Remember the days when new software was released, but the only way to get it was by purchasing a disc from the company, then installing it yourself? (Goes right along with those fun AOL tones we used to have!)

When a company released a new software version “back in the day”, there was a lot more overhead. They had to really beta test their software update to make sure it all runs as it should. If there’s an error, then the customer gets mad. There wasn’t an easy way to push out a new software version just to fix that error.

Nowadays, companies will add some features and fix some errors, then do (if at all) little beta testing on those features and push them out over the internet. If there’s an error, it’s annoying for the customer, but not a big deal, as they know an update will come soon to fix it. It’s good in that customers can rely on these routine updates to fix bugs. At the same time, customers have become desensitized to these bugs. It’s just become part of some software, and personally, I think that sucks.

Take my friend, for example. His job revolves around using a specific software for broadcast graphics. He routinely finds bugs in their software. Unlike, say, a video game where an error can usually be overlooked, these bugs in software will crash programs and make his edits unreliable to his clients, because the software he needs has bugs. To make things worse, when they push out updates weekly, one bug will be fixed, but that fix will then crash other parts of the program. He quite literally has to save “good” versions of their software until he can find another one that seems to work well.

Software shouldn’t be this way. As much as I love the convenience of having routine updates available at our fingertips whenever we like, I do miss the days of software being mailed as a CD. I can be confident that the developers beta tested their software over and over again. I wish tech companies could keep this beta testing mentality, but merge it with today’s convenience.

One can dream!