Another year, another post ( admin posted on February 11th, 2011 )

This arrived in my inbox this week, and I couldn’t resist:-

“Autodesk 2008 Retirement

Gain momentum with a 2011 software upgrade before 15th March

It’s important to keep your software up-to-date so that you can compete effectively and successfully. Autodesk is retiring all 2008 releases on 15th March. If you upgrade before, then you can get your 2011 release at the upgrade price and benefit from the many enhanced features and functions that will greatly improve the way you work.

After 15th March, a 2011 release will only be available at the full licence price!”

So if the software you use every day is approaching 3 years old, you can no longer get updates as it no good any more. This is ridiculous of course.

It can be argued that the speed of development in software forces frequent upgrades (mainly due to bad coding rather than “new” features which will help the user, in my opinion). There is nothing more disruptive to work than a major upgrade to some piece of software that was working perfectly yesterday. You then have to change all the settings back to where you had them, reset the links on the server, put the kludge back in that gets the printer to work etc. etc. Not to be done lightly. But my real objection is the big threat attached, and the urgency required. Many businesses and individuals cannot just shell out hundreds at the whim of a software company – they want to do it when the time is right for them.

Also, what if we imagine this policy attached to other aspects of life:-

“General Vehicle Motors 2008 Retirement

Gain momentum with a 2011 vehicle upgrade before 15th March

It’s important to keep your vehicle up-to-date so that you can compete effectively and successfully. General Vehicle Motors is retiring all 2008 vehicles on 15th March. If you upgrade before, then you can get your 2011 vehicle at the upgrade price and benefit from the many enhanced features and functions that will greatly improve the way you drive.

After 15th March, a 2011 vehicle will only be available at the full retail price, no trade-ins!”

This would apply to my car, which is perfectly servicable, and will probably remain so for many years to come. There may be some benefits to an upgrade now, but the savings willl never cover the costs.

With regards to CAD software, jump ship to bricscad (www.bricsys.com) and get a more sensible and less arrogant approach.

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