Software Updates

It’s perhaps appropriate that i should update my blog with a post on Software Updates. Been quite busy with some exciting delivery my side along with getting a new machine mid-iteration, which is a decent distraction: T60 2.4 Duo. VERY Nice machine and overall impressed with, well, just about everything- particularly ThinkVantage. But in getting my machine production-ready, the sheer volume of updates that i had to do was *staggering* [slightly exaggerated] which got me thinking about my Gran…

Approaching 80, she’s actually about 60. She emails and uploads photos from her digi cam and keeps track of her budget using Excel. Not bad for a soon-to-be octogenarian. But how often does she update her PC?

First, there’s the OS updates- in this case: Windows Update. Then there’s the driver updates for anything particular on your machine. Then there’s manufacturer-specific system management updates and that’s before you get to your “third-party” application software updates like anti-virus, for example. And these are not small updates either.

Windows Updates: about 21 in total [many MB] and the machine came preloaded XPSP2.
Driver updates: ATI as an example: 47MB! Thats’ not including updated drivers for fingerprint readers, wireless drivers and yadah yadah.
System Management Software Updates: Yes, ThinkVantage itself needs to be updated before you can use it to check for updates 🙂
AntiVirus updates: using AVG and that totalled about 15MB from my current installation. Could have used preloaded Symantec but the updates are just as heavy.

Granted, not all these updates are critical- but how grokkable is determining severity levels based on the information presented:

“No, ma’am the ATI update is not critical, but we do recommend it” – or-
“that update for XP 64-bit is optional, so don’t worry about it.” Which means what [to my Gran]?

With all these updates needing to take place, and getting back to my Gran… What happens if i DON’T run these updates regularly? And another thing: WHY are there so many updates?

Is the software just poor quality?
Are all these companies finally adopting Agile and releasing incremental “enhancements” as opposed to fixes? 🙂
IS QA just getting better at what they do and finding more and more problems?
Are systems become so complex that inter-operability and coding for it is laying a foundation for latent problems?
Is software been pushed out the door because the market has become so aggressive that an incremental release strategy helps keep the company competitive?
All of the above?

Too many questions for a Saturday morning, but i wonder just how many new PC/laptop owners install updates knowingly? And if they don’t know they’re actually updating [preconfigured under the guise of “user-friendliness”] if they notice their bandwidth getting hogged every so often?

…there’s a surgeon doing a remote heart transplant operation and s/he accidently removes the kidney as well because the system software was not configured to update automatically… 🙂

I think we still got quite a way to go before we can comfortably integrate technology easily into our lives…