Upgradum Ad Infinitum

No, it's not the title of a new encyclical. Although I wish the moral aspect of PC upgrades should be addressed somewhere...

When I started tinkering with PC's in the old days, it was plain character-based MS-DOS 2.0.

Then there was Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows for WorkGroups, Windows NT Workstation, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista...

With each new upgrade, you need to junk your old (but perfectly working) hardware, unless your idea of productivity is staring at a tumbling hourglass for hours on end. Need I mention that the newer programs (read: games) just won't work on your old PC? Your kid will do the explaining here, you do the paying.

Now it says here that the new version (again) of Microsoft Windows (Windows 7) is set to be released on October 22 this year.

..."For the 88% of computer users whose machines are powered by Microsoft Windows, upgrading to the latest version - or even choosing the right computer to buy - got a lot more confusing in 2007 with the release of Windows Vista because it was sold in four versions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate.

This was one of the major drawbacks that led to the failure of Vista (the writer has previously written about the other reasons) and I certainly hoped that this would be one of the mistakes corrected in Windows 7. Unfortunately, it’s gotten worse. There are now six planned versions of Windows 7: Starter Edition, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate."...

- Jason Hinner, Editor in Chief, TechRepublic
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Six versions. One would probably need a new souped-up quad core computer to run the new O.S.
I wonder how many upgrades/ patches would be released for each version?

Ugh.