I’ve become increasing aware of the fact that more and more software is released before it’s ready, with more bugs than you can shake a stick at, and with so many releases after the original shipping version that it’s hard to keep up.
It used to be that this type of patching process was most notable in games … in fact, it happens so often for game releases that if it doesn’t, I am surprised. I see a news item that says Game X has shipped, and then, prior to it even reaching the stores, I see a patch news item on the Web.
Now I’m seeing this with application software as well.
For example, System Mechanic 6. I’ve used System Mechanic since Symantec went to activation for SystemWorks. So I’ve used both 4 and 5 previously. I like to the software, but I first purchased the upgrade on October 18th. I believe the version that I downloaded was either 6.0d or 6.0e.
Today, on November 7th, they released version 6.0m. So they’ve gone through 10 new releases in about 3 weeks. And the first release I downloaded was unusable from the start. When I installed it, if I went to browse in Windows Explorer, and clicked on My Computer, the Explorer Window would hang. This was fixed in the second patch release (not the first), but how did it ever get out the door?
I have also seen about 5 – 6 releases of Acronis True Image since I updated to version 9 late last month. Perhaps October is a buggy month for software.
At any rate, I understand that QA-ing software is difficult, but there are companies, even smaller ones, that don’t have to patch a piece of software 10 times or more to get it right. Example: Raxco Software’s PerfectDisk 7 … since I bought it about a year ago it has only been patched twice … and those patches were released long after the initial release so it wasn’t like the bugs were obvious ones, as in the case of System Mechanic 6.
I’m glad that companies stand behind their products and patch them quickly, but I wonder if the Internet and the ability to download patches easily has made companies more cavalier in their testing procedures.
