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Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#91

Post by Aerroon »

I wholeheartedly agree with the article. Software companies have created a culture, where (some) users deliberately do not want to update their software.

For the last few major Windows updates I've had to reconfigure my sound setup, because the update breaks it by changing default sound devices and what feeds into what. Recently, a Chrome update (silently) broke an add-on that allowed me to easily switch audio devices for a tab. There are tons of other problems like that that I've run into.

I dread every software update for software that I use frequently.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#92

Post by zingermc »

pmiller2 wrote: post #48

Yeah, I'm regretting upgrading Google Maps on iOS recently. For some reason now, whenever I bump the phone, the map view changes. I need my map view to show me going left when I turn left and right when I go right in order to make sense of things, but it will usually end up in a static "north = top of screen" orientation, no matter what I do. It's turned a good piece of software into something almost unusable. Edit:…

I think you can click the compass to switch between these modes.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#93

Post by hkmurakami »

Aerroon wrote: post #91

I wholeheartedly agree with the article. Software companies have created a culture, where (some) users deliberately do not want to update their software. For the last few major Windows updates I've had to reconfigure my sound setup, because the update breaks it by changing default sound devices and what feeds into what. Recently, a Chrome update (silently) broke an add-on that allowed me to easily switch audio device…

Updated Instagram on a whim. Instantly regretted having Reels shoved in my face with no way to remove it.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#94

Post by gruez »

bilegeek wrote: post #85
gruez wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Is such a method how you did this, or did you unfurl your sails? Neither. Ended up using a msdn key.

If it's safe to say so - I don't wanna jeopardize your methods here - how did you obtain it? As far as I can tell, normal consumers can't buy them "legit", but they are "illegitimately" resold anyways, which makes rejection of their "validity" during activation a possibility (assuming Microsoft finds out, of course).

>which makes rejection of their "validity" during activation a possibility (assuming Microsoft finds out, of course).

AFAIK Microsoft doesn't revoke existing activations, so you should be fine unless you need to reinstall. If you dont want that risk, a locally hosted kms server (running in a VM for maximum security) achives the same thing.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#95

Post by jpadkins »

Software version control by users is going the way of ham radio and people who repair their own cars. Not completely extinct, but such a small set of technically capable people that in practice it doesn't matter.

Real users don't know and don't care about software versions. They want computing experiences that "just work". They don't care or know about where the software runs, if there is telemetry, what the underlying format of the data is, etc. The article starts off with nice goals around automatic updates being user centric. But the list of requirements becomes absurd and only important to 1% of tech savvy users (formats, reverts, plugins, commercial messages, other software, telemetry, and multiple versions of UI are great if your users are software developers or IT, otherwise they are a waste of time & effort).

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#96

Post by _s »

hkmurakami wrote: post #93
Aerroon wrote: post #91

I wholeheartedly agree with the article. Software companies have created a culture, where (some) users deliberately do not want to update their software. For the last few major Windows updates I've had to reconfigure my sound setup, because the update breaks it by changing default sound devices and what feeds into what. Recently, a Chrome update (silently) broke an add-on that allowed me to easily switch audio device…

Updated Instagram on a whim. Instantly regretted having Reels shoved in my face with no way to remove it.

WhatsApp and enabling calls a few years ago, that one irked me the most.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#97

Post by sn41 »

Amen to the article. High Sierra was the high point of my romance with Apple. Dictation used to work decently until that point, just as a small example. Catalina has pretty much ruined a lot of my favorite features. I had to update the OS because Office updates no longer worked.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#98

Post by AnonHP »

This is an area where iOS sucks. Having faced some undesirable consequences in the past from greedy and/or downright malicious developers, I don’t have automatic updates turned on for apps.

But what makes things worse is that iOS doesn’t provide a way for a user to downgrade an app to a previous version. Since syncing app binaries to computers was also long removed (from iOS 9), the only special version of iTunes (12.6) to support the management of app sync not being updated, and Apple Configurator being messy for long, even users with a computer are left with no way to deal with these problems.

What Apple should do for iOS (and also Mac App Store), which I doubt it won’t until there’s an alternative store, is allow users to downgrade apps at least one or two versions right from the App Store. Put it in a place that’s not an “accidentally downgrade and shoot yourself in the foot”. Make a backup of the app data before any upgrade to facilitate a smoother downgrade.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#99

Post by bilegeek »

gruez wrote: post #94
bilegeek wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's safe to say so - I don't wanna jeopardize your methods here - how did you obtain it? As far as I can tell, normal consumers can't buy them "legit", but they are "illegitimately" resold anyways, which makes rejection of their "validity" during activation a possibility (assuming Microsoft finds out, of course).

>which makes rejection of their "validity" during activation a possibility (assuming Microsoft finds out, of course). AFAIK Microsoft doesn't revoke existing activations, so you should be fine unless you need to reinstall. If you dont want that risk, a locally hosted kms server (running in a VM for maximum security) achives the same thing.

Good to know. Also, I never knew about kms servers; TIL.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#100

Post by grugagag »

zxcmx wrote: post #72
jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the modern tech business model. Rope in naive people with excellent services offered at a loss or at cost, wait for them to develop dependence, use nazi cult-think psychology to inculcate irrational loyalty to the platform, then take everything away in a major software update and sell it back to the poor fools for big profits.

It's possible for developers to think they are shipping must-have features _and_ for users to see that as "messing up all my menus" and "disrupting my workflow". Inevitably some users will complain about changes in every new update while others complain about a lack of eagerly awaited new features and bug fixes. You cannot make everyone happy :/ I'm sympathetic to the idea that workflow/ui changes should be explicit…

Don't force updates on people. For the ones who want to update asap they should be able to do so. I prefer to make sure a major update is not going to fuck my system then I will update as well, it's happened to me before multiple times and I am forever hesitant about this. It's also happened to me to get featured removed when updating so if something is working allright I will hesitate updating for a while.
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