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A call for simplicity and speed....

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    Requested A call for simplicity and speed....

    Do you remember Norton Utilities?...when it came on a floppy and you accessed it in Dos with a command prompt? Remember how simple and straight forward it was? How it just worked? It didn't walk the dog or do your dishes, it just fixed the hard drive. That wasn't enough for management and marketing. Over the years it grew bigger, slower, added 'features' that no one wanted or needed and eventually grew into a behemoth that caused more problems than it was supposed to fix. It got so bad that hackers had to write the 'Norton de-crapper" to get rid of it. Form antivirus to a firewall, it tried to do everything in order to maintain the cash flow and justify charging ever more for it. It's a horrible phenomena called "Feature creep" that has ruined many great (or at least good) programs. The legendary image viewer ACDSee was one such program ruined by shortsighted greed. They hit the sweet spot with version 3.1 (later called 'Classic'). It just looked at pictures...pure and simple. And it did it faster than ANY other program...a LOT faster. Even today it's the fastest image viewer available (I tested it against the latest Irfanview recently and yes, it's still the fastest). ACDSee Classic was endlessly configurable, usable, simple and FAST. I loved the ability to hold the 'ctrl' key in the thumbnail mode, pick the images I wanted, hit 'view' and scroll through the images with the scroll wheel. Pressing the scroll wheel would go from full screen to a windowed view and back again. Since digital came a long (I've been a professional photographer for 34 years now) I've always had ACDSee Classic open on my desktop. When I need to fix something I use Photoshop. To convert raw files I use C1Pro3.5. I use Portfolio to maintain my database, and of course ACDSee Classic to look at images quickly. The right tools for each job. Unfortunately they've ruined ACDSee with 'Feature Creep". It now tries to be and do EVERYTHING. It doesn't open images anywhere near as fast as the classic version, it's horribly over-complicated, and doesn't do anything nearly as well as the proper tools (Photoshop, Portfolio, C1Pro, Bibble etc). They've ruined it. While I (and pretty much every other photographer and graphic artist) I know still use the classic version, it's not aging well and has a few problems with WinXP.

    "The point Bob!..what's the point to your tirade!"

    The point is...Irfanview seems to be going the same route. Sometimes less is more. There are a million graphics programs around but none of them approach the simple usability and blinding speed of ACDSee Classic. I implore the developer(s) of Irfanview to maybe take a look at their direction of development. Do you want another 'do-it-all' that doesn't...?...
    ...or strive for elegant simplicity that just---plain---works. You couldn't do better than to emulate ACDSee Classic. Allow plug-ins if you must, but maintain the goal of something that puts speed, stability and usability above all else.
    just some guy with a camera....

    #2
    +1

    It's sad to see when good software becames "bloatware". Anyway, and despite of some minor bugs/glitches IV is still one of the best image viewers.

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      #3
      I share your concern. I hope IV never becomes a "graphics suite"..
      0.6180339887
      Rest In Peace, Sam!

      Comment


        #4
        Simplicity is good in writing posts too. You could have skipped the first paragraph.

        Did you read the sticky thread? A Word for the Over-eager

        Most of us want IrfanView to stay lean and fast. However, features can be added or improved without losing that. Considering the maturity of IrfanView and the very large number of users, I think Irfan has done well in resisting demands for more features.

        Do you notice any specific slow down in the latest version? What exactly inspired your tirade?
        Before you post ... Edit your profile • IrfanView 4.62 • Windows 10 Home 19045.2486

        Irfan PaintIrfan View HelpIrfanPaint HelpRiot.dllMore SkinsFastStone CaptureUploads

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          #5
          I would add my 2 cents saying "simple is best" -) Specially because it affects my own project.

          I am using IrfanView for just a few tasks - viewing pictures one by one in full size and sometimes for resizing them quickly for thumbnails or web versions. IrfanView does create really good JPEGs in my opinion. They are small size and very good quality. The best quality/size rate I've met.

          Thumbnails browser feature is also cool, but it needs to be improved, like mentioned here.

          Other than that, I don't really know about anything else required for my personal purposes. May be except uploading to web feature :-)

          Keep it clean, not like others do.

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            #6
            Another way of looking it: IrfanView still fits into 1 Floppy, though the 1.44MB Floppy is long dead - how much does the latest ACDSee occupy?

            Want IrfanView to do more for you? Install the Plug-Ins!

            I have not noticed any significant slowdown in 4.27, or any crashes/ freezes. Its really not even bigger than 4.25!
            Download IrfanView Help Manual from:
            IrfanView Website - Here
            Sam_Zen's Website - Here
            Author's Website - Here

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              #7
              Btw: Norton Utilities used four 1.4 Mb diskettes
              0.6180339887
              Rest In Peace, Sam!

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