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From: coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu (John Coolidge)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: All Commercial Software Developers or Companies (pls read)
Message-ID: <1991Jun28.182459.28685@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 28 Jun 91 18:24:59 GMT
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jon@weber.ucsd.edu (Jon Matousek) writes:
>In article <5363@ryn.mro4.dec.com> long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Rich Long) writes:
>> It would also be great if software companies took some responsibility in
>> their licence agreements, instead of disclaiming everything! 

>On the same subject, but a slightly different perspective, it should be
>realized that beta testers will not catch everything. No matter how hard
>you try to find all of the bugs, there will always be some that slip by.
>Nisus must pass through beta testers, hours running a random "monkey"
>macro, and a macro that test major features. It is truely difficult to
>find all of the bugs in a program that contains several hundred thousand
>lines of source code.

All this is about as much justification for the current state of license
agreements as the price of software is for software piracy. I enjoy the
"benefits" of the current situation to some extent (being a programmer)
but I wish that it would end. Certainly other hypercomplex systems
manufacturers do not disclaim responsibility for their products anywhere
near as vigorously as the software business does. Can you imagine Boeing
telling customers that the 747 is "sold as is" and is not warranteed for
fitness for any purpose (including flying)? With many license agreements
I've seen, the company could hand you a blank disk and meet their side
of the bargain.

>With this in mind, it is my personal opinion that the end user needs to
>realize that he/she has a responsibility to report problems (or ideas) about
>software they are using to the developers of the software. This is
>because software is a fluid medium, it is forever being improved upon.

This is certainly true. However, vendors in turn have a responsibility
to respond to bug reports and issue fixes in a timely manner. Upgrades
which fix bugs should be free or media-cost-only (hey --- I _paid_ for a
program to do x. If it can't do x because of a bug, then the bug fix
should be part of what I paid for in the first place). Some vendors
actually follow such a policy; many do not. There are clear problems
with giving too much responsibility to the software vendor, but the
current system often places far too little on them.

--John

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
John L. Coolidge     Internet:coolidge@cs.uiuc.edu   UUCP:uiucdcs!coolidge
Of course I don't speak for the U of I (or anyone else except myself)
Copyright 1991 John L. Coolidge. Copying allowed if (and only if) attributed.
You may redistribute this article if and only if your recipients may as well.