Upgrading My Software is Downgrading My Brainware

If only it could be like that …

Making us upgrade our software when we are doing quite well with what we’ve got already is a conspicuous cabal of flim-flammable treacherous trickery !!!

Software is commonly released before it is working.

There is such a rush to get it out first they let US troubleshoot it for them.

If it works – why fix it?

Why then change a logical work flow?

I don’t care if you programmers think it’s more cool to have a dual gimbaled, triangular steering wheel instead of a round one, how dare you cause users such grief ?

Upgrades are more about software companies raking in money for as little work as possible than making work easier for us.

Often a “patch” to fix a bug is masqueraded as an “upgrade”.

A patch is provided to users because it is a bug … we don’t pay for patches … but they charge to “upgrade” – and many times are forced to upgrade whether we want to or not.

Those of us who use software to make a living do not have time to play around.

This month a distributor we deal with “upgraded to a new system” with their inventory control and it has been total chaos. Employees have to work more to do less backtracking mistakes caused by “software errors”.

I had a meeting the other day at one of those chain coffee shops (no – not spacebucks … the bread place) and the guy couldn’t figure out how to ring up my order because they “had just had a system upgrade” and some of the buttons didn’t work anymore.

When I was a field engineer many moons ago – I saw this time and time again with high level business systems. Even the largest companies.

I remember when Microsoft DOS 3.2 came out and it made all the Microsoft Mouse drivers quit working … only DOS 3.3 fixed the problem … You would think a company would make sure first if their products worked.

I could go on and on with examples …

Products should WORK out of the box – not sound like they work based on empty salesmanship until we spend our money on them and they don’t work as promised without a “patch” every time we turn the darn thing on.

“Day old software” is not the same as “day old bread” … the “old version” of software is the most stable version, has the most support out there, is much cheaper and quite available just before the “fresh version” with all the bugs in it is about to come out.

Here is what you do – always wait for the next upgrade to be announced and then buy the previous upgrade. Not only does it have the most bugs fixed, it’s also a LOT cheaper because it’s the “old version” …

Gosh – I may have just blown a big secret … and ruined it for us.

Then again – if you are a speed freak and have time to play and not get any work done – realize that it is you who drive the computer industry. The smart ones let the wave pass and then pick the more stable platforms that still float.

Nope – I haven’t jeopardized the big secret …

There will always be those who want the latest thing who want to play rather than work.

Category: Tony Rollo Blog