Saturday, 20 January 2007

The Horrors of Home Editions

Today I write about the companies that make maintenance software for home computers - software such as backup software, firewalls, antivirus programs and the like.

Some of these software makers suffer from a serious and most painful (for other people) delusion. They think that home users are all computer fanatics with PhDs in information technology. Consider, by way of a reasonably typical example, the people at Acronis.com.

Acronis is a company that makes programs concerned with data backup, data security, and hard disk management. These programs, so far as effectiveness and versatility is concerned, are right up there with the best. For many discerning computer professionals, they are very often the brand of first choice.

Accordingly, I don't want you to think I am not one of their fans. I have been personally buying Acronis's software for several years now, and have just purchased some recently. Furthermore, I have found the people at Acronis to be really decent people who try hard to please. It is just that, along with most people in the computer industry, they seem to know more about Martians than they do about home users.

Acronis's flagship product is a data backup program called 'True Image'. This comes in a number of editions, one of which is called 'True Image Home', and is presented as suitable for "Home and Home Office". But exactly who the Acronis people think lives in these homes and home offices, the website declines to mention.

Home users are a mixed lot. Some have formal IT qualifications, and some are dedicated amateurs, with awesome computer skills. But most - probably 90% or more - have only marginally more IT skills than a cooked rabbit. Furthermore, they usually don't want more skills. If they did, they would have taken up IT as a career.

But that's not all. Some home users have higher IQ than others. By definition, half of all people are roughly of average IQ, and some are less. Yet these days, almost all home dwellers are also computer users. If one combines the facts of often lower intelligence and a general lack of motivation, it is apparent that only maintenance software that is 100% 'set and forget' is suitable for home use.

So how does Acronis True Image stack up by this criteria? It fails dismally. Almost as complex as a jumbo jet, it can only used easily by very advanced users. Sure, it will do everything but cut your lunch for you, but it is a nightmare for ordinary users.

To solve this problem, I make the following suggestions:

Firstly, I suggest that Acronis split their software department into two: one half to work on professional products, and the other half to work on home products. The people in the new home software department should then be forbidden to read postings on forums, under pain of instant dismissal. If a person knows what a forum is, then they are by definition not a typical home user.

The next step for the home software department would be to obtain a copy of CCleaner. This has the potential to be the perfect home maintenance tool: it can be set to work entirely automatically, running at preset times, and shutting itself down when finished, and in between times asking no questions. (Its only fault is that the user has to know in advance how to make it do this. If this was the default option at installation time, it would indeed be perfect.)

Anyway, having obtained CCleaner, the Acronis people should study it, and redesign their software to offer two options at installation time: either to run in 'automatic' mode (in which case the user never again has to even think about it) or in 'manual' mode (for those few people who like their hands on the levers).

Obviously, doing this will put a real strain on Acronis's software writers. Instead of getting their suggestions from the IT forums, they will have to go talk to real home users. And then they might learn something about the real world.

Now, wouldn't that be awful!

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