Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday October 27 2015, @11:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the if-some-is-good-then-too-much-is-not-enough? dept.

Bruce Byfield's Blog on Linux Magazine explores the upgrade treadmill.

Byfield relates an old comic by Christiann MacAuley that depicts how Linux, Windows, and Mac users relates to a pop-up announcement saying: "An Update is Available for Your Computer".

The Linux user is enthusiastic, the Windows user groans, and the Mac user is glad it will only cost him $99.

One reason for switching to Linux used to be to get off the forced upgrades path common to proprietary software. Yet Linux users seem to have kept the urge to upgrade, even when the necessity was removed. Even when security fixes are back ported, to Long Term Support releases, we just can't seem to resist an upgrade.

Byfield explores the issue of upgrades, and why we Linux users feel compelled to perform major upgrades. Not only the minor patches to fix bugs that happen ever week. We routinely seem to rush in and put our entire systems at risk by installing complete system upgrades to new kernels, whole new desktops, sometimes new file systems, and even the dread systemd.

It's an interesting read, and set me wondering why so many Linux users chase upgrades for little or no new features.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 28 2015, @03:30AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 28 2015, @03:30AM (#255422)

    OSX Leopard (10.5). It was a long time ago. Things changed. Now the OS is free, as are upgrades, and frankly the office software too, which works really well for many more things than you might suspect. I've written all my major papers in it (except the dissertation, which is in Mellel). I paid $20 for Pages back in something o something, and I haven't paid since.

    TCO on Macs is not bad, and the productivity you get out of them is incredible. I used to be a Slackware user and spent most of my time trying to make shit work. Now I just do work instead, and I use the spare time to do things that have nothing to do with computers. I have much more free time now.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Tork on Wednesday October 28 2015, @03:44AM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 28 2015, @03:44AM (#255426)
    I'm not fully up to speed on OSX, but wasn't the upgrade that you paid for akin to upgrading from XP to Windows 7?
    --
    🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈