 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Upgrade? Stephen Lake |
Not surprisingly, many computer products enjoy limited tenure. Remember DOS 3.3, 4, 4.1 or 5.0? Now that Dos 6 has hit the streets - complete with a few minor problems such as data loss-how long before it too goes into the "I remember" category?
Each new version is better than the previous version, and especially better than the competition's product. Or are they? The advertisements say that each new version offers fresh features and ways of managing memory or data, macros, faster commands, or is just new. If you use Windows, the pictures are prettier. Gotta have the latest. But why?
The version bought a year or so ago still works. It usually does what you want, or nearly so. Are you using the old version to the full, or just picking at the edges of a Rolls Royce that is now a model or two old? Would you trade in your car every year just because a new model has been released, a model with triple overhead double interlocking throckmortons, where your model only has double overhead double interlocking throckmortons? The extra throckmortons in the latest model will be very useful when you journey to Alice Springs where the temperature stabilisers will be used in the heat. Do you go to the Alice?
But what if you are just chugging around the suburbs, routine journeys to the supermarket, school, psychiatrist and office? What if you have a spreadsheet and never use macros? Or a word processor and only type the odd report and letter?
My backup, database, DOS, menu, spreadsheet, utilities, and word processor are between them ten versions old, and I have no intention of upgrading until I can be assured that the expense is justified. At present, it is not. Hardware is superseded but working.
An old financial strategy is to buy an item when the price is right, not when you need it. Purchasing policy: do I need it, do I need it now, and does it have to be that big? Ask yourself these questions and perhaps adjust your expectations a little. You may be behind the pack a bit, but you will have saved a heap. For example, my computer purchased in early 1990 is now old technology, a 286 with only 40 MB hard drive and 1 MB memory. It came with the latest: DOS 4.01. Soon DOS 5 was released, but I bided my time until after DOS 6 was released and I could pick up DOS 5 for $40. Less Communique. I still have the 286, but might upgrade at the end of 1993. What have I lost by not upgrading to DOS 5 or a 486DX earlier? Not much. We have DOS 5 at work, I am familiar with EDLIN's four main commands, which I will need if I crash and have to fire-up from a floppy. The extra speed and memory from a 486 would be useful but its absence is hardly critical. Also, new 286 laptops and desktops can now be bought for about one third to half the original rate, less including inflation and the interest in the bank account. Money saved by not upgrading was invested in Woolies to some effect. Peripherally, software is tax deductible, and hardware is subject to depreciation.
Every new version requires a breaking-in period during which productivity is diminished. The number of new versions or products is such that the user who must have the latest is constantly on a learning curve so steep at times that a rope is needed. There is also the risk of problems, especially for versions ending in ".0". What about Norton Utilities for Windows, possibly more trouble than it is worth? Or DOS 6?
I have heard that 6 equals 4. Boolean logic. My upgrades are at least two versions apart unless there are very strong reasons to the contrary.
So for the people who must have the latest, the best and the cutting edge of technology - do it. I am quite happy with the James Watt version, and will wait for electricity to be invented so that I can see the screen. Latest is not bestest, despite the lemming-like wave of users to embrace new software and hardware. Further, if you do wait, you can pick up superseded software and hardware for bargain prices. You do not loose data, and it has been fully tested and proven.
What you do with your time and money is your business. To me computing is a tool to enhance productivity or allow tasks to be done that would have otherwise been onerous or impossible. Computing is entertaining, frustrating, and educational, but I have more important things to do than light incense sticks and pray before the computer each dawn: "Verily I would like you to surrender my data to me, and if my wish is granted I will install a Seagate and ups .." Or something like that.
The important things are the software to do the weeds, and a way of using the laptop on the bicycle in peak hour traffic. Should be possible. Now, where's that new manual for Bicycle Rider 1.0 (sorry, v 3.1) ...?
Reprinted from the October 1993 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
