[mojojojo]

Actually, PaintShop Pro sucked after version 4.12 (which was just version 3 with LFN support). LVIewPro also went the bloaty-way around verison 1.4d I think. Previously it was a delightfully light (lighter than Infranviiew) xv-like image viewer and tweaker, then it tried to become a bad incarnation of PaintShop Pro. But such is the result of trying to keep up with Jones's, and wanting to force upgrade fees out of cutsomers' hands.

[VitaminCM]

Adobe Acrobat Reader has been absolutely destroyed. It's unusable.
MusicMatch used to have that awesome tag lookup and album art grabber. Not any more

[bobjr94]

Most of that is true. They fell there is this need to always upgrade .
At home and work we stopped using adobe reader. It always wants to update, is slow, gets stuck, leaves stuff running after closing the program. Even on a 2 ghz machine it takes along time to scroll pages. We use foxit (I think) reader. Opens all .pdf files, is only like a 2mb download and displays the pages 2 or 3 times faster.
Paint shop pro 8 had some good features, I use that daily at work(at a car dealer for coping photos, etc). I tried the demo of 10 and 11 and was bigger, harder to use and I didnt need it.
One I didnt see listed is Cool Edit Pro 2. It has many customizable filters and effects, its easier to use than the newer version (Adobes Audition).
WMP 11 does more that I need or want it to. That why I like VLC player. It only plays videos. Dont need an on line store, media center and that stuff.
WIndows live messenger is the worst, it can be using 60-65mb of memory. How can that be with 1 chat open

[nf2000]

How did you forget to mention Windows Vista, the pinnacle of bloatware???

[amosharper]

NF2000: good call!

[jkool13]

I installed the Quicktime 2.2.3 and ive had my fun with it. Now how do i get it off?

[raymondmerriam]

I first started using ACDSee with Version 3 and upgraded through Version 5, but after that they made a mess out of the program. Some things are actually more difficult to use in the newer versions (I try the demo of every new version, always hoping...).

I stopped upgrading Photoshop Elements after Version 2. I just get used to using a program, I know where everything is and what it's called - and then they go and change everything.

[beth2shy]

I wish that they hadn't messed up MusicMatch jukebox. The yahoo version takes forever to load! I hate it!

[Tedpjr]

lets not all forget the business and finance software rigmarole - does anyone really think that Quicken 2008 is "better" than Quicken 2003? Or how about MS Office 2007 vs Office XP? lots of flash and bloat in the newer versions; not a lot of performance gain.

[lorenbc]

You forgot Quicken. They keep adding new, useless features, and don't fix existing problems. I just upgraded to Quicken Home & Business 2008 (from 2007) and it is noticeably worse. I'll make a decision today whether to roll back to 2007, but I am very disappointed. That said, I should have known...it's not the first time.

[jaze66]

I agree about the bloat. Particularly Adobe Acrobat. However v5.xx can't be installed in Vista.
-Jaze

[Ronh56]

Look at Windows media player, it used to have menus that I could use to find all the functions I needed, like skin chooser, ect. Now there are no menus visable. This may look better, but where in heck do I go to choose a different skin? I finally found out that I have to press alt to bring up the menus.Excuse me but I want to see my menus all the time without having to press a button, or hunt all over the gui for some obscure button to get the thing to do what I want. I'm thinking of taking the thing off of my computer and turning to jet audio or VLM.

[drachir]

Here's my 2-cents worth. What really ticks me off is the latest trend almost all software companies are taking. They try and FORCE you to upgrade, or subscribe to their software on a yearly basis. But 90% of the time I don't need to, and would rather save my money and just keep using old versions of software that simply just do what I need it to do. A typical example is my experience with Dreamweaver 2. For MANY years it served me fine for developing and maintaining my simple website. Then along came Windows XP Service Pack 2. That broke Dreamweaver 2 (incompatible DLL). Now I am forced to upgrade - but not without a fight! I will need to search for a cheaper alternative. Adobe has packaged the latest Dreamweaver Studio so that only millionaires can afford it. I am also still using other ancient programs - but I won't risk saying which!

[wildbill2u]

Does anyone remember when you could buy a simple word processor stand alone program? Without all those bloated office suite programs that some of us NEVER USE or have any use for?

Now I have two bloated office suites--Word Perfect and MS OFFICE taking up lots of room and slowly opening so I can have all the features they think I could possibly use at my command.

It's all about the money.

[pcman3219]

who posted this jibberish on the internet

[drachir]

Who are you pcman3219? Don't you have anything pertinent to complain about? I think that so far, all the complaints in this thread are justified. Problem is that we can hardly do anything to resolve the issues! Perhaps I'll give Google's online office tools a try. And then just watch, they'll start charging for a damn subscription!

[amosharper]

Drachir,

Good choice on Google Docs! As long as you're prepared to sacrifice some of your off-line program's features, you'll end up with all your presentations, documents and spreadsheets readily available anywhere in the world. They're a great help to me.

[Mackel]

I always wondered why the programmers don't refine the code, then add to if needed instead of just adding more and more bloat.

[amosharper]

Because - and this is, admittedly, a gross generalisation - it's too much effort for them, when they can get away without any 'refining'.

[jatkp]

Wow I used microsoft DOS 16 bit it worked perfectly, now they come out with this Windows Vista 64bit piece of bloated visuals and contails thousands of drivers that even connects to un necessary things such as the internet and email and playes 3d games, music, movies. Yes I prefer to use old software. LOL.