As I am working on the next
Life2Go (for Windows) upgrade, I have been spending time thinking about upgrading software in general. Thankfully, Kathy Sierra recently wrote a blog post,
"Why they don't upgrade (and what to do about it)." Kathy makes some great points about upgrading from a user's perspective. Shortly before she posted the article I realized that I rarely upgrade software I use. One application that comes to mind is TortoiseSVN. I see multiple pop-ups daily informing me a new version is available, yet I never upgrade.
A few reasons I rarely upgrade my software:
(1) I can do everything I need to with the current version.
(2) I do not trust all application upgrades not to cause a problem.
(3) I do not want to take the time to go download the new installer and upgrade; I need to use the software now.
For the software which I tend to upgrade most, I upgrade because I want a new feature. However, the majority of applications only inform the user a new version is available, not what the user can do with the new version (until digging through the website for release notes). Also, having reliable upgrades is important. Kathy makes several great points about this, but the more times I have an upgrade create a problem, the less likely I am to want to upgrade in the future. Finally, upgrades need to be streamlined. I always upgrade Firefox and Thunderbird. Why? Both products automatically download upgrades for me. If more applications would prompt me with "Ready to install the new version?" rather than "A new version is available," I would not have written this.