For the poor, undereducated user who expects instant gratification in less than two clicks, we have given more choices, more options and more complexity with the end result being, as Mark says, a pile of "ba-doo." Whose fault is that?

Retail market studies show that the more choices a user has on the grocery shelves is directly proportional to how much less he will buy.

I use Word on both a PC and a Mac. I assume Mark Gibbs uses Word. But I cannot begin to fathom why I need 145,981 different options (I made that up, but it feels like it) to write a column like this. What does the average user really need?

Ergo, I suggest that vendors introduce a simple way to switch between a few options: 1) For the beginner who wants three fonts and to write, 2) For the intermediate user who wants more features (list) and 3) advanced users who really needs every option known to man.

Same thing goes for operating systems. The enterprise needs a boatload of backend capabilities to manage complex business-enabling infrastructures. But please, for the love of the Help Desk, downtime, user frustration and productivity, only give the digitally illiterate user "who won't learn" just the basics he needs to do email, browse and a few other simple tasks.