The tutor reflects on the coming and going of operating systems.

As I’ve mentioned, my household has numerous computers. Two are Windows 7, two are Linux, and one is XP. My wife and I also have Nexus 4 phones. While we use lots of technology, none of it is new.

We got our XP computer when life was fluid. Years later, I inherited the task of “rejuvenating” the system; it wasn’t working right. Wandering around the desktop, I discovered the problem: the system hadn’t been updated regularly, so around a quarter of the updates were missing. After a few days chasing them down, I once again restarted the computer one evening. With Service Pack 2 finally running, the computer ran amazingly. In the dusk, with the soft blue Windows light in my face, I felt a new connection to the computer – what home computing was meant to be. I’d guess that was in 2007. With Service Pack 3, which I installed the following year, the computer ran even better.

By that time, we had a couple of Vista computers. Although they did improve with updates, they never ran as well as our XP ones, which begged the question: Why change when what you have already is excellent? We limped along on Vista for a couple of years, but I used the XP computers whenever I could.

In 2010, we bought a Windows 7 computer. It was obviously much better than Vista. Moreover, it improved over the first couple years. I’m writing this post on that computer now; it’s never worked better. We’ve leapfrogged Windows 8; now we’re being asked to upgrade to Windows 10. At this moment, I can’t see why we would.

When you use a computer every day, it becomes part of your life. Technology changes very quickly, but I tend to appreciate a good thing more, the longer I use it.

I’ll be talking more about “upgrading” to newer programs in future posts:)

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.