The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - Frustration over software version upgrade

Frustration over software version upgrade

Perhaps this is something unavoidable.

Software X.1 works with Y.1 works with Z.1.
Software X.1 works with Y.2 works with Z.2.

But Y.3 could not work with X.1. Instead it only works with X.2

So you are forced to upgrade (and pay for) X.

Then, you have to upgrade Z and it forces you to upgrade Y.

If you are unlucky? You have to upgrade X again!

Rick Tang
Thursday, February 5, 2004

I know what you mean. A lot of consumers get off this merry go round and stick with what the have as long as possible.

That's why there's money to be made in supporting as many versions of the OS and supporting software as possible -- its one of the most painless and surefire ways available to increase the size of your target market.

Tony Chang
Thursday, February 5, 2004

Or you can quit complaining and stick with what you have if you don't want to upgrade.

It is entirely avoidable, but it is called business - we have 3 or 4 different products in our system that are purchased seperately.

When we add features to product A1 and make A2 we purposely make it require B2 and C2 and D2, and the same goes when we update any of our products to add features - we make a conscious decision to make them incompatible with previous versions.

No I don't work at microsoft - every software company on earth does this. Even car companies do this - you like the look of the alloy wheels that come with the Mazda3 and want to put them on your 323? Sorry you can't because they are making a conscious marketing decision to require you to buy a Mazda3 to be "compatible" with those wheels.

Chris
Thursday, February 5, 2004

It's true that Chris' strategy is used at many software companies where products are designed by marketers.

It works best when the number of customers willing to play the game is greater than the number of customers willing to play the game plus the number of customers not willing to play the game.

Dennis Atkins
Thursday, February 5, 2004

I am frustrated, not complaining.

For physical stuff, like car wheels, there are second hand markets. Not so with software license, not to mention support agreements.

Sometimes you have to upgrade because the old version is not supported and then all associated risks come up.

And if you don't keep up with the vendor schedule, when one day you choose to upgrade, there might not be a upgrade path.

Rick Tang
Friday, February 6, 2004