Our industry has collectively taught average people over the last few decades that computers should be feared and are always a single misstep from breaking. We’ve trained them to expect the working state to be fragile and temporary, and experience from previous upgrades has convinced them that they shouldn’t mess with anything if it works. They’ve learned to ignore our pressures to always get the latest versions of everything because our upgrades frequently break their software and workflow.

This is yet another reason why hosted web apps have an advantage over traditional install-it-yourself models. When Google Docs or Basecamp are ready to roll out a change, they just do it; silently and instantly, to all of their customers at once. No big version numbers, no hassling customers to upgrade. Just steady, trickled improvement.

Via Daring Fireball.