I think we're tired. All of us out here in computer-user land. 

Not tired in the physical, lack-of-sleep, generally fatigued sense. Tired in the sense of having to expend mental energy on technology that simply doesn't work.

We're tired of being told that the next big technology purchase is really going to make a difference for our company or home life. Tired of spending money on technology that solves a problem--and then creates half-a-dozen more. We're tired of making this year's model, this year's printer, this week's software package that "we can no longer live without" interact smoothly with last year's model, last year's printer, last year's software. 

Software upgrades are supposed to be beneficial to us; they're supposed to increase functionality and stability. More often than not, when I hear a version 1.5 is being released (from version 1.0), or version 3.0 from version 2.0, I cringe. Not because I don't think there's potential for improvement, but because I always have to wonder what's going to break when I upgrade. And even if something doesn't break now, there's a good bet it's going to break something down the road that the software people hadn't even thought of yet.

Is this post depressing you yet?

I don't mean to be depressing. I think I'm simply expressing an emotion that many of us feel when we use computers.

Perhaps some of these emotions come from being pushed by technology companies. Pushed to upgrade when we really don't need to. Pushed to buy the new version of the software because they no longer support the old one.

We have had too many promises broken, too many heartaches, too many calls to outsourced tech support agents with undecipherable accents, too many well-intentioned (and some not-so-well-intentioned) computer "enthusiasts" selling us on benefits of technology we ultimately would never see.

I'm not a Luddite--far from it. I work for an outstanding computer services company, and love what I do. I enjoy using computers, I generally like studying and learning how they work. But it takes absolutely zero effort for me to see why so many people become disenchanted with them, or simply don't care enough about them to want to learn more.

We've been sold one solid, loud, never-ending story about how great computers are, about how productive they make us, about how much freedom and education and entertainment they bring us. And it's not that they don't, it's just that sometimes, all the other "stuff" that goes with them outstrips the benefits.

I think this is one of the things we're trying to fix at Open22. I think I can speak for Mike when I say that we only want to provide solutions that work for you. You've had enough of the hucksters, the broken promises, the half-baked solutions that have been cobbled together with very little return on investment. You want your technology to work, you want it to be flexible, and you want to forget it even exists 99.9999999 percent of the time.

I hope we're helping you get there with it. Let us know if we're not.

-Steve