I’ve learned a really important lesson this week: if your computer is humming along, then ignore any temptation to upgrade or tweak it.

Earlier this week, one little upgrade of a Firefox extension (Better GMail) suddenly caused my GMail password to stop working. We’ll see if it returns to life in four days when Google lets me answer a security question.

This morning, Apple wanted me to upgrade iTunes and Quick Time. No, thank you. Unless it’s a major security flaw, I’m sticking with the status quo.

The beauty of Web 2.0 is that everything happens through the browser so you can dabble with all kinds of different services without threatening the health of your computer. It’s a long way from the days when you had to using a dial-up connection to download cool-sounding shareware.

More: One more thing – I shouldn’t have been so excited to upgrade from Tiger to Leopard. If I was smart, I would have waited a couple of months before taking the leap.

Update: Google Operating System has a post looking at how small new features are making GMail 2.0 better. Given my experience, the new and improved GMail is not necessarily a good thing.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Google