Too much evolution vs get left behind

Users behaviors change over time and software developers are trying to keep up with the trends and with the technology. But sometimes they just overdo things. Or sometimes they are left behind by technology. To do nothing is risky but to do too much is a risk too. I will present you 3 software packages that sometime ago where my favorites in the areas they were used. Today i no longer use them, either because they became bloatware either because they just being replaced by evolution with other forms of the software.

For example Thunderbird was my email client of choice, i used it for a long time and i was happy with it. But in time my preferences shifted because i needed to access my email from a lot of places and i needed to have my emails accessible from everywhere. I started to move towards web based email. I had my personal mail on my own domain and i was still using Thunderbird for that, the only thing that annoyed me with the software itself was that sometimes it was very slow. But after moving my email hosting to Google’s Web Apps i had no longer a reason to keep Thunderbird. Web based email is my choice and the question that i asked some time ago is being answered. Desktop email apps are on the go. This is a case where the software cannot keep up with the evolution of users behavior.

The other case where perfectly usable programs were developed way beyond what is their main mission is represented by Acdsee and Azureus (now Vuze).

I used Acdsee only for viewing pictures and saving them in different formats. Acdsee was awesome for saving image files for web. It compressed very well. No other software that i knew of could compress images this small size, keeping good quality. The antique version 3 of Acdsee was in use on my computer 4 months ago. But as i changed my PC and installed Windows XP 64, Acdsee 3 won’t run anymore on it. The newer versions are not for me. I don’t like the way the software tries to do everything but manages to do much less. Usability is worse then for earlier versions and the package that tries to be an universal photo manager is becoming a bloatware. I started to use IrfanView instead, which is better, smaller, faster more usable and it is FREE.

About Azureus i didn’t made a final decision yet, i am still using it as it become Vuze and tries to be an offline player for online videos, community stuff and everything. I need the software just for the torrent downloads, i am not interested in watching the latest videos of some short lived emo band or promotional stuff from all kinds of enterprises. So Vuze might be on my PC for a while but i am having doubts about its future.

Do you had any programs that you really liked but you quit using ?