That long holiday season got you feeling overstuffed and sluggish? Those not quite fulfilled New Year resolutions failing to help you trim down? You could be suffering from software bloat!
Whether we realize it or not, we’ve all fallen victim to software bloat – computer programs and apps which have morphed into larger, less effective, slower space and memory hogs sporting unnecessary features. Sometimes they are programs bundled with a bunch of junk (please excuse the term, but it’s true). Those pre-installed apps no one wants or needs are also considered software bloat.
So why does it happen? It all depends on the market, which means pretty much it boils down to us – the consumer. Let’s face it, we like our apps and programs to be free or at least very inexpensive, so it doesn’t make monetary sense for software programmers to “waste time” trying to come up with smaller, more effective products.
As with everything else, the software bloat malady is the result of a quest for the almighty dollar and sometimes just plain old survival. You see, when software is pitched for sale, those pitches are based on the number of features as opposed to the merits of those features. See where I’m going with this? So, basically, creating software and apps that are not slow, cumbersome or way too big takes a backseat to simply pumping them out.
What’s the solution? One thing that definitely needs to happen is a shift in the market – one where we stop sacrificing performance over faster and increased productivity.