From: paul@hal.COM (Paul Sander)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aux
Subject: Re: Reporting bugs in A/UX
Date: 5 Sep 92 01:29:37 GMT
Organization: HaL Computer Systems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: parlo.hal.com

In article <1992Sep3.204122.464@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> xrsbg@calvin.gsfc.nasa.gov (Steve B. Green) writes:
>In article <183fioINNg7t@parlo.hal.COM> paul@hal.COM (Paul Sander) writes:
>>In article <1992Sep2.054029.7176@panix.com> alexis@panix.com (Alexis Rosen)
>>writes:
>>>dundas@chip.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (John Dundas) writes:
>>> [Complains that bugs reported via comp.unix.aux and
>>>  reports.aux@applelink.apple.com go unacknowledged]
>>>[deleted]
>>[stuff about purchasing phone support]
>
>Garbage!  Dont tell me that I have to purchase phone support so the
>bugs I report can get fixed.

I didn't.  I said that you shouldn't expect an acknowledgement of your
report, nor should you expect _fast_ service.  You didn't pay for it,
so why should you expect them to do something for you (which may entail
a significant amount of resources to reproduce, repair, and QA the bug)
for free?

>The problem is that Apple does not put enough weight on responding to
>reported bugs.  Antonio has been known to respond to some reports but
>the stated policy was(/is?) NOT to respond to reports.

That was before the support folks were moved to Austin.  That organization
seems to have its act a bit more together.  Nevertheless, I wouldn't
expect them to respond to any bug report that doesn't have a customer
access number on it in any timely fashion.  (Well, if it reports a
kernel panic, then maybe they should jump on it, but most problems
reported that way probably aren't as severe as that.)

>To be fair, I am sure that not all reports that I have submitted have 
>actually been bugs.  However, I can say for sure that I know of bug(s)
>that I have submitted during 2.0b12 (or so) that still exist in 3.0.
>So why is that..  Broken by design?  Apple does not care?  The information
>never got to the correct person?  What?

I reported one against 2.01 that was fixed by replacing UUCP.  It turns
out that the underlying cause (differing sizes of the ino_t data type
based upon compatibility options, with the smaller [useless] one being
the one used for System V and BSD compatibility) wasn't fixed.  I assume
this is for backward compatibility reasons.  Some things are BAD (Broken
As Designed) and can't be fixed.

>I guess I will never know but because of that, I will submit no more bug
>reports to Apple.

Then you'll have no more bugs fixed.  Too bad.

>For comparison, when I submit a bug report to Convex, I get a notice
>of receipt within 24 hours and a number to track the problem with.
>When the report is delt with, I get another notice of the resolution.
>... and we dont even have to pay for that service.  :)

Well, someone has to pay for it.  If you don't, then either your
company does or the vendor does.  I've not dealt with Convex, but
I've worked for companies that have dealt with Sun, IBM, DEC, HP,
and others.  All of them had to pay for support services, either
through the vendor, or through third party support organizations.
Or, they could fix their own bugs, as I have done in the past with
other systems.  Frankly, I'd rather have someone else more familiar
with the innards of the system do the support, and I'm willing to
compensate them for their effort.  Apple's support is inexpensive,
and has demonstrated responsiveness to me, so I use it.
-- 
Paul M. Sander  (408) 379-7000  |  "No guts, no glory"
HaL Computer Systems, Inc.      |  -- Bumper Sticker
1315 Dell Avenue                |  "No brains, no headaches"
Campbell, CA  95008  USA        |  -- Mindy Lee
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aux