I think you’re right. Like, most software hasn’t functionally changed much since the days it required 512 MB RAM and came on a DVD-ROM. I guess optimisation isn’t really a thing nowadays.
But also I think PCs could get by with less RAM, too, if they only let you run one app at a time (with no background apps). 😃
I disagree with the functional change argument - OneNote didn’t exist then, Excel is a LOT more capable, as is Publisher (and Word). Docs I routinely work with today would crash the mid 90’s versions of the same app because of this difference.
My daily spreadsheets today would be dog snot slow back then. Multiple sheets in a workbook didn’t occur until like 1995-ish, and my current ones probably wouldn’t even open (ignoring the version difference and 64/32 bit difference) - Excel would probably freeze back then. We had to routinely split up docs to make it work at all. In fact, this is part of why OLE was developed by MS, so you could link to data in other files rather than have it all in one massive doc. No one uses the “L” part of OLE today as it’s no longer required to keep file sizes in check.
The performance difference is staggering - back then I would wait for some apps to redraw the screen (photoshop, pagemaker, publisher) if I moved something on the screen.
There’s so much I do today that was a wish-list back then.
From windows 7 to 11 all of that was possible with 16gb of ram. And if you had a spreadsheet hitting a wall I would probably say Excel was the wrong app altogether.
I don’t know if it matters, but in my head I was imagining the XP era moreso than mid-90s. 😃 (But that’s interesting – I didn’t realise spreadsheets had changed so much.)
I think you’re right. Like, most software hasn’t functionally changed much since the days it required 512 MB RAM and came on a DVD-ROM. I guess optimisation isn’t really a thing nowadays.
But also I think PCs could get by with less RAM, too, if they only let you run one app at a time (with no background apps). 😃
I disagree with the functional change argument - OneNote didn’t exist then, Excel is a LOT more capable, as is Publisher (and Word). Docs I routinely work with today would crash the mid 90’s versions of the same app because of this difference.
My daily spreadsheets today would be dog snot slow back then. Multiple sheets in a workbook didn’t occur until like 1995-ish, and my current ones probably wouldn’t even open (ignoring the version difference and 64/32 bit difference) - Excel would probably freeze back then. We had to routinely split up docs to make it work at all. In fact, this is part of why OLE was developed by MS, so you could link to data in other files rather than have it all in one massive doc. No one uses the “L” part of OLE today as it’s no longer required to keep file sizes in check.
The performance difference is staggering - back then I would wait for some apps to redraw the screen (photoshop, pagemaker, publisher) if I moved something on the screen.
There’s so much I do today that was a wish-list back then.
From windows 7 to 11 all of that was possible with 16gb of ram. And if you had a spreadsheet hitting a wall I would probably say Excel was the wrong app altogether.
I don’t know if it matters, but in my head I was imagining the XP era moreso than mid-90s. 😃 (But that’s interesting – I didn’t realise spreadsheets had changed so much.)