In 1997 I purchased a software program called “Logos.”  That word is pronounced like “LAW-goss”, not “low-goes”.  It is the Greek word for “word.” and refers to the fact that it is a bible software program, the Bible being the “Word of God.”   I liked the software and used it, even though back then many of my friends were pushing me towards QuickVerse at the time.  When I became a pastor in 2002 I purchased the upgrade to their “Libronix” program, (along with a large amount of resources) which was essentially version 2 of their original program. I used this program all through my pastorate, and it was very helpful. Then I upgraded to version 3.  In 2010 I upgraded to version 4, because they said that if I upgraded, I would be able to access my library via my Bible app on iOS as well as their website biblia.com.  Both of these are very helpful, and I’m glad I upgraded at that point.

I think it was last year they started telling me I should upgrade to version 5, because it was faster, better, etc than version 4.  I held out, because in truth I don’t use the program very much in my work as a nurse.  It’s more for personal use, and for when I teach the odd Sunday school class or Wednesday night service.  But in April I caved and upgraded to the Bronze level of version 5.  In doing so, I have paid more money, but I can detect no noticeable difference from version 4. Just last week they announced version 6, which is supposed to be even better. The only consistent feature of these upgrades is that they get money out of me.

I looked at the new system, and there’s only one benefit I can see: they are including the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia in the base package.  This means that if I wanted to get rid of the four giant volumes on my bookshelf and buy the digital version, I can either pay them $80 for the ISBE resource, or I can upgrade to Logos 6 for $80.  Well I don’t have $80 right now, so I’m going to hold off until I do, but I got an email today from Logos with glowing reviews of their new version, and it prompted me to write my own review.  Here it is:

You want a product review? I use Logos about once a week to read books that have been published for years or (in most cases) decades or centuries. Every time I open the program it wants to download an update. Then it wants to spend time indexing, installing the update, restarting, indexing again, and generally takes me about five minutes to get it to where I can start using it. My computer is not slow. Just so you know I have a PC with an i7-3630QM CPU at 2.4 Ghz and 8gb of RAM. This should be more than fast enough to run Logos, and yet the indexing, installing, and restarting takes about five minutes for some reason, when all I want to do is look up a Bible verse or read a section of a commentary. I don’t know why it takes five minutes to download a 50 megabyte update, because my connection speed is about 20 megabits per second. According to my math, a 50 megabyte update should take approximately 20 seconds.

The funny thing is that your website biblia.com and the “Bible!” iOS app are more helpful to me than your actual program, because they provide instant access to my resources. I upgraded to version 5 this spring with the expectation that this would make the program faster, but it didn’t. I can see no noticeable change, and the main reason I upgraded was to get access to a Hebrew Interlinear Bible, which I was promised when I upgraded, but still have not received access to.

For your information, I opened Logos the moment I started typing this email. It’s been 11 minutes, and now it’s going to start indexing. I’ll let you know when it’s done, and how long it takes.

I wish I could give a positive review for your product, but the ease of use doesn’t really allow me to do so. It’s like you sold me a really good car that has all sorts of features, but you have to start the car and let it sit there for 20 minutes before you can ever put it in drive: not practical or particularly useful. 16 minutes now and indexing is 25% done.

I do like the program once it gets done with the preliminaries, but if I could go back, I would have simply stuck with Logos 4, which allowed me access to the books via your iOS app, which is the last positive benefit of upgrading I have experienced. 17 minutes 30 seconds and we are 33% indexed.

Another problem that I’ve been having is that on my iPad, when I open the Bible! app it now includes the footnotes, which take up a large percentage of the bottom of the screen. I would like to go back to the old way, where I could tap the footnote indicator and read the footnote as a popup instead of viewing all the footnotes at once, but I don’t see any option to hide the footnotes. In other words, I’d like the app to be more customizable. 20 minutes in, 45% complete.

It just finished. 25 minutes after I started your program, it is fully updated, indexed, and ready for me to do a bible search for “patience.”

Tell me about it.

Do I recommend Logos? Yes.  But as I said, it has issues.  I would give it three out of five stars.