In computing, downgrading refers to reverting software (or hardware) back to an older version; downgrade is the opposite of
upgrade
Upgrading is the process of replacing a product with a newer version of the same product. In computing and consumer electronics an upgrade is generally a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, in order to ...
. Programs may need to be downgraded to remove introduced
bugs, restore useful removed features, and to increase speed and/or ease of use. The same can occur with
machinery.
An example of a downgraded program is
Gmax, a downgraded version of
3ds max
Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics software, 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, 3D models, models, 3D computer game, games and 3D rendering, images. It is developed ...
used by professional computer graphics artists, free to download and simplified for ease of use.
The term "downgrade" became especially popularized during the days of
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
, with users wanting to return to, or downgrade to (with some even calling it an "upgrade")
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...
because Vista had performance and familiarity issues.
[InfoWorl]
Bursting the Vista sales bubble: metrics show 35% of enterprise-class users downgrade from Vista to XP
Retrieved on 2009-12-20
Another reason could be that the user's applications do not support their new OS and they want to revert to an older version.
See also
*
Backporting
Backporting is the action of taking parts from a newer version of a software system or software component and porting them to an older version of the same software. It forms part of the maintenance step in a software development process, and it i ...
References
Software industry
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