Because "bloated" is still bloated, regardless of how much memory and processing speed you have at your disposal. It's much like a 200 Kg fat man driving a bus. He is still fat.
That said, I once thought Emacs was bloated. Now, it's quite nimble compared to other programming tools.
Stop anthropomorphising your computer. If your RAM, disk, and CPU let certain software perform as fast as necessary, any "bloat" you are asribing to things is purely psychological, philosophical, or due to something else like poor UI design. Traditionally, "bloat" means that there is too much memory-resident tools or features such that their cumulative effect, while negligable in separation, becomes daunting for your machine to handle, resulting in a sluggish user experience.
So, "bloat" is relative to your machine. What's "bloated" today is not going to be bloated 5-10 years from now, and vice versa. If this isn't what you're talking about, you're using the wrong word.
> If your RAM, disk, and CPU let certain software perform as fast as necessary, any "bloat" you are asribing to things is purely psychological, philosophical, or due to something else like poor UI design.
Actually, bloat is measurable. It's the difference between being able to use a tiny netbook for a whole day without bothering to recharge it (provided you have a big enough battery pack) and having to be tethered to a desk for the whole day.
Of course I would love to have 16 cores of pure performance, 32 gigs of RAM, a couple terabytes of wicked fast SSD storage. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to fold it up, throw it in my shoulder bag and leave the office in order to work from a charming cafe while I watch the sunset. At least not for the next five years or so.
> Because "bloated" is still bloated, regardless of how much memory and processing speed you have at your disposal. It's much like a 200 Kg fat man driving a bus. He is still fat.
While he's fat, it's not clear why it matters. (It matters to his health but not to the bus passengers.)
On Emacs ... you still have to pay attention to the loaded extensions, and if you've got dozens of them (especially the Jdee extension, with all the dependencies) it can be as bloated as a full IDE (and it shows in startup times).
I've ran VS 2008 on my almost-six-year-old laptop (P-M Banias 1.4 GHz, 1 GB DDR 333, 80 GB 5400 rpm) and I would not hesitate to call the experience "comfortable". What are the specs on your netbook -- is it really that much worse?
That said, I once thought Emacs was bloated. Now, it's quite nimble compared to other programming tools.