Bad Press for MS Word

I usually try to avoid talking about negative reviews of software because I find reviews to be subjective to the needs of the reviewer. It's not hard to find one review that says a product is the best in the world and then to find another review for the same product as the "worst" in the world. However, I can't let this one pass.

One recent review caught my eye because it was from John C. Dvorak. I remember reading his work about 10 years ago and having great respect for it. I find lately though that he is not as sharp as he use to be and I somewhat feel that this review of Microsoft Word is a cheap shot for attention. Read it for yourself:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1631430,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03079TX1K0000585

Even though I don't agree with his review, his conclusion raises some interesting questions about the future. Quoting Dvorak:

It's clear the program [referring to MS Word] is in decline, with too many patches and teams of coders passing in the night. It's about time that it's junked and we get something new. This code can no longer be fixed.

This is easy to say but the ramifications are far reaching. There are plenty of Word alternatives that support the Word file format (go use Star Office for a month Johny D, I promise you'll be back) and yet most users prefer to stick with Word. The biggest issue about the future is that it's very hard to undo all the training and experience a user has accumulated over the years in a Word processor.

Word is going to be around for a very, very, very, long time. Don't be swayed by attention grabbing propaganda like this article. From my standpoint, after extensive review Microsoft Word is still the best editor in the world :-)