[PLUG] bugs in Vista betas

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Thu Dec 28 00:35:41 UTC 2006


A friend wrote: 
> Beta Testers are finding flaws in Microshaft's Vista.

I wouldn't fault Microsoft for this, unless they react badly.  Finding
flaws is what beta test is for ("beta than nothing" as they say). 
My real worry is that the bad publicity will cause them to shoot the
messenger, scale back their beta testing process, and postpone the 
outside bug-finding process until after major release.  All new
software contains flaws that are only findable by outsiders.  Eric
Raymond says, "with enough eyes, all bugs are shallow." Every bug
found now is one less that could torment tens of millions of users
in the future.  We should celebrate these flaws.

So while there are a lot of things I don't like about Microsoft, bugs
found in betas are not one of them.  Open source software has many more
bugs on initial release, and relies on community involvement to find
them.   Over time, the bugs are found and the software becomes really
robust and bug-free.  I would like to see Microsoft release betas much
sooner, and let the world find the flaws sooner, before the flaws
become cast in stone.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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