Friday, December 14, 2012

To upgrade OR not?

imageIt seems almost everyday my android is updating some app. Sometimes that has not been for the better (eg Google+), Windows and Java seem to want to upgrade monthly, even weekly at some times. Usually as a principal I like o keep at least one computer as up to date as possible, and its usually the computer I am using most. Most software suppliers these days provide “free” updates will you are within the same major version number but charge as you upgrade from one main version to the next, which is a reasonable approach. Some automatically notify you when an update is available, and prompt you to upgrade. For instance today lightroom has let me know version 4.3 is available. However other than “unspecified” bug fixes I can not see any feature I need. So should I even upgrade? Well, no suspense I will update, I like my software to be as up to date as possible.

The dark side of this automatic upgrading is that occasional an updated driver (or ”lack of” the appropriate updated driver on your machine) will cause something that was working to stop working and frustration set in, One way to minimize the likelihood of this is your have access to more than one computer is to Try the updates out on you secondary machines for a couple of days then upgrade your “production” machine. A second option is to wait a few days and look of the user forums for the software, problems usually surface pretty fast on forums. The final option if only update if you think its really necessary (you’ll be safe in the knowledge that what you have works, you might however miss out on faster processing, fantastic new features or just a general improvement if how things work.

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