Simple or complex

Computers have been complex since the beginning. Computer users have a love/hate relationship with complexity.

We can add new features by adding a new layer onto an existing system, or expanding an existing layer within a system. Modifying an existing system can be difficult; adding a new layer can be fast and cheap. For example, the original Microsoft Windows was a DOS program that ran on PCs. Morphing DOS into Windows would have been a large effort (not just for development but also for sales and support to users who at the time were not convinced of the whole GUI idea) and a separate layer was the more effective path for Microsoft.

But adding layers is not without cost. The layers may not always mesh, with portions of lower layers bleeding through the upper layers. Each layer adds complexity to the system. Add enough layers, and the complexity starts to affect performance and the ability to make other changes.

The opposite of "complex" is "simple"; the opposite of "complexify" (if I may coin the word) is "simplify". But the two actions do not have equivalent effort. Where adding complexity is fast and cheap, simplifying a system is hard. One can add new features to a system; if users don't want them, they can ignore them. One has a harder time removing features from a system; if users want them they cannot ignore that the features are gone.

Complexity is not limited to PCs. Consumer goods, such as radios and televisions, were at one point complex devices. Radios had tubes that had to be replaced. TVs had tubes also, and lots of knobs for things like "horizontal control", "color", "hue", and "fine tuning". But those exposed elements of radio and TV internals were not benefits and not part of the desired product; they were artifacts of utility. We needed them to make the device work and give us our programming. They disappeared as soon as technically possible.

Automobiles had their share of complexity, with things like a "choke" and a pedal for the transmission. Some features have been removed, and others have been added. Cars are gaining complexity in the form of bluetooth interfaces to cell phones and built-in GPS systems.

Software is not immune to the effect of layers and complexity. Microsoft Windows was one example, but most systems expand through added layers. The trick to managing software is to manage not just the growth of features but to manage the reduction in complexity. Microsoft eventually merged Windows and DOS and Windows became an operating system in its own right. Microsoft continues to revise Windows, but they do it in both directions: they add features and expand capabilities with new layers, but they also remove complexity and the equivalent of the "fine tuning" knob.

Google's Cr-48 laptop is a step in simplifying the PC. It removes lots of knobs (no local programs, and even no Caps Lock key) and pushes work onto the internet. I predict that this will be a big seller, with simplicity being the sales driver.