I am still not too sure that all software should be slim and visually unimpressive. Many Linux apps already offer that feature. While one of the keys to Linux is the simplicity through necessity, I feel that applications can be attractive without the bloat.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child project, has criticised the software industry for creating ever-more-bloated software, which runs slower each year despite dramatic improvements in processor speed.

During his keynote speech at the LinuxWorld conference in Boston today, Negroponte said: “We’ve gotten to a point where, in my opinion, every single new release of software is distinctly worse than the previous one. I just got the fastest laptop on the planet, it is the slowest, most unreliable machine I have had in my life.”

Adding too many features without considering the impact on efficiency is the main reason, according to Negroponte, who is also co-founder of the MIT Media Laboratory.

“A fat person uses most of their energy to move the fat,” he said, as an analogy… Source: Silicon.com

[tags]$100 laptop,linuxworld conference,mit media laboratory,bloated software[/tags]