6 upgrades that are downgrades
It shouldn't be like this. Technology and engineers' capabilities are advancing so fast right now that everything that is good about a current product can, in theory, easily be built into its successors. But sometimes this doesn't happen. Here are a few choice examples of upgrades that are downgrades, and why you're better off with the older tech:
Vista
Apple's ads run in the most creative places.
The obvious number one product for this list. Vista is the new shiny operating system Microsoft released to replace Windows XP. Except it hasn't, because it's a poor upgrade. It's slower, bigger, and buggier. Many people, not just those in the opportunistic Apple ads (and Apple has its own problems), would rather get a new computer with the old XP operating system.
Why it happened: Books will be written about Vista's failures, which, in fairness, probably have as much to do with Microsoft's need to support a vast universe of third-party hardware and software products as with flaws in Microsoft's marketing and software development strategy.
Quicken
Ouch.
Intuit apparently believes that new users won't buy a personal accounting product if it's last year's model, and it also wants to upgrade its current users each year. So it "sunsets" older versions after three years: it turns off online access to bank updates and eliminates support. Sadly, some older versions of Quicken are faster and more stable than the new versions. But if you're a Quicken user, you can't stick with "classic" versions without giving up useful online features.
Why it continues to happen: Intuit has locked itself into a yearly upgrade cycle on a product that clearly takes more than a year to update.
Linksys WRT54G
The old WRT54G wireless router was a reliable and economical product, but a few years ago Linksys released a version 5 of the product that they knew was buggier. Knowledgeable users were able to get the older version by shopping online for the special "WRT54GL" router, which was really the previous version. It cost a few extra bucks, but it was a far better value.
Why it happened: Cost cutting, pure and simple. I covered this in 2006.
Zune
The new Zune is a killer product. But the old Zune is the killer deal. Not only is it widely available, which the new version is not, but you can upgrade the old version to the newer software, giving you, essentially, a lot of Zune 2.0's best features for a used car price. You give up some improvements (like the better screen, improved battery life, and touch-sensitive control pad), but the older version is still the better deal.
Why this happened: I tip my hat to Microsoft on this one. Making the old Zune upgradable to the latest software is the right thing to do, and it opens up a value line of Zunes for people who don't want to spend the extra money to get the latest hardware.
iPod
This is a personal beef of mine. The last generation of iPod can send video through its audio jack, making it a reasonably priced and convenient system for getting digital video onto your TV. The newest iPods don't have this feature. You need to buy a dock adapter to get the video out. That's robbery, since the machine is clearly capable of showing your video without requiring any special hardware. Speaking of which, iTunes has become a bloated pig, at least on Windows.
Why this happened: Probably Apple saves a few bucks this way. But consumers pay.
Mega-megapixel cameras
Is more better?
If 10 is good, 12 has to be great, right? Each generation of digital cameras gets more resolution. That's good if you want to blow up your images to wall-size, or crop your photos aggressively, but increasing the number of pixels captured in a picture has tradeoffs, especially on compact cameras with tiny sensors to begin with. Increasing resolution can reduce sensitivity and dynamic range, which will result in pictures that just don't look as good, although they may be, technically, sharper. In SLRs, with their big sensors, moving from a 6 megapixel sensor to a 10 megapixel sensor, as is the difference between the almost identical Nikon D40 and D40x, won't cost you much except dollars. But in compact cameras, you might actually pay more for images that aren't as good.
Why this happens: Feature wars and the fact that it's easier to market more-is-better.
On the Web, there's very little opportunity to use "classic" versions of services. When a company updates its service, everyone gets the new version, like it or not. Some giant consumer-grade products are available in older versions, such as Yahoo Mail, and Microsoft Hotmail (news story: Too Hotmail to Handle) but usually only for a short time.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe.
The only beef I have with Vista, is its increased hardware requirements. On desktops, this may be fine if you have a gaming-ready system who upgrades their CPU's and motherboards every 6 months, but us laptop users are taking a hit, because you can only put 2 GB RAM max in most laptops, which doesn't play well with Vista at all, especially since video ram is shared with system RAM on most laptops, leaving you with 1.37 GB max on most Vista Ready Laptops, which makes it crawl out of the box, much of less with useful software on it. Thats really my only beef with it. although I've seen worse. I can't believe people still run XP on 512mb RAM, XP on 512mb RAM, is like Vista on 2GB RAM, thats how much its changed, and not for the better if you ask me.
Another good product that was taken off the market, was the DELL Axim series. I'd give my right arm to get my hands on an Axim X5 right about now. I have an X3i, which won't go into portrait mode because DELL decided not to make available Windows Mobile 2003 SE, so I can't put the thing in landscape mode, or WPA-PSK wireless mode, so its pretty much a paperweight for me, but the Axim X5 was the best pocketPC around, nothing even compares to it now, which is a real shame. I have the same beef with the Nintendo Wii's because it don't support WPA modes.
I'm not crazy about the iphone, or itouch either, because not everybody can get AT&T / Cingular in their area. We're stuck with Verizon here, so we're just out of luck, and that just bothers me.
Then again, maybe I'm just being depressingly picky. I know, I get that way sometimes. I get all "inside the box," and "closed-minded" and "trying to make sense out of what other people do." It's a terribly bad habit, I realize, so I resolve henceforth to hold my tongue (and/or my fingers) and not try to "pigeon-hole" any further hugely off-topic blog posts. You can only flail your head against a wall for so long till you realize that wall just ain't gonna budge! ;)
I'm quite at home with Windows, Mac OS AND Linux and have been for a long while. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses. I make my living working with (and programming for) Windows-based systems. For many years, I've enjoyed the robust stability of Slackware Linux as my main system at home. Recently, I've come to appreciate OS X on a newly purchased MacBook.
They all do the job. They all may have subtle (or not so subtle) style differences, but they all at the end of the day can pretty much do the job.
the cost it brings with it?
There is one super system in the world, that is Unix.
Therefore, Linux is subsuper and OSX is super.
The engineers who created Unix have done alot of thinking and
the system is so old that it is as stable as hell.
I'm a .NET programmer, using the latest technologies.
So I do know a little about Microsoft products.
A lot of my friends have computer problems, wich are always windows XP related.
Since recently, some of them have bought a new computer and called me to install
XP on it. Their pc's came with vista. None of their hardwork was supported.
If a standard printer is no longer supported, this is really painful.
Myself, I have a Macbook at home (the first of it's generation dual core 2,1Ghz) and a HP Compaq 6710b (dual core 2 1,79GHz) for work. My Macbook is a year old, the HP is brand new.
When I work on my Apple, it feels so fast that I always think something is very wrong
with the HP. And there is! It has XP on it.
What I really don't get is why administrators dislike Linux and Unix.
Unix has been network oriented before I was born. It has so much features and is so configurable that it really makes an administrator capable to do anything.
(BTW: Leopard = Unix ;-) )
Alot of these features are implementen in Linux, making Ubuntu a dream system.
The last release of Ubuntu is way better that windows xp.
Although I am a .NET developer, I dislike Microsoft product.
But there is no room for Objectif-C programmers in my country, yet.
Vista, a downgrade? No! Vista is just a dvd fully loaded with crap that "looks nice" but still have GUI problems like XP has and wich cost much to much.
Ever tried to explain wich version your friend should buy? They just don't understand it! :-)
And I really don't know why you should dislike the Server version of Leopard. It is so good, really!
When Windows reaches the stability and technical performance of OSX en Linux, is the day that pigs can fly!
http://www.oldversion.com/
Did I mention that office 2007 produces better looking documents while giving you more control over your documents? Perhaps people will appreciate this in a few year.
Long live Vista :-P
When the iPhone came out, Apple needed to figure out how to bring the microphone alongside the headphones. They could have done two cables, but that would have been horrible. (Imagine having two cables to talk into your phone. Yuck.)
So instead they built it into the headphone jack. Which is the right idea. All-in-one. The downside is, you can't use the old A/V cables. You just can't. The video travels where the microphone is now.
So now you have two types of cables. What to do?
The idea is, from this point on, if you bought an iPhone, you should be able to use the SAME cable to connect it to your audio or video system as your iPod. Right? If Apple kept the old cables, then any iPhone user wouldn't be able to use the other cables. That would suck.
Also, the upside to moving the connector to the dock is: it's digital, which means much better quality, and prime for hooking up to an HD TV.
That's my theory, and I think it's fairly accurate.
XP Professional has worked well for me and might continue to be a good choice, however I like Vista better and wonder how much the naysayers are motivated by the primitive desire to bash the giant, Microsoft, and/or envy of those who've migrated to the new improved OS.
CNET should know better than to publish such misinformation masquerading as editorial opinion since early on after the Vista release CNET published an article by a reviewer who noted that Vista was a better, more stable OS than XP even in basic versions on rudimentary hardware.
It seems to me that CNET has devolved into blatant media hype, i.e., presenting supposedly provocative questions that lack substance, like the emails CNET sends with apparently intriguing questions yet once you review the issues it becomes obvious the way the questions have been framed would be dorky even for a CNN review of electronics/computing.
Which begs the question, why am I wasting my time?
SK
It sure doesnt seem like it. What it does seem like is that there are only 20 year olds or those that simply got into computers after XP came out.
I say it seems like that way because everyone else who reads this retarded vomit simply knows better. XP had its issues with some older software and hardware not being compatible simply because the developers of those products simply saw no need to go back and rewrite drivers.
Please CNET, keep your young ones from making any more retarded articles regarding Vista. Just because they are stupid, doesn't mean everything they can't handle is broken.
my new dell had every but know to vista kind and i fought and fought to make it work
formated ran clean instal and all my problems went away
i had drivers that would just disapear programd that would run oneday and not the next
problems with nero itunes printers and scanners after clean install all the problems went away
so i got a new laptop and as soon as it came out of the boc /format all has been well
also you need to turn off vist areo it maks things look great but now worth the system cost
hope this helps enjoy :')
Did it ever occur to you to maybe get your computer repaired? Perhaps change the Fan, or add one to make it run cooler? No?
Never mind, dude, don't bother to respond. You possess an overabundance of fail.
Observe only Windows Update and Defrag in Vista and you will see de downgrade from XP.
Cocerning the way Vista runs programs and the speed of execution maybe another day, another time ...
New software
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13554_1-9822771-33.html
Michael Horowitz
-
by spoonman522
November 29, 2007 11:11 AM PST
- I'm surprised that the author did not consider Leopard as a downgrade from Tiger. I've read varying critiques about the new OS from Apple, and few of them are good. Problems vary from incompatible software, system crashes, and Time Machine not meeting expectations. For an example check out this link: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2223921,00.asp
-
Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (56 Comments)