If you asked me, “what is the worst Microsoft product you’ve ever used?” I would probably reply with the word ‘FrontPage’. Then most people stare at me for a moment and say, “I thought you were going to say Windows Me.”
It’s true; Windows Me was a very rushed project and had countless issues with stability and general design. However, I hold up FrontPage as the worse product because it stuck around longer and did more damage to the web, while Windows Me was just laughed off stage by the general public.
FrontPage’s problem – or rather, one of its problems, for there were several – was that it targeted a novice audience and provided a WYSIWYG interface. There’s no problem with either of these things, it’s the combination that makes them bad. Contrary to popular (or perhaps, elitist) opinion, WYSIWYG can be a powerful tool in the hands of an experienced developer who understands the HTML/CSS behind it. In the hands of a novice, it easily creates two things: websites that are complete rubbish and web designers who have no real technical understanding of how websites work.
So when I first stumbled upon WebMatrix (Microsoft’s newest attempt at capturing the novice web designer audience) back in August, my stomach churned with dread. Memories of FrontPage came flooding back faster than you can say the word “frameset”.
After reminding myself that it isn’t fair to judge a product you’ve never used solely on the history of the developer, I decided to give WebMatrix a shot. Astonishingly, it’s actually not that bad. Continue reading
My god, it’s been a while since I posted on my blog. The planets must have aligned or something.
