"upgrading". Why does it suck so?

[ceagle]

Usually we go along in a state of things working, not broken. And the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

So why do we upgrade? To add features, improve speed, etc. It can be good to upgrade. Sometimes.

But darn it! Why does it have to break things so much of the time, just to get improvements in other areas?

Mac or Windows, doesn't matter. Upgrading usually means frustrations and time-sucks, dealing with new issues.

This is why I'm usually hesitant to add new things to old systems... I'd rather just get a new system to test new things. That isn't always economically feasible though.

Anyways, drat.

Comments

[altonwings.livejournal.com]

Holy Windows95, Batman! What should we tell the Commissioner?

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

LOL!!
True nuff.. there are better things that come along the way... darn the hiccups though!

(and believe it or not, I've got a Win95 machine at another location that I still use every few months or so... works great too) ... ;D

[artemis1.livejournal.com]

Well, as a Vista user, I can tell you the new systems can be just as bad. At least until the rest of the world catches up and makes their stuff compatible!

[artfulreggie.livejournal.com]

There's a threshold that separates an upgrade from a revamp. Reinstalling an OS, replacing a motherboard or primary disk alone are enough to cause a revamp from the ground up. It's just easier in the long run... assuming you practice good backup and recovery policy!

If not, get yourself one of those large network storage devices and have it run a raid array for all of your important files. And then, once a month or so, just backup irreplaceable files (pictures, records, probably not music) to DVD so they're never lost. That way you'll minimize the effort of upgrades and restores. :)

gooood advice, meeester fox!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

I wunder vut the ratio is of folkses that have good backup systems in place... :> (I know mine isn't tip top, but it's gotten me by thus fah).. *fuffles yer fur*

This mini-rant was mostly about (as Artemis noted) incompatibilities between systems and/or apps when moved up. Probably the best of the worst examples I see regularly is in the SecondLife software. It almost without fail will break something that worked before, when they release a new version. LOUSY beta testing and impulsive release policy. ;P
In the case of my actual posting, it was actually a much less face-palm quotient induced realization, that a highly touted add-on in Firefox actually was breaking the 'back button' intermittently.. so I was like, "huh??"... and it reminded me of many even much worse situations I've encountered (one of the worst in business I saw was when PageMaker moved from version 5.5 to 6 ... the dawn of unpredictable crashes and corrupted files thenceforth ;P ) ah vell.. *hugs thanks for the comment!*

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Sometimes you need to pull the whole thing to bits and clean up all the contacts. My computer's been totally to pieces about 15 times over 4 years now I think. :) She's still firing well. I did resolder all the rear plug panel, PCI slots and ram banks as a precaution though and to freshen things up.