Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!ctrsol!ginosko!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!gvgpsa!gvgspd!bj
From: bj@gvgspd.GVG.TEK.COM (Brion Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Upgrade Policies
Summary: More comments
Keywords: software, versions, update, policy
Message-ID: <841@gvgspd.GVG.TEK.COM>
Date: 28 Aug 89 22:09:52 GMT
References: <11238@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM> <3986@csd4.csd.uwm.edu> <925@mrsvr.UUCP>
Reply-To: bj@gvgspd.GVG.TEK.COM (Brion Johnson)
Organization: The Grass Valley Group, Grass Valley, CA
Lines: 34

Updates are a hassel and cost alot in time as well as money.  If I am 
a typical user, then the average mac user has around 7 major applications,
(those applications that get used *a lot* - several times a week) 20
minor applications (once a month or so), and a smattering of other things
such as DA's, INIT's etc.  Keeping up current with all of these programs
involves dealing with as many different companies - say 35 to 40 of them,
each with a different policy, method, etc.

Having the update in hand is only part of the struggle.  The update must
then be installed, the old version archived and eventually removed, and
the manuals updated.  Then the new version must be learned (which sometimes
is a major task - I still haven't finished getting thru More II for example)
and carefully checked for compatibility with inits, the system, printers,
etc.  And then, on occasion, the old data files don't recognise the new
version and launch it (MacWrite II for example - shame, Claris!) so I 
have to go launch it manually and look for the data file for it once I
get in it. And, every once in a while the new version will mangle data
created with a prior version or will totally blow up when launched. 

Finally, I get to the registration cards.  Most companies put cards with
their updates, which I dutifully (eventually) fill out and send in.  A few
companies recognise the fact that I had to prove to them that I owned the
original, and so they don't bother me with registering again.  And some
companies send a followup questionaire to me after a week or two, long 
enough that I have usually forgotten the update session by the time that
the questionaire arrives (send it WITH the update, please, if you must).

To sum up, it is a hassel to keep up with all the diverse updates from
a bunch of companies that each think I have their product as my only
application. I appreciate most those companies that make it easy on me. 

This tome was NOT a flame, just a primordial scream of frustration...

Brion