The pros and cons of the Digital Download

This past week, I had the event no computer loves to see happen, a software issue that can only be corrected with, yup you guessed it, the dreaded system reinstall.

While modern technology has made things a lot easier to keep the important details in tact (like not losing the media collection or any important business document...remember people back ups and external storage are your friends), I found myself hitting the tedious task of pulling programs back down from the app store (Apple's Mac App store specifically) and that's actually been a multiple day trek as the connection to the app store has been running painfully slow.

Slow speeds were not the only problem, there is also the wonderful realization that, for what ever reason-afterall we the customers are not given a notice and a chance to get an offline installer- a program gets fully removed from the digital store front.

The pros of a web based App Store make for a very convienient, one stop place to get very useful software, usually in a quick manor, but without the ability to back this type of stuff up offline an App Store can also become a factor of great disapointment when you lose things you like and use with no access.

While the concept of App Stores are clearly here to stay, how do you feel about them, what changes would you like to see made in how a digital storefront works? Please leave your comments.