Progress
Article about Windows 7 on Tweakers.net (Dutch)
I (sort of) read the article, and one sentence immediately stood out from the rest:
“De werkbalk is door de Microsoft-ontwikkelaars flink onder handen genomen en het resultaat kan gezien worden als een van de belangrijkste vernieuwingen van Windows.”
English: “The task bar has been drastically overhauled by the Microsoft-developers and the result can be considered one of the most important innovations in Windows.”
Great. A whole new OS release, and the most important new feature is a task bar that looks a little different.
When will Microsoft learn that people are not willing to spend money on a product that only makes progress for the sake of making progress? I mean, if the taskbar image is the most important thing you can change, you should really consider just not making a new version for a while because apparantly what you have is good as it is.
Just look at Microsoft Office. Personally I’m using Office XP, partly because I can’t be bothered to get a newer version, but also because the one I have works just fine for me. I’m used to how this version works, I can generally find what I need quickly, and it’s easily got all the features I’d ever need to use. Upgrading would mean having to get used to a different interface, having to learn how things have changed since previous versions – not to mention the pricetag – and what do I get in return? A couple new features that I didn’t want anyway? The .docx file format? I don’t even want .docx, .doc is doing what it’s designed for perfectly well, and is in much more widespread use.
The same basic thing goes for Windows Vista or Windows 7. I just can’t see any reason why I’d want to use those over XP. Again, it’d only be a lot of effort to get used to those systems while I’m used to XP and I like working with XP. The only reasonably valid argument I can find for “up”grading is that XP is (relatively) old, but however old it may be, it’s working fine (well – usually – but that goes for any Windows version). And having more of my PC’s resources used up by the OS isn’t really a selling point either (Microsoft advertises that Windows 7 is lightweight and can also run on netbooks – but why does a lightweight OS need to take up 16 gigabytes of hard drive space? XP fits on a single CD for fuck sake, and I can think of a thousand more interesting things to fill my hard drives with).
Other applications are pretty much the same for me. I don’t usually bother installing a patch for a minor upgrade or fix (as long as it’s not a bug or whatever that has been bothering me). If I see there’s a new version I usually check out the changelog first, so that I know if it’s worth bothering to upgrade, and if it is, I know what has actually changed.
Oh well, maybe I’ll just switch to Linux some day. I’m already strongly considering making a dual-boot thingy, partly because some things are just easier to do in Linux. And until then, I ain’t upgrading anything unless it’s of at least some advantage to me to do so.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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