It's great to be able to desktop publish from within our favorite word processor. It's neat to be able to include a company logo on our database reports. It's even useful to include 3D graphs of spreadsheet data in a spreadsheet.

How many of us use these features on a regular basis? Less than 1% of the computer users that I meet each day use the advanced functions of software products at all. And most users only rarely use the intermediate-level features that I mentioned.

All of us are encumbered by the overhead of the features that are included in top-name software products. We all live with programs that are as large as 35 Mb and require 8 Mb of RAM for just mediocre performance.

It's not until I installed 16 Mb of RAM in an i486/66 MHz that I found reasonable performance when operating multiple Windows software products at the same time. The 16 Mb of RAM was augmented by a 54 Mb Windows memory swap file: a total of 70 Mb!

I'm concerned for other Windows users, coworkers and customers especially, who can't afford i486/66 PCs and must accept less than desirable performance because the software products include too many features or were not optimized for the Windows operating environment.

For example, we use a networked registration program designed in Paradox for Windows. For the application to be minimally useable, each i486/25 MHz workstation needed at least 8 Mb of RAM and 27 Mb of memory swap file. Switching from the registration program to another program, such as WordPerfect for Windows takes about five seconds. Switching back to the registration screen takes 10 seconds. Printing a short half-page report takes over two minutes! This registration program is designed for real-time data entry; the salesperson should be able to enter customer information while speaking on the phone.

This registration program runs quickly on an i486/66 MHz with 70 Mb of memory. But in our case, not all network workstations are 66 MHz PCs.

In another case, I was helping a customer install a new word processing program on his home 80386/SX 16 MHz PC. The computer had 4 Mb of RAM and a 6 Mb memory swap file, a total of 10 Mb of memory. We were unable to operate the new program at an acceptable speed and were forced to return to the previous version. This gentleman must either accept the older version or upgrade his computer.

For all of us, the PCs that we purchased in the last few years may not meet the demands of current Windows software applications. Those of us who have upgraded to the newest versions of our favorite software products may be noticing a significant decline in overall system speed. New features are nice, and we must plan for the hardware upgrade or replacement to match the demands of the new versions of software.

We must recognize that software products will probably continue to include additional features and will grow even more demanding with each new version. It's important that we all carefully choose our new computers so that there is a viable upgrade path. Or, accept that hardware components must be retired and replaced.

David Stephen Murphy is President and CEO of Damar Group, Ltd. which presents computer training classes, publishes computer learning guides, and helps organizations do business on the Internet. The website is http://dgl.com, and Mr. Murphy may be reached at dave@dgl.com or 410.567.5366.

updated November 2, 1996
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