 5.5 version. I must say even with the new UI, the loading time is faster than the previous versions with the modern skin.

Hmm..will check out 5.5 then...

R

in addition to the above mentioned softwares-
# cyberlink power dvd

A

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

wmp11 rocks...it should not be in this list.....but you can definitely include vista...

Re: Before They Spoiled the Software - 13 app we liked better before they were "impro

Nero should have made it to that list, Nero 7 sucks

S

Adobe Reader 8 is such worst designed software that I simply hate it. Same goes for iTunes. Also current FF is not as good as the older versions.
In contrast WMP 11 is much better than older versions starting from version 8.

R

Change is spice of life, no matter it worked for you or not, if doesnt work, come up with service pack 1,2..

No doubt some softwares mentioned above had bad upgrades, but if you dont try different things, means no innovation and no innovation means u r risking ur future..