Sometimes, software companies don’t know when to stop.
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\nThey keep adding complex features, fancy graphics, and megabytes of unnecessary files. These are well respected companies, too – Adobe is a good example. They get away with this because most people don’t know any better. To most people, pdf *is* Adobe Acrobat. Luckily, there are usually free alternatives that are only a fraction of the size, and as a result, are much quicker. In fact, sometimes you don’t need to download software at all! <\/p>\n
Bloatware problem #1 – Instant messaging (AIM, MSN, etc.) Alternative – Meebo.com Instant messaging doesn’t need to be complicated, really. AIM’s installation file is 13 megabytes – which doesn’t sound like much – but compare that to Chatzilla, a Firefox-based IRC client that is less than 350 kilobytes. Even then, neither of these can compare to Meebo, which doesn’t require a download of *anything*. In fact, you can log on to Yahoo, AIM, MSN, ICQ, and Jabber, all directly through the website! <\/p>\n
Bloatware problem #2 – CD burning software (Nero Burning ROM) Alternative – CDBurnerXP There’s no reason to pay $60 for cd-burning software, especially since most people don’t need to do anything complicated, like burning ISO files or creating custom boot disks. Then again, CDBurnerXP can do that, too. For free. <\/p>\n
Bloatware problem #3 – Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader Alternative – CutePDF and Foxit PDF Reader PDFs are probably the most cumbersome format on the internet. They’re a hassle to make, even harder to edit, and Adobe makes things worse by bloating their software. Foxit PDF Reader, luckily, is only 8 megabytes *after* installation. Adobe Reader is four times that size, even before installation. Acrobat Acrobat is hundreds of megabytes, yet CutePDF and its necessary postscript converter are under a 10 megabyte download. As de facto standard software has become more bloated and wasteful, minimalist alternatives are gaining ground. Who said bigger was always better?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes, software companies don’t know when to stop. They keep adding complex features, fancy graphics, and megabytes of unnecessary files. These are well respected companies, too – Adobe is a good example. They get away with this because most people don’t know any better. To most people, pdf *is* Adobe Acrobat. Luckily, there are usually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myzips.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}