Fatware

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What Does Fatware Mean?

Fatware is a somewhat derisive term for any software program or product that is seen as being inefficient or prone to taking up excessive amounts of resources in a computing hardware environment. The idea behind fatware, which is also sometimes called bloatware, is that a device has a limited amount of memory and computing capacity, and these resources should not be wasted by inefficient software design.

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Techopedia Explains Fatware

Those considering the footprint of a piece of software often look at how much random access memory (RAM) the program uses. RAM is dynamic memory that programs use in the computer during a given session. A program that hogs too much RAM can have a negative impact on the device’s overall capacity, causing the operating system to slow down or even crash. Users can also look at how much disk space a program takes up, and how much processor power it requires.

In general, fatware can be inefficient because of extra features that don’t provide a lot of benefit for users, or because of inefficient coding or general operating design.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.