I'll take hard over soft

This thought came to me the other day, and I apologize to all of you who are programmers, but it seems true from my non-geek perspective: Over time, software gets worse, and hardware gets better.

"Worse" means bigger, harder to use, less compatible with other stuff, and more likely to fail. "Better" means faster, cheaper, easier, and more elegant.

Cases in point: Microsoft. Intel. You be the judge.