[Am-info] Microsoft Code Has No Bugs

[Felmon Davis]

On Tuesday 09 July 2002 00:05, Fred A. Miller spake thusly:
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Gates says,=20
No. I'm saying: We don't do a new version to fix bugs. We don't. Not=20
enough people would buy it. You can take a hundred people using=20
Microsoft Word. Call them up and say "Would you buy a new version=20
because of bugs?" You won't get a single person to say they'd buy a=20
new version because of bugs. We'd never be able to sell a release on=20
that basis.

this strikes me as being truthful. if MS tried to sell a new version=20
of X by saying, "X fixes the bugs of its predecessor", people would=20
be outraged. that is never the reason MS gives; thus they say=20
instead, "X has new features, therefore buy it."

there is an ambiguity here: what he is obscuring is that, nonetheless,=20
bug fixes are often the _reason_ why people upgrade. he adds that=20
this is the 'stupidest reason in the world'; nonetheless, it does=20
seem to be what users do (and what vendors recommend).

some of the other statements he makes seem a bit untruthful but I=20
don't have the facts, e.g.: calls to MS almost never involve bugs=20
("less than 1 percent").

he has succeeded in implying that people who complain about bugs are=20
(a) luddites, (b) computer-incompetent or (c) trying to be 'in' and=20
but, on the other hand, since MS _acknowledges_ (please note!) only=20
less than 1% of the calls as referring to bugs, this crowd of users=20
must be way in the minority. (he says most calls are from people who=20
simply want to understand cool new features.)=20

these things have been churned around before; the only point I wanted=20
to add is that his claim that the 'stupidest reason in the world' to=20
upgrade is to fix bugs, is probably right.

F.