The Bug-Reporting Attitude Xah Lee, 2005-02, 2006-01
People, There is a common behavior among people in software geek forums, that whenever a software is crashing or behaving badly, they respond by “go file a bug report” as if it is the duty of software consumers. When a software is ostensibly incorrect, and if it is likely in connection to egregious irresponsibility as most software companies are thru their irresponsible licensing, the thing one should not do is to fawn up to their ass as in filing a bug report, and that is also the least effective in correcting the software. The common attitude of bug-reporting is one reason that contributed to the tremendous egregious irresponsible fuckups in computer software industry that each of us have to endure daily all the time. (e.g. software A clashed, software B can't do this, C can't do that, D i don't know how to use, E download location broken, F i need to join discussion group to find a work-around, G is all pretty and dysfunctional... ) When a software is ostensibly incorrect and when the organization behind it is irresponsible with its licensing, the most effective and moral attitude is to do legal harm to the legal entity. This one can do by filing a law suit or spreading the fact. Filing a law suit is appropriate in severe and serious cases, and provided you have such devotion to the cause. For most cases, we should just spread the fact. When the organization sees facts flying about its incompetence or irresponsibility, it will immediately mend the problem source, or cease to exist. Another harm sprang from the fucking bug-reporting attitude rampant among IT morons is the multiplication of pop-ups that bug users for bug-reporting, complete with their privacy legalese infomercial intrusion. 2006-01 Addendum • In early 2005 or late 2004, OS X's Safari browser contains a button on the top right that is use to send bugs to Apple. As late as 2006-01 in Safari 2.0.2, one can turn on the send bug button by right clicking on the toolbar. (screenshot). • In about 2004-2005, every Mac OS X's tool bar has a Quality Feedback button for user to report problems and suggestions to Apple. Mac fanatics are fanatical about reporting bugs back to Apple. • In 2004-2005, the Adium multi-chat client for OS X will popup a dialogue box whenever it crashes, and ask the user whether if he wishes to report the bug. • In 2005, Microsoft Windows XP will popup a dialogue box when a program crashed, and will ask the user about whether she want to report it back to Microsoft. • In 2005, the Open Sourced Netscape/FireFox browser will auto-start a separate bug-report program whenever it crashed, and will bother the user about whether to report the bug. Much of these harassment come with technical notices and or privacy legalese, that assures the user nothing personal is being sent or collected. Some will also contain an option to turn this user-contribution auto-solicitation off for good, but not all. These bug-reporting phenomenon didn't start until early 21st century. Such direct user intrusion was unknown or unthinkable in 1990s. Part of the reason of their rise can be attributed by a few factors: (1) the mainstreaming of the internet. (2) The collectivism and fanaticism ushered by Open Sourcers. (3) The fanaticism ushered by Mac fanatics. Group (2) and (3) are largely incompatible, but each lives in their utopian vision. ---------------- This post is archived at: http://www.xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/bug_report_attitude.html Xah [EMAIL PROTECTED] ∑ http://xahlee.org/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
