Lazy Software

Recently CNET reported that Apple’s Steve Jobs called Adobe “lazy”.  Mr. Jobs was referring to Adobe’s Flash product and how they have specifically implemented it.  He says, “Whenever a Mac crashes, more often than not, it’s because of Flash.”

Personally I really like the Flash product and have used it on a number of custom projects, PC based not Mac, for clients.  However, I also found that Microsoft Office does in fact “crash” from time-to-time if I try to send my document directly from Word to Flash.  So for my personal workaround, I open Flash and then point it directly to the Word document I want to convert into the Flash format.  This eliminated the crash problem.

Very recently I was preparing materials for a presentation at an industry conference and I wanted to capture some screen images. My wife loves Snag-It and has it on her computer. So I borrowed her machine and captured the image I needed. In doing so I noticed that the Snag-It version she had wasn’t current and I thought I’d do her a favor by upgrading it to the latest release. What a nightmare that turned out to be.

When installing TechSmith’s Snag-It product, as well as Adobe’s Flash product, if you take the “typical” install option they then imbed themselves virally into your computer and particularly into the Microsoft Office products including: Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and even Internet Explorer.  To use these products they don’t have to be, and should not be in my opinion, installed this way.

Both products function just fine and do what they do best if they are simply installed as separate and distinct products from any and all other software on your computer.

To do this, when the setup file prompts you for Typical or Custom install, check Custom and then uncheck all options that would imbed the product into the Microsoft Office products. Also make sure to uncheck the option for loading the product automatically every time Windows starts. I personally don't want any product, other than my Anti-Virus software, starting automatically and using up valuable system resources all day long.

Sure my draconian views of making these products function independently from my other software makes me "click" a few more times when I want to use them. But I'll take those extra few clicks any day over having to reload Microsoft Office when the viral add-in goes whacky or having to unload all my other good add-in software just because one lazy specialty product add-in doesn't want to play nicely in the sandbox with others.