'Why I've Stopped Reporting Bugs to Ubuntu'
Linked by Eugenia Loli on Fri 18th Jan 2008 10:38 UTC, submitted by glyphobet
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu Glyphobet writes "I've largely stopped reporting bugs to Ubuntu because of the condescending and dismissive attitude from their developers. Until Ubuntu's bug management culture starts to change, people like me, who can actually help make Ubuntu better, will be less and less likely to contribute."
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Joe User
Member since:
2005-06-29

This is not new. Most open-source projects are know for discarting enhancement suggestions, and minor bugs. People complain open-source software is not polished, is more difficult to use, is designed a way that doesn't always make sense.

I have taken much of my time using open-source software and reporting suggestions to revamp the applications. All of these suggestions have been either:

1. Left as "NEW" even after years
2. Marked as "WONTFIX" with a rude comment underneath

When you have reported more than a hundred, if not hundreds of feature requests, enhancements, and minor bugs and none of them have been adressed, you just stop involving yourself in testing. This is not just Ubuntu, but also software like GIMP, KDE, Seamonkey, OpenOffice.org which are also notorious for this kind of negative attitude.

Oddly the aforementioned applications aren't the most polished.

Edited 2008-01-18 12:30 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 2

archiesteel Member since:
2005-07-02

To be fair, at least with Open Source projects you *can* leave bug reports and access the bug databases. I'm still wondering where I can file in a bug report for MS Word's horrible handling of image positions in a document...

Reply Parent Score: 10

startxjeff Member since:
2006-09-29

hahh... you must be Mike Cox in disguise.

The last I checked, Windows had 44 critical security vulnerabilities that have not been resolved.

I've complained about this, and also made feature requests to Microsoft regarding removal of DRM from Vista.

Microsoft hasn't fixed these bugs, or removed the DRM from Vista.

Using your logic - Windows sucks.

Reply Parent Score: 7

Joe User Member since:
2005-06-29

I couldn't agree more, but why compare with the worst?!

Reply Parent Score: -1

PlatformAgnostic Member since:
2006-01-02

I'm pretty interested in this list of 44 vulns... can you point them out?

About the DRM... I'm sorry that it bothers you. If you really care, just don't run DRMed media, and nothing will happen. The alternative to the current state of affairs is that folks will start writing their own DRM software and destabilize your machine by doing unsafe operations (like the well-known Sony product, or another funny program that was using the Debug Registers for DRM purposes).

Reply Parent Score: 2

Read more of this thread... >
snozzberry Member since:
2005-11-14

but also software like GIMP


Try using the bucket tool inside a lasso selection. Fireworks did this, Photoshop does this...GIMP can't. It fills outside the selection.

When I tracked down the appropriate bug list and filed it, the answer I got from the maintainer was that the bucket fill code was "too optimized" (read: indecipherable) to adapt to anything except its current behavior (using the document's own bounding box to restrict fill). The prospect of sitting down with the code to understand its workings or rewrite it altogether was off the table.

Hell, GIMP's own native file format is only documented inside the application's source code the last time I checked.

Reply Parent Score: 2