http://www.pcmech.com/newsletter/viewtip.php?tipid=704
Backup before using Beta or New Releases
Sent on October 15, 2006 | Category: General Software
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It is always a good idea to have a full backup of all your data before installing *any* beta or new release software.
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Hey, wonderful idea. Tell Microsoft!
With the auto update, you have zero control over forced updates. they even reboot your machine remotely. Even if you aren’t ready for it to happen. Or, they do annoying nags to reboot. Or, slip stuff into fixes and ilk.
Even with the other bozo software companies, it’s not that easy to control the versioning.
With web-based software, it virtually impossible.
There are at least two levels of change control that needs to be considered — at the program level and at the data level.
The trend is in the other direction as is evidenced by the virtual abandonment of version numbers. (I still don’t see what is wrong with version 1, 2, 3, 3.5, 7.02.) It implies that there is compatibility at some level between the old and the new. I remember when software would be graceful about versioning. Heck, the monster Microsoft allowed Word to write old format data.
The user is the version control?
Reinke Faces Life 