Software Updates

I wrote several times already about upgrading the software. One more example today (a positive one). Last time I started Picasa it asked mi kindly if I want to upgrade the software. Since I use a beta version I thought it was a good idea so I agreed. The rest happened automatically. Update was downloaded from the Picasa site, was somehow (I don’t really care how) installed and below information was displayed.


That’s so easy. Just one click to say “I want that” and “thank you screen” appears with a list of fixed issues after short while. That’s less radical update than Google Talk applies (they don’t even ask) but still it’s extremely user-friendly. No restarts. No manual installations. No manual downloads. It all happens under the hood.

Looking at Picasa case one thing is worth emphasizing – when you use long beta period strategy (like Google) upgrades are even more important than in “normal” situation. Notice: even though for me GMail has been always around (I know it’s just my perception) it’s still in beta phase. Few reasons why:

• It’s assumed that you have some bugs in your beta versions. You don’t want users to have older versions with lots of known bugs – you want them to install new ones with much lower number of issues. You want to have your users content with your software.

• The longer beta-period is the bigger is a number of beta versions (I count also unofficial beta versions like CTP releases from Microsoft). So is a number of updates.


• When users work with older versions it doesn’t help you much in stabilization process, so you want them to use the newest possible version. You don’t want to test old out-of-date code, right?

So once again – plan your upgrade strategy from the very beginning or you’ll end up with a lot of unplanned work supporting updates of your software.

Related articles:
Upgrading Applications
Upgrading Applications Follow-up
Upgrades and Lost Functionalities