On bugs, rants and an imperfect world - part 1
I was browsing around our discussion forums a couple days ago and ran across a thread started by Darv in one of the Off Topic boards called My Rant on Rants. Darv was writing about how most rants about software are not useful as they do not provide specific measurable information. Without this nothing can be done. If someone tells you your art sucks all it does is make you mad and in no way helps you improve it. Surprisingly my entry isn't about rants but about the software industry in general and its practice of releasing software with bugs and the regular upgrade cycle. If you wonder what that has to do with the first bit I said read the thread above. It started an interesting discussion about software development and the validity of the car industry comparison for that matter.
I'm going to try not to come out on either side of this too much as I honestly think both the user and the software companies have strong points. The challenge is trying to balance the issues. Having been a user of many software packages and working in a software company gives me as much qualification as any. Today I'm going to speak as the intrepid software user.
As a user, I hate that software ships with bugs. In some cases the bug is bad enough that no excuse is appropriate. Someone screwed up, just fix it. A few of my bugs were not fixed in the service packs. The company makes me upgrade to a brand new version in the hopes that they fixed the bug and didn't create any new ones that will affect me. Not only that, but the simple act of releasing new software means they are no longer responsible for fixing bugs in the last version. All I want is to get my work done. I don't need any new features. I need the features I already have, working.
As a user I think software companies should take as long as required to make sure that the product ships without bugs and they should be forced to fix any bugs before the next release. I find it amazing that the world is O.K. with the fact that thanks to the end user license agreement no software company is responsible for what its own software does. (Don't believe me, read that license that you quickly hit agree to and forgot about)
When I'm sitting in front of an error message or crashed software this is all stuff I honestly believe. I will curse and swear and stub my toe in frustration because it likely happened to me on a tight deadline as well. Next I get on a forum and beg for help or failing that maybe rant. (See how I tied us back to the beginning like that) Believe me this happens to me more often and in more software packages then I like to think. (Come to think of it, some form of this has happened with my car, an appliance or two and my trusty ipod as well.)
So that's what I think as a user, did I forget anything? (No rants please) Tomorrow I'm going to write about the flip side because its not all about what I want.
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