I've reached a stage in my life which I thought I'd forever manage to avoid: I'm tired of
upgrading software.
Last night, I shut down my PowerBook to clean it, as I do about once month or so. When I rebooted,
I was presented with the Software Update dialog, listing several things I needed, including a new
version of Quicktime, Mac OS 10.2.6, and so on. I didn't bother installing any of it. Instead, I spent
some time thinking about what I do on this machine each day, and what applications I use. My conclusions
surprised me.
These are the apps I use every day, usually many times:
- Mail
- Safari
- BBEdit
- Stickies
- Transmit
- NetNewsWire
- StuffIt Expander
And these are the apps I use semi-regularly:
- IE and/or Netscape, when Safari won’t do
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Virtual PC
- Quicktime Player
- Preview
- GraphicConverter
- Acrobat Reader
- iChat
- DVD Player
- Carracho
- AppleWorks
I thought about each of these apps, and came to the conclusion that, with the exception of
Mail (which needs a lot of improvement), and Safari
(which similarly needs a bit of improvement), they all do everything I need them to. Everything.
I hate spending money on new versions of software just to get some whiz-bang feature that seems really
cool and full of potential at the time, but which I end up never using. I'm terrible for that. Now, I
do plan to upgrade my OS, because it's difficult to avoid doing so with Mac OS X. Every new version seems
to bring a host of software which requires that version as a minimum (did this happen so much on OS 7-8-9? I
don't think it did.) But I'm really going to try to not upgrade my other software unless I absolutely <em>require</em>
one of the new features. I may make a further exception for BBEdit, since Barebones seems to have the knack of <strong>always</strong>
including new features which I realise I absolutely require. Hmm.
As for stability, it's all more than stable enough for me, again with the exceptions of Mail and Safari, which are
"free" with the OS anyway. I don't need or want stability-related upgrades, unless they're free. Hell, even if they're
free. And I sure as hell don't want any upgrades that use StuffIt Installermaker as a delivery mechanism, but that's
another post entirely.
So, I hereby renounce my former status as an Early Adopter. I henceforth shall stick to tried-and-tested tools, and not be sucked
into softcos' disgustingly cynical upgrading policies (except Apple's, of course). I reserve the right to wear a cardigan,
and mutter under my breath about the "good old days", when Aqua pushbuttons were rounder, and you just had to learn to <em>like</em>
the Genie effect.