Software upgrades…

I guess upgrading software is just a fact of life. The real problem is that often the new, improved software is merely new, and expensive. Most of the time it’s fine, but I end up asking myself did I need the new feature, especially at the price. I bring this up because I’m currently faced with two different upgrades for two very different products at two very different price points.
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac
Let’s face it, for the moment, and that moment may be fleeting, Microsoft Office is a fact of life. I use the Windows version at work courtesy of my employers and I can’t imagine that they’ll change anytime soon. Because of the nature of my work, programming at a large insurance company (large by Hawaii standards anyway) I was given the opportunity to purchase a bunch of Microsoft stuff at a huge discount. I ended up with a couple of XP installs, Office for Windows (2003 I think) and Office 2004 for the Mac – I believe they were all the professional versions.
Having XP is nice as I do have it on my MacBook running on Boot Camp. I almost never fire it up, but it’s there if I want to show off. Of course now that Vista is out it isn’t really showing off I suppose. Since I have almost no XP software on that partition it was a no brainer to install the almost free Office 2003. No problem. I don’t expect I’ll ever be overcome with the urge to upgrade, at least not on the life of the MacBook.
Office for the Mac is a different story though. I actually do use it sometimes. I play with my bill paying in Excel, sometimes redo documents I get sent in Word, and view the odd PPT in PowerPoint. I used to use Entourage, but since Apple Mail was upgraded a bit for Leopard I’ve gone back to that – especially since I can keep my desktop, laptop, and iPhone all synced up.
At home I really don’t need the horsepower that Office came with, but at the price it was hard to turn down. Now, however, I have to pay to upgrade ($214.99!) and it doesn’t even include the stuff I use at work all the time. I just don’t know if it’s worth it. Perhaps I should drop less than half the price on iWork instead. Sigh.
Amazon has a variety of prices for an upgrade, all of which are far more than I paid for the original – $214.99!! Ouch.
MacJournal 5.0
Now here’s another option. I’ve always liked MacJournal. Or rather I should say I’ve always liked the idea of MacJournal but rarely use it. I’ve had it on my machines for a couple of years now and sometimes get all fired up and write a blog post with it, only to go back to my normal way of doing things. Upgrading is not particularly expensive, unless you consider I use it less than I do Office which I like less. Sigh.
What’s going to happen? I suspect I’ll end up feeding the beast and upgrading both but not enjoying either as well as buying iWork. In short I’ll end spending an arm and a leg on software I’ll use minimally.
Aloha!