Software: the truth hurts.....

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/08/07/software.glitches/index.html

And may I add;

Starting betas prematurely, causing your unpaid betatesters do virtually ALL the software quality assurance then not listening to their suggestions. This of course causes the beta run months longer than it should have.

Grrrrrrr.....

Dr. Mordrid

[Gurm]

The guy who said he was unaware of ANY company that would shortchange the customer in the haste to get a product to market cracks me up.

I have one thing to say:

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor

Gpar_

P.S. In case you are confused, that's a game from 2001/2002. The installer... erased your C: drive. Yes, that's right - it erased your entire F U C K I N G hard disk.

[Dr Mordrid]

I'm not suprised at all.

There was a beta module in the trial download of Nero 6 that would do that if you weren't careful. Fixed now, but still.....

Dr. Mordrid

[Wombat]

Don't forget Enter the Matrix. Never before have I seen a <I>console</I> game so buggy, just to hit the release date of the movie.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Those aren't bugs Wombat, they're "glitches in the Matrix."

[Kooldino]

LOL@Jon.

Here's the problem...if companies see guys like us as their beta testers...then they'll tend to put out looser software faster, so that we can find the issues for them. Greeeat.

[mutz]

(Notice how the MURC Matrix didn't blip Gurm there?)

[Byock]

It is the trend. Buggy software? Ultima 9 Comes to mind real quick...

I miss the Atari 8 bit days, There was no such thing as a "Patch" it worked out of the box 99.9% of the time.

[dave m]

Hey guys, can we try and keep the complaints about PowerDVD 5.0 in a single thread

Dave

[leech]

Originally posted by Byock
It is the trend. Buggy software? Ultima 9 Comes to mind real quick...

I miss the Atari 8 bit days, There was no such thing as a "Patch" it worked out of the box 99.9% of the time.

Or the ST, Amiga, etc. Customized hardware definitely makes it easier for programmers to make it less buggy (since they are all the same hardware between all users, rather than with the PC which has a million different combinations of drivers/hardware/OS's.) The only reason I've ever seen a problem with the 8/16 bit platforms was when there was a update to the hardware. (For instance, there were a few games for the Atari 8-bits that required "Translator" to be ran with the XL series of computers rather than on the stock 400/800 which they were originally programmed for.) Same with the ST. The newer versions of TOS broke some programs. (which was hilarious to see that some original commercial games had problems with certain versions of TOS, but the hacked/pirated copies ran flawlessly. (Frontier: Elite 2 comes to mind...))

Leech

[leech]

Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor

<sarcasm> Gee, why would you say that game is buggy? </sarcasm> It's pretty bad when the company has to patch the FREAKIN' INSTALLER!!!!

So much for one of the reasons that everyone says linux is not ready for the 'desktop'. Saying that a simple installer is needed..... well a simple installer (deleter) is what you got with this game.

Leech

[High_Jumbllama]

Oh the stories I could tell if I wasn't under an NDA at the time. The screams of pain and outrage that the cheap $30 piece of software trashed their thousand dollar PC.

Imagine this, you install a ~$30 game that causes your machine to infinitely reboot because it keeps crashing before Windows loads even after a reinstall of the O.S.

[leech]

Uhm, even after a full fresh format too? What did it do, bork the Bios?

Leech

[Wombat]

Probably the boot sector.

[stcynic]

I agree Gurm. My thought when I read:

""I'm unaware of any company that would shortchange the customer in their speed to get the software to market," said Jonathan Thompson, vice president of the Washington-based trade group, which has more than 650 members. "

was that this guy is clearly a lawyer.

I have often thought that there was a possible parallel between the past of the American automobile industry and the future of the American software industry. Which is to say that there may be some hell to pay when some other country's decide to get serious about the software market like Japan did about autos in the eighties.

More specifically, think about how in the late sixties into the seventies the norm for a new model mainstream American car was to simply tack on more useless crap. Chrome, fins, lights, etc. Now think about the last several versions of Microsoft Word. A lot of "great" features have been added, but I can name bugs that have existed since the 16bit versions. When is the last time you talked to someone who was excited about the lates features in Word (I am sure there must be someone)?

So will some equivalent of the Japanese auto industry emerge to revolutionize the software market and give people what they really need and want?

As a member of the American software industry I agree that I need to help fix the problem. <whine>If only I could get a job, I would try.</whine>

So what do you guys predict? What will happen with this alleged crisis in software quality?