Hubpages.com has an interesting comparison of an older computer compared to a newer computer in terms of the user experience. Overall, the newer computer has many new ‘features’ (i.e., multimedia editing, music, etc.) that were not available on older computers. However, the speed of basic tasks (i.e., word processing, boot-up times) have not improved. Here is a summary:
The technological advancements of 21 years have placed modern PCs in a completely different league of varied capacities. But the “User Experience” has not changed much in two decades. Due to bloated code that has to incorporate hundreds of functions that average users don’t even know exist, let alone ever utilize, the software companies have weighed down our PCs to effectively neutralize their vast speed advantages. When we compare strictly common, everyday, basic user tasks between the Mac Plus and the AMD we find remarkable similarities in overall speed, thus it can be stated that for the majority of simple office uses, the massive advances in technology in the past two decades have brought zero advance in productivity.