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I
have always been a proponent of waiting before upgrading.
Particularly if you are using software from a company that:
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Upgrades
often with no backward compatibility
-
Tends
to use its retail customers as Beta testers
-
Has
to provide several patches with each new issue
Beware
of these points! Particularly if you make a living with your
software. The devil you know is better than the devil you
don't. Even though you may not be happy with your current software
at least you know that it is stable.
I
know from first hand experience the Finale 2000 bug that rendered some
files useless and inoperable. In my business it could cost me
thousands of dollars and put a critical deadline in jeopardy.
Having
said this, you don't want to be the type to put your head in the sand and
not accept change. These are the procedures I follow before
upgrading to new software.
-
If
at all possible, have multiple versions on your computer until you have
worked out any potential bugs in the new versions.
-
Before
committing, check out as many web sites or message boards as you can
relating to the software in question.
-
Make
a copy of a particularly difficult file you are currently working on and
label each version, then run it through the paces with the new upgrade.
I
can assure you that you will not uncover all the new little gems
(both good & bad) an upgrade may hold for you, but please do your best
to expose any potential weaknesses in the upgrade before you stumble on
any nasty surprises the night before a recording session.
We
basically commit, as a production company, to every other upgrade of
Finale. Finale 97 was good, Finale 98 was horrible with bugs (maybe
not for the casual user but we found some doosies) - Finale 2000 is
stable, while Finale 2001 made many changes (some that slowed down our
process considerably). Finale 2002 is an improvement in many areas
and this will probably be my company's next major upgrade once we have
worked with it for a while, say another 3 months.
Speed
and reliability are critical to my business. I must be able to
depend on my product. Proofing is such an important aspect to our
work, that I could not imagine producing a session without a competent
proofer. Computers have made our jobs easier, allowed us to produce
more work than in the past, and opened up opportunities all over the
world. However, our lack of understanding of the logic of computers
along with software bugs can cause unforeseen problems with a file.
I
believe if you are a professional, you must upgrade. You will receive
files from other professionals that are of the newer versions and
therefore will need a competence with the new version in order to deal
with them. However, there is a difference with getting an upgrade to
use for these purposes and actually committing the bulk of your production
to a new version. Following are a few points to
consider:
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Don't
change over your production unless the new version is an improvement over
the old.
-
Don't
change over your production just because of a few new bells and
whistles.
-
Don't
change over your production unless your skills are such to take advantage
of the newer version. If you are quite good with the old version
then you may actually decrease your ability to produce unless you have the
time to relearn (in some cases) the newer version.
-
Don't
change over your production just because there is a new version.
Check out the upgrade, investigate it - don't blindly upgrade, you may
regret it.
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