Re:Etcd, or, why modern software makes me sad
by ocdtrekkie on Tuesday July 14, 2020 @03:43PM
(#23836776)
I thought each of these were good until I tried something different. I think people moved from legacy things like Windows Live Mail, MapQuest, and Word 2000 to these services, and then never noticed the rest of the world got better outside of Google-land.
Gmail operates what is probably an industry-worst mail client. I have helped people using AOL Mail in 2020, and it is a superior experience. It performs better. FastMail is a paid service, and it's quality matches that: FastMail can run in circles around Gmail every single day.
Google Docs/Sheets is Office without all of the reasons businesses use Word. You can try to patch in some of it's holes with add-ons (I had some experience with a Mail Merge add-on for Gmail/Sheets, and it was fine, I guess, but a paid service from a third party) but with a lot of added jank. Collaborative editing was it's claim to fame, but you can do that just fine in Office 365, with a far more capable app suite.
Google Maps, Drew covered the point pretty well: Google just has the money for more data. It's prohibitively expensive to use that data yourself as a service, and others who have access to less data still manage a comparable and sometimes better product than Maps. Usually while better respecting your privacy.
Gmail operates what is probably an industry-worst mail client. I have helped people using AOL Mail in 2020, and it is a superior experience. It performs better. FastMail is a paid service, and it's quality matches that: FastMail can run in circles around Gmail every single day.
Google Docs/Sheets is Office without all of the reasons businesses use Word. You can try to patch in some of it's holes with add-ons (I had some experience with a Mail Merge add-on for Gmail/Sheets, and it was fine, I guess, but a paid service from a third party) but with a lot of added jank. Collaborative editing was it's claim to fame, but you can do that just fine in Office 365, with a far more capable app suite.
Google Maps, Drew covered the point pretty well: Google just has the money for more data. It's prohibitively expensive to use that data yourself as a service, and others who have access to less data still manage a comparable and sometimes better product than Maps. Usually while better respecting your privacy.