Old Software Versions (and Why I Hate Upgrading)

Have you ever been tempted not to upgrade any one of a dozen programs? Me, too, mostly because many mainstream programs I use were better in a previous version.

There are lots of things that can turn you off: Maybe the developers took away some cool functionality, turned the program into bloatware (because they heard you had a 500GB drive), or worse, messed up the look and feel of the UI. (LOL -- I know, Vista immediately comes to mind. In fact, read Vista Resistance: Why XP Is Still So Strong and Vista Backlash: Microsoft Quietly Lets Vista Users Revert to XP to see what I'm talking about.)

Spoiled Software
To find out what we think are the most notorious products that weren't improved with a new version, read Before They Spoiled the Software.

After you do, come back here and check out the comments some of the people on my private mailing list had about their favorite upgrade zingers. (Yep, I know, this is way long for a blog, but I didn't have the heart to cut any of these juicy comments.)

Realplayer: They haven't added a feature for the user, just for Real.com to spy on us, or push crap onto the computer. --Mark M., Seattle, WA

How about Omnipage Pro by Nuance? It was so simple and effective about three versions ago -- now it's so complicated and constantly trying to take over the computer that it is more nuisance than help. I uninstalled it months ago, but now they want me to upgrade again as they have “even more and better features”. Right. All I ever wanted was a decent, basic OCR that works. --Doris S., Basking Ridge, NJ

Office 2007: It has a few awesome features (most notable in my mind are the new charting features), however Word in particular is impossible to use. If you want help, just try finding it. Half the time, you go to Microsoft's website, type in a question and it gives you an answer for Word 2003. Maybe no one has told them yet that there is an upgrade available. --Chris G., Pasadena, CA

The number one of all time has to be ACT! This used to be a phenomenal program up to version 6. It used a DBF file structure that was fast. Then they went to a different database and you could brew a pot of coffee every time you asked it to do a simple process. --Chris G., Pasadena, CA

I have two. ACT! -- I'd go back to version 3 or 5 when it actually installed, and ran without hiccups. Then there's Norton, back to around 1992 or before. It did the job and didn't mess up your computer with all sorts of useless garbage. --Quentin P., Wellesley MA

How about the great product that used to be Norton Utilities, before it became Bloatware? Being older than dirt, I remember the days when it was lean, mean, and really useful (and fast) software that occupied a small footprint on your PC for both disk space and RAM. Oh, yeah, and actually worked as marketed. --Chuck B.

Jasc's had pride in their Paint Shop Pro product. When they had errors in version 8, they fixed them and sent every registered user a new CD. By version 9, PSP was bought by Corel and they continue "improving" the program -- and making it horrible. In version 10, Corel, messed up the batch changing of file formats; in version XI, Corel fouled up the browser. --Joyce T., Shoemakersville, PA

The most obvious one is Office 2007. I don't mind the ribbon itself (even though it takes up too much room), and I think it's actually good for casual users and for features that I don't use often. But as a power user, I hate the fact that I can't truly customize the toolbars and can't record macros. That's just a humongous step backwards; things that I could do with a single click in previous versions of Office now take many clicks or keystrokes. I've reverted to Office XP for now at home. I just hope Microsoft comes to their senses and gives us an add-on for creating a real customized toolbar and recording macros. --Robert N., Pasadena, CA

Quicken and QuickBooks both started out offering great features and support. Unfortunately, Intuit started to act like they had a monopoly; their support became expensive, features lost relevance, and now they force you to upgrade every few years or you lose the ability to do payroll. --Dave W., Orem, UT

Sidekick. Yep, you can still get it here. You can buy the original 5.25 inch shrink wrapped in collectible condition for $275! And if you look down the list, you'll also find your favorite, Steve, WordStar, also for $225. --John D., Pasadena, CA

A lot of them, not least, Ashampoo (both functionality and UI) and AVG, becoming heavier on the machine and adding three services. -- Bassim I., Baghdad-Iraq

Lotus Organizer 5.0 was magnificent. All changes made after that only made it less stable and added nothing of worth. I still use it every day. --Chuck H., Clarksville, TN

It seems that most software upgrades are on a decreasing value curve. That is -- 80 percent of the upgrades are for 20 percent (or fewer) of the users. For instance, I switched to GotoMyPC when Symantec's PC Anywhere bumped up to version 8 since none of the "new" features were of any value to me. The same was true of QuickBooks; the only reason to upgrade was because they made me do it. -- Sandy W., Evanston IL

I have two. IBM’s ThinkPad security software (yes, it’s still published by IBM) -- their own techs recommend that you remove it, preferably before it starts locking you out of applications. And Outlook 2007. It runs so slowly that it reminds me of '97 -- it's the Jessica Simpson of software: Pretty, and very full-featured, but S-L-O-W. -- Paul C., San Francisco, CA

One of the best programs I ever used was WordPerfect 6.0. It was smart, the formatting was the best, the templates couldn't be matched, and it was stable and worked better than any other suite. All of the other versions have been down hill since. I know, I tried them all. -- Jim W., Brunswick, GA

Talkback
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