Is Newer Always Better?

Reading a review of Turbolinux 10F Desktop, I picked up on the comment that “much of it is already out of date”.

Out of Date? Let’s take a look

It seems that anything 9 or 10 months old is outdated. Granted, OpenOffice 1.1.2 has fixed some annoyances in 1.1.0 and the Helix Player seems to work better than the old Real 8 player. That’s not the point, though. The point is that if a given piece of software works well and suits its purpose, there is no need for the newest version. In fact, Andrew Morton has said that

… he did not believe that Linux would ever necessarily change to a 3.0 kernel. As the project moves forward, the need for major changes decreases, and thus the need to change the major version number from 2 to 3 drops.

Here at work, over half our computers are still on Windows 95. Yes, Windows 95. In fact, there’s still a lot of computers worldwide still running Windows 95. We still have it because it doesn’t cost anything upfront and it still works. (Personally, if I ever get Gnome to work the way I want it, I never plan on upgrading it to 2.8, unless there’s a major change. Even then, I’ll wait a few months for the bugs to get worked out.) Its true that we don’t have much money, but Win 95 really does still work. In fact, some of the software that teachers use will not work on anything else. The companies that made this software either no longer make it, or have never bothered to update it.

In short, I resent this American attitude that everything is disposable. Old versions of software? toss ’em, the new version will have bugfixes and other blah, blah, blah. The question is whether or not it serves its function, not how new is it? I figure that if a sysadmin strives to automate as much of his/her job as possible, then an end-users’ goal to simplify their computing life is equivalent. End-users don’t care about new features because using a computer is not their number one joy in life. They use a computer to perform a task. If the software doesn’t accomplish the task, then get rid of it. If it does accomplish the task, then leave it alone and let it work.

All that said, I still believe in the need for innovation. When Gimp 2.0 came along, I was one of the first in line. I loved 1.1, but had a hard time with it. Once 2.0 rolled out, I use it all the time. (Install the Background Window plug-in and you’re all set.) However, I really don’t see anything amazingly revolutionary between KDE 3.1.5 and 3.2.3. I still use OpenOffice 1.0 on my Win95 machine at work. It works. It’s great. It allows me to do my job and write my long-winded essays about God, country, and the linux kernel universal.

What about Turbolinux 10F? The reviewer was right on with the sloppiness of the menu layout. He was also right about installation being more bothersome than it was worth. Even Fedora Core 3 – test doesn’t have as many issues. TurboLinux 10F just isn’t thought out at all and that’s a shame. The DVD software alone is worth the price.

pinakidion.*

A writing tablet for my thoughts

Is Newer Always Better?