4 ms·

That's great advice, but it's untrue that nobody reads changelogs. I read them religiously for software I'm passionate about as a user, and when I solo'd a pro

That's great advice, but it's untrue that nobody reads changelogs. I read them religiously for software I'm passionate about as a user, and when I solo'd a product for a decade I was regularly surprised how familiar some of my customers were with mine (most often when they had dedicated IT resources or were similarly small boutique outfits themselves). I've also managed large, custom enterprise projects where subject matter experts on the other end relied on them (in addition to other channels of communication). What drives me nuts is how some companies decided to water them down. e.g. Windows Update's long list of "security related update" where you have to google KB's to find out what they are, and another company that just always puts in "various fixes and improvements".

amatecha 5y ago
I've started collecting screenshots of app updates that are simply "bug fixes and performance improvements" because it's such a joke at this point. What bugs? How much performance improvement? Did you also nuke one of my favorite features while you were at it, or require other actions of me that I wasn't intending to perform? Who knows? Guess I'll roll the dice once again...
- pull_my_finger 5y ago
  When I read release notes like that I immediately assume malice. I don't believe that the information is not available or that the devs are too lazy to bullet point _at least_ the major changes or vulnerabilities fixed. I think this is generally an excuse to slip in tracking/etc without resistance.
  - gridspy 5y ago
    Nah, it seems more likely that the mgmt. saw the list of bugs and said "don't admit to those!" and the performance improvements ... " Don't say we used to use a stupid O(n^3) algorithm!
- golergka 5y ago
  From my experience, it's probably tens of bugs where each of them happened to less than 0.01% of customers, and requires a overly detailed explanation for anyone who didn't have first-hand experience with it.
adminscoffee 5y ago
yeah, it looks like windows is the virus

amatecha 5y ago

I've started collecting screenshots of app updates that are simply "bug fixes and performance improvements" because it's such a joke at this point. What bugs? How much performance improvement? Did you also nuke one of my favorite features while you were at it, or require other actions of me that I wasn't intending to perform? Who knows? Guess I'll roll the dice once again...

pull_my_finger 5y ago
When I read release notes like that I immediately assume malice. I don't believe that the information is not available or that the devs are too lazy to bullet point _at least_ the major changes or vulnerabilities fixed. I think this is generally an excuse to slip in tracking/etc without resistance.
- gridspy 5y ago
  Nah, it seems more likely that the mgmt. saw the list of bugs and said "don't admit to those!" and the performance improvements ... " Don't say we used to use a stupid O(n^3) algorithm!
golergka 5y ago
From my experience, it's probably tens of bugs where each of them happened to less than 0.01% of customers, and requires a overly detailed explanation for anyone who didn't have first-hand experience with it.

adminscoffee 5y ago

yeah, it looks like windows is the virus