Wordpad - what's the point, what's the use?

I've read about 10 posts on Wordpad. Various questions, various answers. Sometimes I do get carried away with things that aren't that important in the grand scheme of things, and this is one of those times. But I do like discussing rationale and hypotheticals as well as actually wondering if I'm missing something that might really be important. I also like to play the speculation game - what were they thinking? (This game works good with Google - it's almost if they are sitting back laughing at us, that we go along with it. Either than, or they just can't see the forest for the trees).

I rarely use WP. But my main puter is down, wlll be just for a couple days. Not worth installing Office on this old one.

I copied a paragraph of text from the web containing a hyperlink. Can't edit the "link" or format the text. Only delete. I know what I can to to fix this, all the workarounds but this post is more about rationale.

Somewhere at MS HQ, there's a small cluster of cubicles with few programmers who, among other things, write the code for Wordpad. Were there meetings to discuss how WP should function as part of Win 7? Obviously they needed something as part of the OS more than Notepad but could't give away Word.
And it does that - creates a RTF file, ability for some formatting. But look at the other stuff - Paste Special, Insert Object - it's just a bunch of menu items with nothing hooked up. Or so it seems.

Any other programs like this in Win 8? Do they both use the same Live Essentials? if so, that's too bad - the photo gallery and movie maker are great in concept, but just - I don't know, there's gotta be a way to make these apps easy to use but more - better - overall. Thanks.

With such a nice graphic in your sig, I know you ain't dumb!

Interesting point about the competition with Word. IIRC, there was a time when Word was included with Windows, but maybe it was only with certain OEM installations.

But taking that speculation a step further, I do remember that I did get a new computer, most likely a Dell, that came with Word, and that in and of itself qualified me for the upgrade version to the full Office suite. And that was just about the time they introduced online activation in addition to the product key, and they were still working out the bugs with that.

I think Office should be free, or much cheaper at least for home consumer use and the businesses should have to purchase it. Not that I am I favor of heaping more expense on business, especially small business, they are using the products for profit. Another theory is that MS was simply trying to keep up with Mac, who incuded a basic word processor. It was bare bones, and the last version I ever used didn't support HTML, only RTF.

The implantation of WP is almost comical. Insert Object - PDF. I haven't tried it, but I can't see that even working. Still it's there, but no spell check.

Oh, and I forgot about Journal that comes with live essentials. It's really made for Win 8 with touchscreen. But all text has to go in text boxes and you can't even line up the text to lined background stationery. Another half-baked app. And I'm not a MS basher - just too many disappointments over the years = and we're coming up on the 20 year anniversary of Win 95! MS has proven they can get it right when they want to, so there's no excuse to still have thesecontinuing issues.

Have from time to time use Jarte and then moved-on to PolyEditLite. I use them when I am lazy enough to run MSWord and just wanna type some scratch work prior doing it in Word.

Microsoft Word has never been included with Windows but some OEMs have done so.

Wordpad is included with Windows in it's present form because it meets the needs of a large segment of users. Many users need something more than notepad but do not need a large and complex program like word. It is as simple as that.

There is a legal issue here as well. Microsoft could include with Windows a first rate office suite and many other applications that would rival the best commercial products available. But that would leave many commercial products without a market and Microsoft would be seen as having an unfair commercial advantage. This is not some hypothetical situation but one that is very real, one that has cost Microsoft a great deal of time and money in legal battles. That is why Microsoft was forced to create a special N version of Windows for sale in the European Union that did not include Media Player and similar programs.

There are many people who never use wordpad and consider it a complete waste of disk space. But there are also millions who use it regularly and would be lost without it. Of course there will be disagreements about what features wordpad should have and which should have been left out. Considering the huge user base of Windows such disagreements are inevitable.

Designing an operating system or application means making many decisions. Often they are difficult, sometimes very difficult. Sometimes no matter what decision is made somebody will say it was a stupid one.