That's no reason to switch. Why switch from a system that works well for you to one which requires you to configure settings before you can use it?

"No settings, no nonsense" is the default for the MANY programs that exist to serve the "distraction free writing" niche.

General wisdom in author circles is that you write THEN edit. Having spell check and other tools only hampers the creative process.

Darkroom/WriteRoom (and the dozen+ similar programs created over the past decade or two) http://jjafuller.com/dark-room/ offer zero nonsense, zero setting, zero hassle, text entry programs geared towards authoring a book. They get rid of pretty much everything on screen except for text and background. No UI, no features, nothing. Just the way it should be.

I've used them for NaNoWriMo for years and years.

But he has a program he likes already.

I was mostly thinking along the lines of what if his machine dies? Instead of hunting around for old obsolete hardware it would be easier to find modern hardware that you've adapted to and configured to be as productive as your old hardware.

The old machine is probably less likely to fail than a newer one. I know of many machines which are still running today that are 10+ years old.

Survivorship bias, sure, but if his writing machine has lasted this long, it's well on the "will last even longer" side of the bell curve.

If it dies he will ask his fans for one, or rustle through his couch cushions for a few thousand bucks to buy one from a willing seller.

Because the newer stuff probably has at least a few features that will make him more productive in the long run, once he spends the initial time investment to configure the software for his needs.

I really doubt what's holding up the next book in Game Of Thrones is the fact that Martin cannot type fast enough.

His editor and publisher can still use the modern tech to do whatever it is you kids use these days to blog your books.

Such as?

Yes he's slow, no doubt about it. But if you had read any of the books he's written you'd see he's a legitimate author.

Quality of writing, to me, is a more important trait of an author than volume of output. It would be nice if he got moving though.

He started using a good tool. He came up with habits suited to the tool. With time, he refined his workflow. So, why should he change.

Writing is an art, the writer an artist. To each, their canvas and brush.

he might, but what if he upgrades his OpenOffice and there's a fucking bug that turns spell-check back on? or upgrades OS X and it starts forcing autocorrect by default into ALL TEXT FIELDS, like his irc client.

my grandfather used a dos machine to manage the family's finances for years, and in the 90s i insisted, after learning BASIC on that machine, that he get with the times. though i was a linux enthusiast, i just bought him a cheapo emachines at best buy or wal-mart, which my entire family called to pitch in on later. because hey, nothing says happy birthday like diluting your nephew's first and only substantial gift to his stand-in father figure.

anyway, that was a mistake. the new spreadsheet was terrible and actually would not just create new rows like the old one, so after he died i had to go over to my grandmother's house and make a number of new rows that roughly corresponded - whether i liked it or not - to how long i thought she would live. i created rows all fucking day and she unfortunately did not, as far as i know, run out again.

that said, i think george r. r. martin should give a linux box with vga console a shot. without my dos experience, i'd probably never have learned to love the console.

For writing long novels on a machine not connected to the internet, upgrades of any kind are just a nuisance. Especially upgrades that require you to restart (this is a Windows machine, after all). The publisher will take care of special formatting, images, etc. Martin just needs to put words on paper without being interrupted and told how to do his job. I can understand his decision.