Ashtead's Journal: Upgrade?

I've been reading many articles about how hard the Vista upgrade process is supposed to be for everyone.

So what? The word "upgrade", long before the computer people got hold of it, used to mean the uphill direction of a railway line or a road. My copy of "A Policy of Geometric Design of Rural Highways" is full of discussions about upgrades, which, for example, might require climbing lanes if they are steep enough.

So, upgrades, being something that makes things hard or complicated is not exactly a new thing. Why is everyone surprised then? T'was always thus.

In related news, the work computer I have here is just now getting the IE7 "upgrade" -- hopefully it won't be the same kind of uphill struggle that that word implies. The machine, one of the few that I have that is running anything from Bill Gates' company, has been verified by same company as being genuine. Thank dog for small favors -- now let's see if the thing will work or has died utterly in the process.