Woz Says Big Software Doesn't Work

chrizbot writes "A friend of mine studying journalism at Google's alma mater interviewed Steve Wozniak of Apple Computer fame. He chimes in on open source, DRM, record companies and how software from big companies suck so bad (including Apple's!). The part my friend doesn't include is how he guessed a trick was performed and won a necklace from him!" From the article: "Sometimes the engineers are true artists and really care what they're doing, doing a really great job. Although, I don't know how much I can even say that because the big companies, Microsoft, Apple and AOL, they tend to turn out the crappiest products, you know, software-wise. The ones that have the most bugs, the most items that are supposedly in there but don't work. The most things that are left out because they aren't finished. The most things that are inconsistent with the way they did their last program. I get the worst, worst software almost always from Apple."

Comments

What the heck is he talking about?

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

If your not getting software from big companies, then what software is he talking about?

Open source software? I mean, if he thinks things are left out of big company software, has he actually used open source software? Software developed by a bunch of independent people in a community environment isn't all that great. I find them to be adequate replacements of expensive proprietary software, but there is ALWAYS something lacking, some feature not yet implemented, or some functionatlity that doesn't quite work right, or just novel approaches to a solution that doesn't always seem well thought out. There is nothing wrong with Open source software, just that there isn't a more streamlined and obvious goal, it is perpetually developed on and so I find them to be in perpetual beta states. Open source software also suffers from the, "If I don't like it, I will write my own variant", so one product is split into multiple varients with difference in opinion of how things should be done. You can't solidify and industry when it is constantly evolveing apart from each other. If he doesn't like software from big companies where a team of 100 are working to the SAME goal, how can he like open source software where thousands are adding to it without direction?

What is left then? Shareware products or retail products by an individual or small company? While I will agree that software written by smaller teams of people tend to be more focused, this focus could have detrimental effects on the final product. Too often software by small companies focus on a few great features, but the other features, those taken for granted are lacking in skill or direction. Software from small companies do a few things very well, but generally lack in areas simply because they don't have enough manpower to consolidate the entire application into one great product. The reason why few shareware or small company software products seldom make a big impact in the industry simply is because of the fact they do a few things well, but are generally not great products in themselves. Generally these companies are absorbed by bigger companies, eventually, I have found few people want to struggle to work with a team of 10 people producing an underdog application when they are tossed millions to integrate their few good features into a larger retail product.

As for his dismissing Apple's products, from ALL of the big company software products out their, Apple is consistently good. There is a focus on consistency between product lines, and Apple has always focused on ease of use and streamlined operation. Sure, there are always a number of issues I have to scratch my head over and wonder why Apple either ignored some obvious solution, or is still offering a buggy feature that hasn't been fixed in 2 or 3 versions, but in general, from iTunes to OSX, I prever to use Apple products over Microsoft of Linux. When it comes to hardware, I think Apple needs to refocus on what PC users want so they can gain more marketshare in computer hardware, but from a software standpoing, Apple is rock solid.

But I also won't dismiss Microsoft's products either. Security issues asside, MS still creates software where features are always immediately available, they have perfected the task orientated methdology of software, when you perform an operation, the tools and UI widgets are immediately available streamlined for that operation. Windows Vista will introduce a new level of task based software interation that is unsurpassed by any other OS, which is why Windows consistenly remains the number one OS. If Windows wasn't making it braindead to use a PC, consumers would have revolted ages ago.

So, what has Woz done for us lately? Other then bitch about every software product and company out there, is he gearing up to offer us some new innovative application that is great? Or is he just worried that the industry is staring to forget about him and he needed to say something controversial comment to remain in the headlines. If big software doesn't work, then why is this industry so strong?