It has just come to my attention that Microsoft's FrontPage program is still being used by some people. WTF? I was scared for a moment, but a quick search shows that the program was discontinued in 2003, but it was replaced by other similar MS products, and Publisher is also used to create Web pages, which are every-bit as awful -- I was just looking at one.Back in the day, stone-age flint-chipping tools like FrontPage, filled a niche; people who wanted even the simplest sort of Website were at the total mercy of blood-sucking brainiacs who could write HTML. FrontPage wasn't the only tool that allowed clueless, code-less people to produce simple Web pages at the expense of all that was holy about code, but FrontPage was well-know for just how bad it's code was. But the users it was aimed at didn't care, and they didn't have much choice.
Now they have a choice. Why would anyone use something like Frontpage or Publisher to produce a Website, when they can use a Content Management System, like Wordpress, Drupal, or Joomla, to name a few. CMS are free, easy to use, and produce good results. I can only imagine that a lot of people who would benefit from them, still don't understand what CMSs are.
Illustration by Dave Gilson. Nicked from here.
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Reblogged this on Typing Loud And Knowing Nothing. and commented:
I got my start in the late '90s with FrontPage and Geocities - home of all that is colourblind, sparkly and annoyingly animated...
I hear tell some people are still hard core enough to code straight HTML in a text editor.
Needless to say I'm not one of them. I don't even remember last time I used a WYSIWYG editor. Strictly web/CMS based for me...
Wow. GeoCities -- that incredible sargasso sea of blink tags, frames, and yellow text on purple backgrounds. it was an amazing, and, I guess, empowering, thing, all those "just folks," expressing themselves; helped bring the benefits of the Web to the Street.
GeoCities certainly was that. It was a sad day when those Yahooligans arbitrarily pulled the plug on it. Jason Scott and his little helpers did a sterling job of preserving what was left and making it available via Bittorrent though.
I seem to recall my page was all gothic fonts, bad poetry, and flames on a black background. No animations though :D