Agree, with the exception of the ribbon. I think the ribbon really helped usability.
But other than that? Totally agree.
I'm not very excited by the tweaking game the previous versions played, and I'm not very excited by this "web 2.0" trend and the attempts to make everything webified, even applications where it doesn't make sense.
You're right - the needs of the users for these types of applications really hasn't changed much. 99% of the changes that are made to Office make are pretty much for the power users.
You're right - most people don't want and don't need a lot of changes to their basic applications.
It's pretty much planned obsolescence. Change for the sake of change, to keep profit rolling in. That's pretty much how the software industry has been working for years.
Wanna know the real reason for this whole web 2.0 thing? Planned obsolescence. Change for the sake of change. Another step towards renting software instead of buying it. Another way to keep cash flowing in.
Call me cynical, but the supposed "advantages" of this whole web 2.0 stuff aren't that great.
The incredibly increased reliability was way off base - we went from single computers that lasted for years to large server farms that seem to have troubles staying up for months, even with "redundancy." "Redundancy" seems to be code for "instead of losing data to a hard drive crash, our data center gets struck by lightning more than the Empire State Building and hacked every other day."
In addition, all of this web 2.0 stuff has this wonderful "feature" that, instead of having to use a relatively painless installer, you lose access to all of your data whenever you fly on an airplane. No thanks, I'll stick to my "complicated" installers. Tell me when there's a better idea.
Did I mention the supposed increased security that, instead of the occasional script carried by a floppy, we now have professional hackers ready to take over your data stored on somebody else's servers, ask for your personal information while looking like your bank, and give pictures of naked ladies to your wife and the cops? Isn't this web 2.0 thing great?
This whole Internet thing - it's great, don't get me wrong. It opens up a lot of possibilities. It's great being able to keep in contact with people across the world. It's great being able to buy stuff without leaving my chair. It's great being able to do stuff at home that I had to do elsewhere every once in a while.
But must we really put everything on it?
It's great - but it's not that great.
As in most things - I don't think the answer is ultimately to one extreme or the other. I think there has to be some happy medium where online and offline coexist peacefully and where we don't need to be online 24/7 to be productive.
I really, honestly, do not think that the ultimate, eventual answer will be online. I think that it's going to be hybrid.
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