4 ms·

Has anyone figured out why exactly Microsoft makes such buggy software? Is it a company culture thing?

freehunter 15y ago
Massive company. Massive software projects. Massive amount of end users. Massive amount of use cases for their software. Time restrictions on their development. The wording you used makes it sound like they make buggy software on purpose, which makes no sense.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  > they make buggy software on purpose Actually, they do. Microsoft could spend more time and resources debugging it, or limit the number of use cases it addresses, make it simpler, support less hardware... Obviously, they chose more functionality for the end user, a broader selection of supported hardware and shorter time to market. That comes with a price. It's always a compromise. "Done is better than perfect" And, to be fair, it could also be a hardware problem. You know, hardware has bugs too.
  - freehunter 15y ago
    The difference is between "creating bugs" and "accepting bugs". Shipping buggy code is different than creating buggy code on purpose.
    - rbanffy 15y ago
      All the bugs in my code are there because I wrote them. Of course, I didn't mean to, but, nevertheless, it's not like they appeared spontaneously.
- firefoxman1 15y ago
  Oh, sorry. Yeah I meant why they end up producing buggy software when competitors like Apple have proven it's possible to both ship and make stable software. And Apple does both hardware and software.
  - melling 15y ago
    I love Apple products but I don't think my Safari iPad browser needs to crash all the time. Embedded video especially seems to be a problem.
  - stevejabs 15y ago
    I seem to recall an iOS presentation where people were told to turn off their wifi or Jobsy wouldn't continue...
    - Zirro 15y ago
      Which had absolutely nothing to do with buggy software.
  - throwaway64 15y ago
    both lion and snow leopard have had their share of buggy behavior
  - prezjordan 15y ago
    Honestly? The average consumer doesn't need that degree of quality. I have friends who cannot tell the difference between scrolling on my Android phone and scrolling on my iPhone. It's something that drives me wild. I feel that it's almost the same principle - things may crash here and there but it's "no big deal" to most people.
  - efsavage 15y ago
    You partly answered your own question. When you control the hardware and the software, the number of testing variables goes down dramatically. Of course, by that logic, since the same company that made my macbook did the hardware and the software, I'd expect it to be much more stable than my windows boxes, but sadly it is not.
  - josefresco 15y ago
    Are you actually suggesting that iTunes is "stable software"? Please wake me up when your fantasy is over. Also, I've experienced more crashes within iOS on my iPad than I have in 15+ years of using Windows. Anecdotal evidence of course but it's not like you cited any actual data either.
- nalsh 15y ago
  freehunter's right. Imagine if a company like Bethesda worked on a project with the scale of a Windows OS. I love Bethesda games, but they tend to be buggier. And so would a Bethesda OS. When you look at the numbers, I would argue that MS does a pretty good job.
elorant 15y ago
Because they have to support every freaking hardware device out there. If you control all aspects of the machine things can work out pretty smoothly.
- icefox 15y ago
  Don't they dictate what hardware their tablet OS supports? Don't they control the demo hardware?
- rbanffy 15y ago
  > they have to support every freaking hardware device out there. Don't the hardware makers do that?
hamidpalo 15y ago
There's a bug in a beta release! Stop the presses!
andrewljohnson 15y ago
Conway's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conways_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conways_law

Massive company. Massive software projects. Massive amount of end users. Massive amount of use cases for their software. Time restrictions on their development. The wording you used makes it sound like they make buggy software on purpose, which makes no sense.

rbanffy 15y ago
> they make buggy software on purpose Actually, they do. Microsoft could spend more time and resources debugging it, or limit the number of use cases it addresses, make it simpler, support less hardware... Obviously, they chose more functionality for the end user, a broader selection of supported hardware and shorter time to market. That comes with a price. It's always a compromise. "Done is better than perfect" And, to be fair, it could also be a hardware problem. You know, hardware has bugs too.
- freehunter 15y ago
  The difference is between "creating bugs" and "accepting bugs". Shipping buggy code is different than creating buggy code on purpose.
  - rbanffy 15y ago
    All the bugs in my code are there because I wrote them. Of course, I didn't mean to, but, nevertheless, it's not like they appeared spontaneously.
firefoxman1 15y ago
Oh, sorry. Yeah I meant why they end up producing buggy software when competitors like Apple have proven it's possible to both ship and make stable software. And Apple does both hardware and software.
- melling 15y ago
  I love Apple products but I don't think my Safari iPad browser needs to crash all the time. Embedded video especially seems to be a problem.
- stevejabs 15y ago
  I seem to recall an iOS presentation where people were told to turn off their wifi or Jobsy wouldn't continue...
  - Zirro 15y ago
    Which had absolutely nothing to do with buggy software.
- throwaway64 15y ago
  both lion and snow leopard have had their share of buggy behavior
- prezjordan 15y ago
  Honestly? The average consumer doesn't need that degree of quality. I have friends who cannot tell the difference between scrolling on my Android phone and scrolling on my iPhone. It's something that drives me wild. I feel that it's almost the same principle - things may crash here and there but it's "no big deal" to most people.
- efsavage 15y ago
  You partly answered your own question. When you control the hardware and the software, the number of testing variables goes down dramatically. Of course, by that logic, since the same company that made my macbook did the hardware and the software, I'd expect it to be much more stable than my windows boxes, but sadly it is not.
- josefresco 15y ago
  Are you actually suggesting that iTunes is "stable software"? Please wake me up when your fantasy is over. Also, I've experienced more crashes within iOS on my iPad than I have in 15+ years of using Windows. Anecdotal evidence of course but it's not like you cited any actual data either.
nalsh 15y ago
freehunter's right. Imagine if a company like Bethesda worked on a project with the scale of a Windows OS. I love Bethesda games, but they tend to be buggier. And so would a Bethesda OS. When you look at the numbers, I would argue that MS does a pretty good job.

elorant 15y ago

Because they have to support every freaking hardware device out there. If you control all aspects of the machine things can work out pretty smoothly.

icefox 15y ago
Don't they dictate what hardware their tablet OS supports? Don't they control the demo hardware?
rbanffy 15y ago
> they have to support every freaking hardware device out there. Don't the hardware makers do that?

hamidpalo 15y ago

There's a bug in a beta release! Stop the presses!

andrewljohnson 15y ago

Conway's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conways_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conways_law