Software Companies

Written by Confusion support on December 13, 2007 – 6:09 am -

One of the more ridiculous things I have noticed the last several years is how many times software companies such as Microsoft supposedly update their products and then drop support of previous products, basically forcing everyone to buy the new stuff! I understand everyone trying to get as wealthy as possible, but this technique becomes a huge imposition to users. I can’t tell if these software companies are just trying to make more and more money, or if they are really offering a valuable service to consumers.

I understand that in the computer software industry the only way to continue making money is to charge either for service contracts or to keep coming out with supposed updates with a high fee attached. But this does get tiring to us and continuously confusing!

I believe that once a software product is good and solid there is no reason to keep changing the layout of the screens, colors, functions of buttons, etc. with each new version. New versions should first focus on errors in previous versions, and little else (almost all software has some kind of errors in it).

The problem is not only confusing home PC users but those in the work place as well. My employer (the government) continuously needs us to re-write our software because suppliers of the operating systems (Oracle, Sybase) or programming software (Microsoft), continuously stop support on previous versions and subsequently force us to upgrade! I literally have spent my entire career upgrading software, and little else (at taxpayer’s expense). This is a colossal waste of money!