Re: Microsoft confirms OneCare zaps Outlook, Outlook Express e-mail

Apparently I have pushed some buttons .. my apologies to any who I
have rankled.  My intent here is to provoke thought, not to provoke
ill will.

Nothing personal was meant .. I used "hysterical" to characterize the
emotional level of the response related to the actual harm/loss.  It
first came to me when I read the guy who said that no problem or virus
had done more damage to his business, when in fact no data was lost.

This is a difference in viewpoints more than anything else.  I give
the benefit of the doubt to the developers, who doubtless work very
hard and have an extraordinarily difficult and thankless task.  That
an error got through testing does not by itself imply that the testing
was poor or the testers incompetant, particularly given the complexity
of the environment in which they work.

The comment was made asking (essentially) how could I send to a list
of software folks statements that shoddy testing is OK.  I never said
that; you all are assuming that because a bug appeared that testing is
shoddy.  I counter that how can we, as software guys, not have some
understanding of the challenges and issues confronting the folks at
Microsoft?

I also challenge the presumption that every problem needs immediate
fixing.  Do those of you out there who sell software really do that?
I kind of doubt it.  More likely you make an assessment of the impact
of a problem, and decide if it merits fixing, how immediate an issue
it is, and whether it rates a specific fix or gets fixed in the next
release, or the one after that.  Are those who disagree with that
assessment justified to call you unprofessional and your product
shoddy?

I am far from a Microsoft shill; I don't like their business practices
and question the value proposition.  And I despise Bill's politics ?-)
But I don't think I could manage the whole patch/fix/virus situation
any better, so they get the benefit of the doubt from me on that
front.