Do software updates slow down software?

Factual Questions
1

This was brought up in another thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8076479

[QUOTE=Sapo]
The upgrade treadmill is running like it is trying to stop a jet from taking off and you are constantly forced to upgrade software that works perfectly fine until you reach the point where your hardware is no longer sufficient for it.
[/QUOTE]

Is this true? I use a G4 Emac; it works fine and as a cash-strapped young person I want to keep using it as long as I can. OSX has a “software update” feature that automatically tells you when software updates and patches are available, and asks if you want to download them. I imagine Windows has something similar. My cynical side says that it would be in Apple’s interest to gradually slow things down so people have to buy new computers. Does this happen? I’ve done all the updates and I don’t think I’ve noticed any slowdowns myself. Alternatively, they could be optimizing things and making them run faster over time.

Are there any experts here who can give us the Dope on how essential these updates are and how they affect performance?

2

A software update is just a new version of the software. It might be better, worse, slower, faster, bigger, smaller, have new features or have bug fixes. My team generally tries not to send out updates without some improvement, but that may or may not be the norm for the industry.

3

[QUOTE=riker1384]
This was brought up in another thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8076479

Is this true? I use a G4 Emac; it works fine and as a cash-strapped young person I want to keep using it as long as I can. OSX has a “software update” feature that automatically tells you when software updates and patches are available, and asks if you want to download them. I imagine Windows has something similar. My cynical side says that it would be in Apple’s interest to gradually slow things down so people have to buy new computers. Does this happen? I’ve done all the updates and I don’t think I’ve noticed any slowdowns myself. Alternatively, they could be optimizing things and making them run faster over time.

Are there any experts here who can give us the Dope on how essential these updates are and how they affect performance?
[/QUOTE]

I can’t say I’m a software development expert, or a Mac user, but I am a pretty big [strikeout]nerd[/strikeout] computer enthusiast .

I think in general, the little updates attempt to fix bugs and make minor improvements. These won’t slow you down, and do offer performance improvements on occasion.

With big updates, on the other hand, every developer is seemingly compelled to add new features. Taking an extreme example - how many people really use all of the features on the latest and most bloated version of Office? Hell, the other day I had to write a paper on this computer, which didn’t have Office installed yet, so I used Wordpad. That served the purpose just fine.

Feature bloat, over time, results in big unwieldy programs: they take up more hard drive space, a bigger memory footprint, and will generally run slower as compared to earlier versions. I don’t think any company really attempts to make a new product perform worse than the previous version, but at the same time they aren’t worried about minor shifts in that direction.

Now, with a reasonably modern computer, this isn’t a problem (which is part of the reason that feature bloat happens). Your G4, with maybe a RAM upgrade to deal with the current and future memory hogs, will probably serve just fine for many years. For Grandma, who only checks email and looks up recipes online, that dusty hand-me-down Pentium 3 is probably fine for as long as it lasts.

Back to your original question: Anything that comes with the automatic updates (i.e. they don’t charge you for it) is a relatively minor deal; and it’s worth updating to get the latest bug fixes.

4

As a general rule, software updates make software perform faster and more reliably, with the occasional new feature thrown in. (like ultrafilter, that’s how our software releases work).

I think what Sapo was referring to were new software versions, ie. MS Office 95, 97, 2000, etc. I know that personally, there are few features in the later versions that I use that are absent in the earlier ones. OTOH, due to the increased ability of hardware, we’re compelled to try adding just a few more things that we couldn’t before due to whatever limitations existed at the time. For example, our companies next software release will take advantage of the higher speed internet links available to rig workers out in the field to transfer more data back to head office. It might end up a bit slower than the old version, but it’ll be doing more stuff.

5

Updates can work wonders to software and cause other software to not work. It can make the software title run faster while breaking another title. It can slow down a complete system or seem to do nothing at all.

I research all my updates before I install them on my main workstation, music computers or file server. I’m less anal on my laptops.

If they are fixing a bug I’ll see if that bug effects me. If it doesn’t, I don’t bother updating. Too many times in the past I’ve installed bug fix updates on perfectly working software only to have the update cause problems. If it aint broke and all that jazz.

If it is a point upgrade for features, then I’ll weigh if I need these new features over software that is working fine for me. I don’t often update software for features I’ll never use.

I scour the internets for reviews of the updates. I’ll check the software company message boards to see what issues the updates may have caused with other people. Did it break something else on their system, slow it down or generally cause problems?

Security updates are touchy. Normally I’ll install these but I’ll often wait a week or so of them being released just to make sure they don’t open new holes or issues. That said my music computers never get security updates because they are isolated on their own network - they never get on the internets and no one uses them but me.

securityfocus.com and bugtraq are a good place to start when looking at full or point releases. You can search software titles and see what people are reporting on.

6

If a machine works reliably and does what you want, then there is a good case for leaving it alone.

I’m nervous of Windows security patches as they potentially open up new and interesting security holes.

As a programmer I only send out updates if a bug has been fixed or if a new feature has been requested. I go to great efforts to ensure that my stuff relies on as little 3rd party stuff as possible and that it is not ‘integrated’ with Windows.

What makes me spit blood is when a client ‘updates’ or ‘upgrades’ a machine and suddenly a stable machine ceases working.

7

[QUOTE=FRDE]

What makes me spit blood is when a client ‘updates’ or ‘upgrades’ a machine and suddenly a stable machine ceases working.
[/QUOTE]

For the life of me I’ll never understand this. We used to get people in the computer shop all the time with really messed up computers. The cause was some update.

Me: Why did you install this?
Them: I thought I should do the upgrade.
Me: Why?
Them: Because the newer version is better.
Me: Were you having problems with the version you had?
Them: No.
Me: What is the new version giving you the old version didn’t have?
Them: “They” say this new version is better.
Me: Better how?
Them: Dunno? Just better.
Me: :smack:
I’m always attempting to explain to people they don’t HAVE to upgrade. I’ve known people who have upgraded with each MS Word yet WordPad would work perfectly fine for them considering their documents are basic, unformatted text on the screen.

Shrugs

8

I do just the opposite. I update everything automatically without thinking about it. Never had a busted system yet on Mac or Windows. For upgrades, though, I first check if I need it. For example, I don’t plan on ever upgrading from XP to Vista. I’ll jump onto Mac OS X 10.5 as soon as I can. Office 2007 for the Mac will run natively, so I’ll probably do that. But I can’t see myself replacing my company sponsored $30 version of Office Pro for the PC regardless of the new Office 2007 features. If there’s a Windows program available for the Mac, then I’ll upgrade – as soon as I can I plan to get Punch Pro. Then any updates for Windows will be moot because it’s the last Windows program I don’t have for the Mac