RE: When is a bug a bug?

> From: Walden H. Leverich
> 
> So you don't report issues to IBM either? Don't want to be in their
> "beta" team?

Don't even go there, Walden.  The quality of IBM code is at least
several orders of magnitude better than Microsoft's. 


> Look, I'm not going to argue the relative stability of
> Windows vs. OS/400,

Of course you aren't, because there's no argument.  Windows is the
shoddiest commercial software ever produced, Walden.  I defy you to find
anything worse from a Fortune 500 company.


> my point it, if you're not willing to report the
> issues how will they know to fix them?

Walden, NO program should be able to reboot the system.  That's simply
an architectural problem big enough to drive a mack truck through.


> Or do you just assume someone else will report them for you?

I do not believe reporting it will do any good.

Take me up on my offer?  I report it, and if they don't fix it, you pay
me my hourly rate for the time it takes to report it.

Being kind about it, I'd say I've encountered at least one serious
Microsoft bug every day of my programming career since the late 80s,
early 90s.  For example, I have a regular problem where Outlook crashes.
I have to reboot the machine, restart Outlook in safe mode, close it and
restart in normal mode.  That's a bug; it eats up about 10-15 minutes of
my time.

So let's be generous and say 10 years, 50 working weeks a year.  I'll be
nice and say one bug a week.  That's 500 bugs.  Let's say it takes 10
minutes to report the problem.  That's over 80 hours spent just
reporting bugs.  Who is going to pay me for that lost time?

I realize these are pretty flimsy statistic, but the point should be
clear: I don't have time to beta test Microsoft code, and in my opinion,
the quality of code that will reboot a computer is beta code at best.

By the way, just to get the numbers straight here, I have had exactly
one problems I've had to call IBM on with the iSeries; it was a problem
with a clobbered WAS configuration, and it required a RCLSTG *DBXREF.

But again, if I get paid for it fine.  So take me up on my offer.  If
Microsoft doesn't resolve my problem, then you pay me for the time I
waste reporting it.

Joe