Could Do Better

Don Bradbury considers the reliability of current computer software and Operating System releases

There will not be a single Windows computer user out there who has not, at one time or another, felt the frustration of operating system crashes, software glitches, driver conflicts, corrupt support files, or Registry failures.

While nothing in this life is perfect, one wonders why so many problems arise in computing circles. I've sometimes felt that we, the unsuspecting public, are actually being used as continuing beta testers for new operating system releases and software versions.

One is forced to that conclusion when even fresh installations crash or complain. Do these software writers not test their products before releasing them? Of course they do, but not enough. That's my contention.

Developers

Think of it this way; the Windows development team is just one example. They're forever under the gaze of uncle Bill, and constantly under pressure to produce the goods within a specified time frame - which may be almost entirely commercial and have little to do with technical problems. Are they going to test in depth? Well it depends on what you mean by 'in depth'.

Look, if you were on that team, do you think you'd actually be trying to break your own baby? Of course not. You'd make a nominal attempt but want to be able to go to that scheduled meeting with the top man and report that 'everything looks good, boss', thus inviting his benevolent smile.

Would you install Fred Bloggs' recent shareware release of 'Zanadu', or whatever, under your new Operating System and try it with that? Nah! Would you get in all the previously troublesome software, even from front line assemblers, and put your precious baby on the rack with those? Not if you could get away with it you wouldn't.

Look, if it shows weaknesses, where does that leave you? In trouble, that's where. Extended deadlines, frowns from colleagues, the boss's bad books. No, you'd try it with all the benevolent stuff and report that everything was just fine.

The gripes

Pardon me if I seem to be venting my spleen here, but having just worked on a fresh Windows ME installation, on a brand new machine, and trying mightily to get all my software installed, configured, and productively up and running, it erks me when I get system reports of this or that 'has failed, you will have to reinstall Windows', or 'Explorer has a core failure and will be closed'.

You know the sort of thing. And it isn't necessarily back-alley stuff were talking about here that causes the crash. This is from companies that are right up there as market leaders. When their software causes trouble, depression is the inevitable outcome. Of course it isn't necessarily the OS that's causing the trouble; it could well be the application. But the same reasoning applies.

Now if the developers had been forced to try their newborn offspring - OS or app - with a wide range of products, before general release, we'd not have so much going wrong that we could complain about. It's just plain common sense, but it isn't the natural law of this commercial world. It's become regular practise to release new products, front-ends and general applications alike, onto an unsuspecting public who 'will surely let us know soon enough if it doesn't work properly; then we'll fix it'.

Competition, that's the thing. It puts pressure on developers to get it right. But there simply ain't enough of it!

Final word

The philosophy we operate under currently just isn't good enough. We should be screaming mightily for better products from the start, and not be having to report back, wait for fixes, patches, and updates. As somebody said recently, it's like taking delivery of a car and then receiving a bag of new parts for it in the post, six months later, just to stop the wheels falling off.

This sort of thing makes many afraid to take the 'car' on the road. I'm going too far? Well, I have one family member in the States who regularly maintains and updates his hardware - it's his hobby - but he's afraid to touch the software, either by way of updates or by actually using it. Right now I feel like joining him!

 

Don Bradbury