Updates and Upgrades

I have currently got computer issues so this week’s posting has not been written.😱 I’m writing this as a placeholder until I can catch up. The subject will be, as above, “upgrades”.

One of the joys of using a computer is applying the updates that come out for the operating system and applications. With a multitude of computing devices that a person has these days, this can be time consuming.

On desktop computers running the Windows operating system, this can be made pretty much invisible, but on phones and tablets, and on other operating systems this can be a chore.

Most updates are for applications and not for the operating system itself, but often a user may have no idea of the difference. A tech-savvy person asks what operating system a user is using, expecting to hear “8.1” or “7” or even “Vista” or “XP” he/she is surprised to be told “Internet Explorer” or even “GMail”.

An application upgrade is usually benign and the user will not notice any difference as the changes will be behind the scenes, but now and then a user visible change is made and the user often thinks that his machine is broken.

Geeks often have a quiet snigger at this but it is a bit unfair. The user is using the computer as a tool, and tools as a rule do not change. A spanner doesn’t suddenly overnight change from Imperial sizes to Metric sizes and the computer user is not unreasonable in expecting his/her computer to not suddenly change.

Some updates however are far from benign, causing data loss or serious computer issues. Those not of the “Windows World” frequently blame Microsoft for such issues, but when there are billions of users out there, using different hardware configurations, it is not surprising that things occasionally break. Nastily!

When I talk about the “Windows World”, I am talking about the users of the Microsoft Windows operating system, by far the largest group of computer users. Until recently the other major groups of users were the “Mac World” and the “Linux World”, but more recently these have been joined by the “Apple World” and the “Android World”.

Since Macs are made by Apple, arguable the “Mac World” and the “Apple World” are the same, but by the “Apple World” I mean those users of iPads, iPhones and even the iPod. The “Mac World” refers to users of desktop and laptop Macintosh computers.

The application updates are arguably more visible on handheld devices and owners of such devices may be notified two or more times a week that such and such an app needs updating or has been automatically updated. It’s not too much of an issue, but naive users may not be performing the necessary couple of clicks to update the apps.

Of course, by taking this course they may be missing out on security and stability fixes or fixes for serious bugs, to them the risk of fiddling with their devices may seem higher, and I can understand that.

Computer users, especially naive users, develop a pattern of working, a “workflow” if you like that suits them and works around any bugs or issues in their apps. No wonder they get furious when their workflow is disrupted! In one case, (reputedly) a computer user who had her machine updated was outraged that her icon had “gone”, when in fact it had moved to a different line.

It’s easy to laugh at such happenings, but really, one should try to see here point of view. The icon did something when she clicked. It had moved and even if it looked the same in its new position, she could not be sure that it would do the same thing.

If a more sophisticated user were to notice that an icon had moved, they would probably assume that it would work the same, and in 99.99…. per cent of the time they would be correct. But the naive user did not know the odds and of course, she was correct in that there was a non-zero possibility that the icon would behave differently.

There is a subtle difference between an update and an upgrade, I believe. I don’t know if it is an official definition, but when updates are mentioned I feel that such changes should be minor and with little visible impact. Updates may be changes made to applications and to the operating system itself, but the key feature is that they do change functionality or user workflow fundamentally, and would predominately be bug fixes or small enhancements.

Upgrades on the other hand, would be more fundamental changes and may result in majorly changed functionality and workflows, like the changes between Windows 7 and Windows 8. The change between Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 would probably be an update rather than an upgrade, but this one is marginal.

I’m in the “Linux World” and my desktop runs Ubuntu. I’ve recently upgraded to version 14.10 (also known as Utopic Unicorn) and I had a number of issues, none of which was a show stopper, but some of which were annoying. I’ve previously upgraded successfully with few issues, but maybe I accumulated too much junk.

I definitely don’t think that the issue is with Utopic Unicorn as the forums don’t have posts which relate to my issues, which they would if it were a general issue, so it is something related to my own setup, most likely.

So I’ve reinstalled, which has taken some time. There is one niggly issue that should be fixed shortly, but I was without access to some essentials, like Facebook and GMail on my desktop machine, for a day or two. Fortunately I was able to access these absolute essentials on my tablet (Android) and phone (also Android).

During this time I had to fix my daughter in law’s Windows laptop and upgrade the iPad to the newest version of IOS. Now my Android phone wants to upgrade to Android version 5.0 (also known as “Lollipop”). I think that I will wait for version 5.0.1 or 5.1!