Okay first off, I'm going to tell you my computer is retarded. Literally. In today's standard of computers it's relatively challenged. It's a Duron 800Mhz (kick-ass) with about a gig and a quarter of RAM with a 64MB Geforce 3 video card.
This little puppy used to be a pretty sweet rig, and it still is unless I'm trying to play any contemporary computer game.
Applications only run slowly if there are intense processes being handled, namely 3D generation or heavy applications like Photoshop. I can run Firefox 1.5 real smooth-like and it actually opens up quickly. iTunes is kind of slow, unfortunately because it uses a heavy interface and until yesterday AIM was one of the fastest applications I had on my computer.
I just downloaded and installed the new AIM Triton.
Now, booting up AIM and changing or selecting anything is a workout for my computer. I was forced into installing the new version because my buddy upgraded a week ago and anything I typed caused white text with a white background on his screen, which means mass highlighting on his part.
Why did AOL make the decision to change the user interface for AIM? It wasn't necessary. Before, it was fairly simple and easy to navigate. Sure, they added some cool tabs on this one but they certainly made it more of a load on the CPU. Even if they're doing it for security reasons it shouldn't be this slow on my computer.
Keep the goodies, like cross-platform voice talk with Apple users and tabbing, but dump the slow, useless face plate. I actually for once had to dig through and think about where things were located.
Isn't application design supposed to cause a smooth experience for the user?
Companies like AOL caused my computer to become obsolete seconds after I built it, four or five years ago. In the near future I'm afraid I'll be forced into purchasing a new computer, which shouldn't be necessary. Thanks AOL!