Obsession to upgrade

[jtarin]

Where does that obsession to upgrade come from? Not the normal security and version upgrades but the need to grab that next version of your favorite OS as if your life depended on it and to hell with the "change logs" and "hardware requirements"....the blind, sweating, pulse pounding waiting for the download...the burn...the install....the forum:P

[koleoptero]

It's hard to resist isn't it? Knowing that there's a newer version of something you use out there...

[handy]

I don't know.

Don't want to either.

[darkdawn]

I really dont know, but its always fun to see how is the new OS, whats new in it, how its working on your system.....etc. but the most annoying to me was the need for up to date software...its like i cant live if i know there is a new version of a certain DE or software and i dont have it .... LOL!!
You see me trying new OS's, changing repo's, adding PPA's..:)

I truly don't know why i do this, when an older version is probably more stable and do its job as it's supposed to do!!

[Random_Dude]

I don't know.

Don't want to either.

Didn't you use Arch?
That should make you one of the most "updated" around here. :)

Cheers :cool:

[tommpogg]

Probably, the belief that a newer software works better make us think that it is worth to upgrade.
Even if it looks like more a fallacy than a striking truth.

[handy]

Didn't you use Arch?
That should make you one of the most "updated" around here. :)

Cheers :cool:

That's not why I use Arch though. :)

[haqking]

it is crazy, the fact is the majority of people i know (my brother definately for one) still does the same things on his computer he did 10 years ago and the hardware he had then running what he had twould still do what he does, but every 6 months he upgrades something and every new version of Windows he has to have and ends up using it to do the same things (just with more aesthetic add ons) ;-)

people want the latest and greatest then complain cause it dont do what they want it to (or what they expect it to anyways)

Read the release notes and changes, Dont change then complain about the changes...LOL

most people (non techie/power user) need a dekstop (who cares what it is called or how it looks, or if you can spin it as a cube or whatever) email and a browser.

but know they have to upgrade then complain cos things are in different places or cant do it the same way (if it was the same it wouldnt be an upgrade would it numptie)

rant done ;-) ( just got off phone from brother who is complaining that Windows 7 has changed where some things are from vista) hence the rant....give me strength ;-)

[jhonan]

My biggest regret was upgrading my OSX from Leopard to Snow Leopard a few months ago. I've never seen the spinner so much in my life. And for no obvious benefit.

Looks like I'll just have to upgrade to OSX Lion in a few more weeks to fix it.... :lol:

[Alwimo]

I have this obsession.

And I frequently tried out alphas and betas and release candidates for the same reason. But I've toned it down. :)

[mips]

My biggest regret was upgrading my OSX from Leopard to Snow Leopard a few months ago. I've never seen the spinner so much in my life. And for no obvious benefit.

Looks like I'll just have to upgrade to OSX Lion in a few more weeks to fix it.... :lol:


Probably your VM files, upgrade your ram and try disabling the VM files (swap files). When you do a Lion install rather do a fresh install than a upgrade.

[handy]

My biggest regret was upgrading my OSX from Leopard to Snow Leopard a few months ago. I've never seen the spinner so much in my life. And for no obvious benefit.

Looks like I'll just have to upgrade to OSX Lion in a few more weeks to fix it.... :lol:

My impression of Lion, is that it will present the Apple Store = marketing in more places than just iTunes.

I have Snow Leopard, but it would not successfully upgrade Leopard, though everything has been working fine since the attempted upgrade some months ago. I will wait until I have the need to do a reinstall before I will spend the time to upgrade to Snow Leopard.

I won't ever be upgrading to Lion.

@jhonan: I think that your upgrade to Snow Leopard went wrong somewhere, as Snow Leopard is supposed to make things happen faster.

[edit:] It sounds like mips may have nailed it for you.

[jhonan]

My impression of Lion, is that it will present the Apple Store = marketing in more places than just iTunes.
The app store takes pride of place in Snow Leopard. Which makes it extremely easy to find, download, and pay for apps. So I see one of the main benefits of the upgrade - except it wasn't of benefit to me... :P


@jhonan: I think that your upgrade to Snow Leopard went wrong somewhere, as Snow Leopard is supposed to make things happen faster.
Indeed. I don't have the time to re-format/re-install so I'll live with it for the moment (one of the main reasons I moved to OSX was to get away from the Windows update/clean-up cycle, so I'm not going there again. I wanted an appliance when I moved to Mac).

It's a minor irritant anyway, sometimes firefox gets unresponsive, sometimes virtualbox bombs out, which never happened under Leopard.

[jhonan]

Probably your VM files, upgrade your ram and try disabling the VM files (swap files). When you do a Lion install rather do a fresh install than a upgrade.
I'm on 4Gb ram already. So for Lion I'll bite the bullet and do a fresh install. Thanks for the advice.

[Bandit]

Where does that obsession to upgrade come from? Not the normal security and version upgrades but the need to grab that next version of your favorite OS as if your life depended on it and to hell with the "change logs" and "hardware requirements"....the blind, sweating, pulse pounding waiting for the download...the burn...the install....the forum:P

I think this is mainly a male thing. Though I am sure there are exceptions. But it may come from the male dominance gene that pushes us to be the alpha male. In geek world I guess this means having the latest gear and software.
But I am not a scicology major. Hell I cant even spell the word..

[Bandit]

My impression of Lion, is that it will present the Apple Store = marketing in more places than just iTunes.

...........

Ehh.. I hate advertising. I dont mind having a program that I can open manually and lookup software or music and pay for them that way (like Software Centre). To me thats no difference the visiting newegg. But dont put that mess on MY desktop. To have the mess on the desktop and making it hard to impossible to do away with. That takes the feeling away that the desktop is yours.

[jhonan]

Ehh.. I hate advertising. I dont mind having a program that I can open manually and lookup software or music and pay for them that way (like Software Centre).
App store is like software centre. You start it up when you need to find software, then click to install (and pay for non-free ones). It's an icon on the dock, and doesn't push adverts at you.

The only place adverts are pushed at you are on the opening page of app store - 'featured games' etc. And in fact, I've found this very useful to find interesting new apps.

[Aquix]

If I had a lot of money I would buy a new car every 6 months too.

[SoFl W]

People could not believe I used my Pentium 3 for as long as I did. I really didn't do anything that required a lot of processing power. Eventually when software became cheap enough to edit home videos (windows) I wanted something with more power.
I went from DOS 5.5, to Windows 2000, and this computer has that unused XP on it.
I still have Firefox 3.18 and use Ubuntu 10.4
I wish my old cell phone didn't break because I like it so much better than what I use now.
I would still drive my 13 year old car, it needed a paint job but ran well. I got rid of it when I moved.

Not everyone has to upgrade.

[Jay Car]

I think this is mainly a male thing. Though I am sure there are exceptions. But it may come from the male dominance gene that pushes us to be the alpha male. In geek world I guess this means having the latest gear and software.
But I am not a scicology major. Hell I cant even spell the word..

Lol, I don't know if it's mainly a male thing, or not. It certainly isn't in my case. Maybe us females just don't chime into the discussions as much.

For me, in the early years of using Ubuntu and trying various other distros, upgrading was the sheer joy of seeing things develop and improve so fast.

After XP had been left to stagnate for most of a decade, it was a revelation to find there were distros in the world that were actually bustling with enormous energy, and lively competition to be the best.

For a while, there was only Vista for upgrading XP (which was a bit like exchanging an aging, tattered Cinderella with her ugly step-sister), so the idea of staying with Windows held no appeal. Especially when all the fun was happening wherever Windows wasn't.

So, up until very recently, upgrades (for me) were not only fun and interesting, but with each step forward, everything just got better and better (especially hardware support). I had no intention of ever staying behind again.

But now I'm over it and not so interested in "new" for the sake of new anymore. I'm happy with simpler things like stability, and familiarity...and, so far, I don't see anything new that inspires that old excitement. I'm hoping that both Unity and Gnome 3 really shine in the next few versions. We'll see...

Maybe next year "upgrade fever" will strike this ol' girl again.

[Bachstelze]

Not the normal [..] version upgrades but the need to grab that next version of your favorite OS

lolwat? What's a "non-normal" version upgrade, then?

[AgentClank636]

I agree that upgrading so regularly isn't necessary. My argument is:
.

I am appalled at the Unity desktop- its so unnecessary, laggy and bugged. However, seing as the classic desktop is still there, so long as they regularly update the classic desktop for a long time to come, I will keep using Ubuntu and Debian derivatives.

Also, all of these upgrades come too quick- remember the crisis of Ubuntu 10.10, where countless users found themselves stranded because of an updated proprietary nVidia Display Driver that wouldn't work- and would crash before boot. Not many users would know to use a live cd and delete the xorg.conf file. I'm still really annoyed about it. Linux is loved for its robustness- that's one of its true values. If it isn't robust, then it better have a seriously good excuse to be considered a proper distro.

On the other hand, upgrades do bring useful features for us- such as touchpad support, new applications like LibreOffice (yes, i know it's a fork of Oo.org!) and security features.

I think that Ubuntu need to take more care in keeping to Linux's true values, and making sure that what it does put out isn't too much of a change, and works properly.

----- And that's my first post!!! :) ------

[Bachstelze]

I think that Ubuntu need to take more care in keeping to Linux's true values

Oh please, tell me, what are "Linux's true values"?

[PapaGary]

I've never had an obsession to upgrade. I drive cars until they are starting to fall apart and then I replace them. I went for years without a cell phone (and now I don't know how I did without it) and my main Dell laptop runs Windows XP Home SP3 and has not had as much as a hiccup in the last five years. So when my new Toshiba laptop choked on Ubuntu 10.10 I decided to upgrade to 11.04 figuring WTH, it wouldn't hurt. After the upgrade I was delighted to find that My wireless worked and I even had sound too! There were few small problems but I was able to work them out with the help of this forum and now I'm afraid to make anymore changes as I fear that I may screw it up.

I guess, for me, its a matter of: "If it's working, don't F**K with it.":D

[cariboo]

I upgrade because I get bored if I don't have some sort of breakage :). I have such well supported hardware, that once a version is released, it just works with zero problems.

[snowpine]

My "summertime" computer is a pentium 3 (I got for free!) running Debian Stable. Yesterday I was sitting out on the porch editing a 100-page document in Libreoffice while watching a streaming MLB baseball game. How could newer hardware or the latest distro release possibly make me happier in this instance? :)

[el_koraco]

Well, I really want to use Gome Shell natively. So I did four successive installs of Fedora, just to have it die on me with installing fglrx every damn time. Then I tried openSUSE, which tanked on the first upgrade, without even getting to adding the Gnome 3 repos. The gNatty spin doesn't boot to a live environment. So it's Arch or Gentoo if I feel like it, or Debian apt-pinning, or the worst of all, Oneiric.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

I don't know where the obsession comes from or what is influencing the desire; however, Apple is doing very well because of it. :)

When I started using Linux I upgraded all the time; however, I don't like to do it anymore. I have some computers that run the LTS versions and some that run a rolling distro. I don't use the rolling distros because they have the newest software (some of them don't have the newest); but rather, I dislike upgrading releases.

At one time I thought that the desire to upgrade was driven by the fact that the open source software was free; however as I observed, Apple is doing very well with releasing new versions of their iPod, iPad, Macbook, etc., when they are defiantly not free. :)

[Bandit]

App store is like software centre. You start it up when you need to find software, then click to install (and pay for non-free ones). It's an icon on the dock, and doesn't push adverts at you.

The only place adverts are pushed at you are on the opening page of app store - 'featured games' etc. And in fact, I've found this very useful to find interesting new apps.

Ahh. I was thinking iTunes had advertisements showing. I honestly havent used it in so long I have forgot. But I rather remember something that would recommend similar artist and try to get you to buy then from the iTunes store. I may be wrong.. I did just wake up from a nap.. :D

[handy]

I just read through the changes for Lion, & I saw no mention of the user now being able to enlarge the fonts used by OS to larger than 16 points. Or the ability to enlarge ALL fonts used by the system. (I surely hope it was there & I missed it.)

Many people that are using high res' screens 1920x1200 & larger really need to be able to get around this problem, as it makes the system difficult to use for many.

Surely Apple will eventually get around to fixing this major flaw in OSX. It is costing them customers.

I also noticed that the price was $31.99 Oz, which is cheaper than normal for an upgrade. I guess that may be an incentive for people to upgrade which Apple would like, as they want you to spend money in their store, which will well & truly make up for the ~$20- or so discount.

[Copper Bezel]

There are sometimes specific features that I want, and otherwise, I still want to keep current with the conversation. Software packages in non-rolling releases really expect you to be upgrading your system, too. To me, delaying an upgrade is the choice and not doing so is the default. I'm opting out of 11.04 for now, and I've opted out of upgrades to specific packages in the past, but those are the "decisions," where upgrading isn't.

The only "obsession" I have is with tweaking everything to work the way I want it to. That actually makes me less likely to upgrade unless, again, there's a specific feature I want.