A lot of software developers are seduced by the old "80/20" rule. It seems
to make a lot of sense: 80% of the people use 20% of the features. So you
convince yourself that you only need to implement 20% of the features, and
you can still sell 80% as many copies.
Unfortunately, it's never the same 20%. Everybody uses a different set of
features. In the last 10 years I have probably heard of dozens of companies
who, determined not to learn from each other, tried to release "lite" word
processors that only implement 20% of the features. This story is as old as
the PC. Most of the time, what happens is that they give their program to a
journalist to review, and the journalist reviews it by writing their review
using the new word processor, and then the journalist tries to find the
"word count" feature which they need because most journalists have precise
word count requirements, and it's not there, because it's in the "80% that
nobody uses," and the journalist ends up writing a story that attempts to
claim simultaneously that lite programs are good, bloat is bad, and I can't
use this damn thing 'cause it won't count my words. If I had a dollar for
every time this has happened I would be very happy.
Joel Spolsky
"Strategy Letter IV: Bloatware and the 80/20 Myth"
