Constant application updates vs trusty creaky old versions

[the-void]

Sometimes I wonder if it's all a big con all this upgrading. Office is a prime example of upgrading for upgrading sake. Personally Office97 was my favourite - and even today it still performs all the functions I will ever need from an Office Suite - except it is no longer supported.

Buying Vista so early has made me take stock. I have checked my system and all my applications are up-to-minute. Apart from the following.

CDex 1.51
DVD Shrink 3.0
ID3 Tagit 2.1

I know there are updated and better versions of the above. However they perform the tasks they are designed for flawlessly.

So why have I updated to Office 07, when I do not do any more with it than Office 97? Why did I have to have PDF reader 8? Why did I update Acronis Disk Director and True Image when they worked fine before and I don't use any of the new features. I even updated WinRAR, for no good reason! I had to buy diskkeeper 2007 when I had O&O version 8 that did the job. I mean, its a defrag program FFS so why did I have to buy another one just because its 2007.

when I helped repair computers I used to chuckle when I seen all the old and creaky programs on peoples computers. Now I realise, I was the one who I should have been laughing at, because I was being taken for a ride and didn't even realise. So I think from here on in I will wait for at least 2 revisions before I upgrade. No more upgrading from x.2 to x.3 for me. Perhaps this is what happens to you when you get old. It certainly explains the rationale behind the décor at my grandparents. They have got the right idea.

 

[FatRakoon]

Bingo!

There is next to no reason at all to upgrade half the stuff in your PC and absolutely no reason at all to upgrade the other half!

Especially when the only benefits you might get, are :-

1 - Slower loading times

2 - Higher Loss of Useable RAM

3 - Slower PC because of it.

Of course, there is the "Keeping up with the Jones'" Mentality that always comes with PCs

Its like people who spend hundreds of pounds on a new PC when all they ever do is EMail their friends once in a blue moon.

 

[Kojak]

We all do the same. I think it comes do to human nature. We all buy games when we haven't finished the ones we have. I buy books when there's at least 50 on the shelf I haven't yet read. We all eat when we're not hungry at some point. None of it makes sense but when did human nature ever make sense?

We seem to feel the grass will be greener if we use the latest versions of application software only to fall back into the old routine we had with the previous versions.

How many times do we buy a newer version only to complain we can't do thinks in exactly the same way we could with the previous version? Look how people are complaining that various aspects of Vista have been changed. Add/Remove Programs now being called Programs and Features for instance. When we buy a new product we expect the best of both worlds. On the one had we want it to do everything in the same manner as the previous versions and yet we want it to feel substantially different.

 

[TheVoice]

I'll keep free programs up-to-date; there's just something "nice" (really hard to describe) about finding a new update or version of a program out and installing it. No idea why. But as the previous post said, since when do we ever make sense?

Paid-for programs are a different story, although I tend not to use many of those anyway. My most recent software purchase (first one in a long, long time too) is Office 2007. Didn't buy it just so I could be up-to-date though; I'd been using my step-dad's copy (genuine copy) of 2003 for a while now, but they're at the other end of the country and I recently formatted, so I didn't have access to the disc. I also just wanted my own copy of something that I use so often, and Office 2007 does actually have some very, very useful features that I'll use (Referencing, for a start). Should see me right through to the end of my degree and beyond. It seems like a very polished, well thought-out package too (something of a first for Office), so MS deserve my money for it.

I've considered upgrading to Vista, but I think I'll hold off for a few months yet. It'll inevitably break some applications I use (my motherboard software, for a start), and I just don't think the software and hardware companies have caught up with Vista yet.