We all are beta testers in the software industry world. No product is final there are still bugs that never get fixed but we'll release a new product and say's it's better. But hold on we'll reinvent the wheel while we are at it and make it new!
Microsoft Apple, Adobe all do it. Ms Office 08 for Mac is terrible. Apple releases OS updates every other month it's nuts!
I obviously come from a different part of the world, working at Enfocus and - once a long time ago - having been the developer who started the PitStop product. I understand your concerns and I understand where you are coming from. But I refuse to see it as black and white as you state it to be honest.
Yes, software companies have economic pressure to come up with innovations and make money. And that forces us to make choices and search a balance. But let's not overlook the fact that making software is not an easy thing either. Making software that pleases everyone it is sold to is an impossible feat altogether.
So the solution is to "perfect" what is there and not come up with innovations? I have a very hard time buying into statements like that. Are you seriously saying that we would be better of with a version of Ms-Dos that was perfected? Or a version of Mac OS Classic where all the bugs were fixed?
The bottom line is that your world changes. We started with a PDF editor in 1997 when people went "Huh?" when you talked about PDF, but when it slowly started to make its way into graphic arts workflows. Due to the changes in the graphic arts reality, software
needed to change as well. Perhaps we software developers should return the favor and ask you not to change the way you work? Hey, if Gutenberg could work with little lead characters, why not just perfect that?
So we software developers always loose (poor sods). If we implement new things, there are things that don't work properly and the software doesn't do what we think it should be doing. If we don't implement new things, there's an outrage about not listening and responding to our users.
I'll be the first to acknowledge that software vendors often need to do a better job. I'm frankly amazed at how bad some applications or features in applications are. Yet at the same time I know first hand how difficult it is to get it "right". I can extend a heartfelt invitation to everyone in the printing industry to come and enjoy a couple of days in our quality testing or support department.
I'm not even being sarcastic - I would love the feedback. I talk to end-users frequently, at shows like GraphExpo and Drupa for example. Many of them talk about problems to me and in many cases they haven't reported them to support. I understand that - it's not your job to be a beta tester. But at the same time, if you don't tell us that something is broken or isn't doing what you need, it's very hard for us to fix it.
Many of our users
do report problems and submit great ideas for features that would save them a lot of time. Products like PitStop Professional and Switch actually contain many of such features. The result of the graphic arts professionals and the software professionals working together. That's how you get things done.
This obviously is a subject that is kind of dear to me, so you'll have to forgive my rant. And don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying I can't stand criticism. Far from. But there are those software vendors who try to work with their users to solve problems and make their software better. Please work with us. It would be much appreciated.
If you could drop me a note at davidvd at enfocus dot com that would be great. (Anyone else who would like to give feedback and participate is more than welcome to do the same).
