This op-ed does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the author's employer or of Dr. Dobb's Journal . While I agree that completely bug-free software is not a reasonable expectation, I must disagree with the overall tone of this editorial. This suggests to me that adequate testing has not taken place, or that problems have been deliberately ignored. Based on my experience as both a system developer and a system user, I find that most systems developers and programmers are very ineffective when it comes to giving a program a real workout. It is possible to develop complex programs which are largely bug-free, and it doesn't have to take forever to reach that level, either.
Consumers buy their computers with the operating system already installed.
Almost all consumer-oriented computers have Windows 98 installed as opposed to NT, and with good reason.