How often: upgrading operating software platform

[shootingstar]

With IE 7, sometimes things got squirrely. Now I have IE 10.

[Maye]

I have a Mac Book pro and I found that the the OS is easier to upgrade than for a Windows based computer. Drivers that are required for printers to work properly get installed automatically versus having to do it manually like with a Windows based OS. I'm not sure if this is still the case with Windows 8. I do upgrade the OS if major updates or features are added otherwise, I usually wait until I have no choice or when major security issues require me to update and or upgrade.

[Irulan]

I'm curious, what websites work only with IE these days??? I honestly didn't even know anyone uses IE any more! I use Firefox, and the only time I can't see a website is when it requires me to take down more of my security than I'm willing to do. If I really really want to look at (or post a comment on) whatever site it is that's so full of spyware, I run Safari in private browsing mode and then immediately quit out of it, then delete all my Flash cookies, when I'm done. Never had a problem viewing a website for reasons that weren't self-imposed

.

In our engineering biz, we run into TONS of governemnt websites that are IE based, and cannot be viewed in Mozilla. I hate it.
I don't see what the rush to Win 8 is. We have several Win 7 systems that work great,and even some XP ones that while slower, do the job just fine.

[eofelis]

I'm on a Dell XP desktop machine right now. It was bought just before Vista rolled out. It still works fine for internet and basic functions.
Our next machine (bought 2 years ago) was a Dell Win7 desktop machine. Works great. (We have 2 desktops.)
I bought a laptop a couple of months ago because I decided I wanted a Win7 one while there were still some left. I didn't want a Win8 OS. I got a Lenovo Ideapad. I'm happy with it!

[TrekDianna]

I got a new computer for my birthday. It came with windows 8. I reformatted the hard drive the next weekend and installed windows 7.

[Kiwi Stoker]

You should upgrade when the software company stops supporting the operating system. And as a rule of thumb I don't upgrade to the latest and greatest striaght away, always wait 6-12 months for the company to sort out the bugs.

[OakLeaf]

You should upgrade when the software company stops supporting the operating system.

... like I said, I'm still getting patches for XP Home!

So on that basis - and looking up some basics - I'll stick with what I originally said. Supposedly MS is going to stop supporting XP a little over a year from now. Vista was released in January 2007 and XP was last sold through MS's developer program two years later. So, by the time MS stops supporting XP, a computer that was originally sold with XP installed would be a minimum of five years old (if it was sold through the developer program), and more likely seven to TWELVE years old ... I just can't imagine that the hardware would be capable of running Win 8 or modern applications. So, new computer, with the new OS installed.

Same thing goes if your existing OS isn't capable of running a current browser. I'd be real leery of installing a new OS over whatever hardware that was...


... websites that can't be viewed in Mozilla, Safari or Chrome? Figures. But, NASA has a cool iPad app ...