Pathetic Dumbing-Down of MS Apps

It’s Deja Vu all over again (for me) since MS announced OneNote–2016 will be orphaned and OneNote (ON) for Win-10 will be MS’ only simple infobase app. They took ON–2016 and removed 50% of its features/capability to produce ON for Win-10. How astoundingly creative! Essentially that’s what they did to Internet Explorer; they stripped most of the features that made me stick with IE for more than a decade to produce Edge. Both of the new (actually, very weak replacement) apps; ON for Win-10 and Edge are barely worth using IMO. At least I can use Chrome to make up for not having IE anymore. No such luck with ON for Win.

Does anyone have a capable infobase to recommend for collecting the daily avalanche of data/info (that may need to be recalled in a moment’s notice) in a convenient, easy-to-use app to replace ON for Win-10? I can’t be the only one mourning ON-2016’s demise.

Conversation 12 comments

  • codymesh

    04 December, 2019 - 12:00 am

    <p>What you call features/capability, others saw it as complexity and bloat. Microsoft was moving OneNote towards a more mobile and cloud-centric service rather than just an app, so they centered the OneNote experience a lot around the mobile app along with the pen and inking features. </p><p><br></p><p>OneNote's userbase doubled for 2 years straight when Microsoft adopted this strategy, so in many ways, the reason OneNote is still around is because the current iteration is more popular than when it was just OneNote 2016.</p><p><br></p><p>Anyway, Microsoft has decided to reverse course and support and update OneNote 2016 once again so you should be fine sticking with it. But if you're looking for alternatives, the best one is definitely Evernote.</p><p><br></p><p>I don't understand why you defend Internet Explorer though, you've definitely lost your way on that one.</p>

  • eranch-cope

    04 December, 2019 - 12:48 am

    <p>Codymesh; I appreciate your comments. Basically, some users like formatting and other tools that allow getting things exactly the way they want — others like it quick and simple. Properly-developed apps should have ample tools and still run quickly and reliably for <em>both</em> user types. Of course, with the "quick and simple" users ignoring the tools they're not interested in. The concept is the same for an infobase as for a browser; lots of tools is why I liked IE. No other browser has the breadth and depth of tools that IE had.</p>

  • anoldamigauser

    Premium Member
    04 December, 2019 - 1:07 am

    <p>OneNote 2016 was deprecated but never removed. You can still download and install it for free.</p><p>Now, as codymesh mentions, they have reversed course and OneNote 2016 will be receiving updates and will be an option when installing Office 365.</p><p>If you like Chrome, you might also want to give the new Edge a try, as it is just Chrome with the Google bits ripped out. You can still install extensions for Chrome. Brave is another good choice.</p>

    • ghostrider

      04 December, 2019 - 8:24 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#494483">In reply to AnOldAmigaUser:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yep, new Edge is just Chrome with all the Google telemetry collection bits removed, and all the Microsoft telemetry collection bits added – so not much change really. Who knows whatever else MS have changed (or broken) under the hood though!</p>

      • anoldamigauser

        Premium Member
        04 December, 2019 - 12:06 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#494548">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yup. I do trust Microsoft a bit more than Google, of course that is a low bar because I do not trust Google at all, but it does allow you to block a lot of the third party trackers, so we have that.</p><p>I do not see a whole lot of difference between any of the browsers. I used the old Edge regularly and rarely had an issue. If I did then I would use Firefox. Now, I generally use the new Edge or Firefox. Edge classic is kept for marking up PDFs which is a very nice feature. Hopefully that will make it into the new Edge.</p>

      • Winner

        04 December, 2019 - 12:30 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#494548">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>Use Brave, which is Chrome with no Google or Microsoft bits.</p><p>Or use Firefox which is very privacy-centric and has nobody's bits.</p>

        • ghostrider

          05 December, 2019 - 8:11 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#494665">In reply to Winner:</a></em></blockquote><p>I use Firefox extensively, and I think Mozilla realise they might have an 'edge' (no pun intended) over the competition if they now focus on security and privacy. I don't differentiate between MS and Google at all – they both do pretty much the same thing, and 'deception' seems to be Microsoft's middle initial these days. I do like Chrome though – it's a great browser. I have no plans to use Edge at all – I have no obligation to Microsoft's ecosystem, and don't use any of their services at all.</p>

          • Paul Thurrott

            Premium Member
            05 December, 2019 - 8:22 am

            Deception? What?

  • simont

    Premium Member
    04 December, 2019 - 12:24 pm

    <p>I have been a long time user of Evernote, personally I found it better than OneNote and the webclipper is great. There are now also plugins for Outlook, Outlook.com and Gmail which allows you to save directly to Evernote. Downside is that it is yearly subscription for all of the best features.</p>

  • kcarson97404

    Premium Member
    04 December, 2019 - 7:07 pm

    <p>This will be good news for you: OneNote 2016 is no longer orphaned and will be updated in the future. See <a href="https://www.thurrott.com/cloud/office-365/221340/microsoft-brings-onenote-2016-back-from-the-dead&quot; target="_blank">Microsoft Brings OneNote 2016 Back from the Dead</a>.</p>

  • minke

    05 December, 2019 - 9:25 am

    <p>Count me in as one person who won't miss OneNote 2016 at all. I like my apps simple and intuitive. One person's "dumbing down" is another person's "streamlining." I personally use Keep for notes and find it perfect for my needs.</p>

  • eranch-cope

    05 December, 2019 - 6:18 pm

    <p>Thanks to all who commented; appreciate the input to learn from.</p><p><br></p><p>Maybe someone may benefit by knowing that the infobase "Info Select" (by Micro Logic) finally issued a new version (ver 11). The first in ~5 years. I'm trialing it to see if it will work reliably with Win-10.</p>

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