I haven’t been updating my blog recently because I’ve been spending too much time in front of the computer for other reasons. The primary reason why I have been using my computer is combating a phenomen I’ll call bloatware (I think I’ve heard the term floated around before, I don’t claim to be coining an expression here).

For the term “Bloatware,” wikipedia redirects to “Software Bloat,” which is an ok, but not great, definition. By bloatware, what I’m really referring to is software that thinks it’s so special that it has to run on startup by default, take up tons of RAM (especially when its not in use), require crappy software bundles in “Limited Edition” that hijacks all the default programs for any file extensions that are remotely related to the software, use at least a gig of diskspace, add shortcuts to 5 different locations between the start menu, quicklaunch bar, desktop, etc, and be nearly impossible to completely uninstall.

Bloatware is often associated with malware products like LimeWire and simple utilities like free FTP software, but many great Silicon Valley giants are guilty of this problem too.

For example, iTunes is a good example in that it thinks should open a .wav file be default. The only thing I ever want to open a .wav file is software that can edit a .wav. That’s the only reason people work with .wav files anymore, for editing.

Similarly, HP is a big offender. The printer/scanner drivers for a HP PSC 1500 series printer come with your choice of a 400 meg install or 800 meg install (thanks HP for giving me an option…). All I want are the hardware drivers, but no, HP bundles a whole multimedia bridge/suite that wants to load a 7 meg footprint file at startup and hijack all communication between my applications and the device. Painful.

The best software is software that does ONE thing better than everyone else and is humble about doing so. Google used to be this way until they decided to hijack and protect every search field on any browser on my system.

In fact, looking at my programs list right now, I’d say the only two pieces of software that fall into the “best at ONE thing, but humble” category are Notepad++ (for ascii text editing), Firefox (browsing), and Pando (for simple file sharing).