I won’t lie. The prospect of a new version of Windows had always excited me. The process of upgrading provided somewhat of a thrill. With every release, Microsoft seemed to make Windows bigger, faster and better. It seemed I always had to have the latest version of all the software I used all the time. Windows, Office, Money and Internet Explorer just to name a few.
Now, with the Windows 7 on the horizon, I’m waiting for my excitement to start. But today, I realized my upgrade fever finally broke a couple of weeks after I upgraded to Windows Vista. It just took me until now to realize it.
From Windows XP, I upgrade my PC, my laptop and Christina’s laptop soon after Windows Vista was released. It wasn’t long before I started regretting that decision. I certainly don’t need to detail all the problems with Windows Vista. My main gripes were missing and unavailable drivers, crazy hardware requirements, the incessant and incredibly annoying User Access Control feature and how much it slowed down file transfers. And while the interface was pretty, to me, it didn’t provide any improved functionality over Windows XP.
When we upgraded to Office 2007, the learning curve on the Ribbon was too much and I still find myself taking too long searching for a feature I used to be able to locate in seconds. I have a copy of Word 97 and I’ve used it recently. Really, what the heck is the difference?
Not only that, but I’ve found myself preferring FireFox over Internet Explorer recently and I’ve been using it as my default web browser on both my PC and laptop. I still have yet to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. I don’t know if I ever will.
Money upgrades have been a joke. The only new features in the last 5 releases (Money 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 & Plus [2008]) have just been more places they’ve found to put third-party advertisements. (Update Microsoft has announced they’re dumping Money. All the more reason now to leave things exactly the way they are now. Upgrades, at this point, are dangerous.)
On top of that, I realized that a 10 year old piece of software suited my needs perfectly when I was designing Emma’s birth announcement.
Since then, both Christina & I have purchased new PCs and Windows Vista runs acceptably on them, but really only because they have quad-core processors and gobs of RAM. I’ve downgraded my laptop back to Windows XP and will be doing the same to Christina’s laptop soon, probably this weekend.
Right now, everything works. We can print to our printers, get on our network, access our shared drives – we can do what we need to do without consistent problems. And, I think that has become more important to me than having the latest and (purportedly) greatest.
So, Windows 7 is going to come and pass us right by. Office 2010 is probably going to do the same thing along with any future upgrade to Money. I can really see Microsoft turning back into what it once was - simply the purveyor of the Windows operating system. All other software, from word processing to Internet browsers, will once again be designed and sold by non-Microsoft entities.
I really don’t see the point in upgrades anymore.
Or, maybe I’m just getting old.
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