It’s been nearly two months since the beta of Windows 7 was officially released to the general public, and some of us have been getting fidgety to know just what bugs have been reported and what will be fixed. Microsoft was biding its time, letting the information collect and nearly stagnate, when we finally got official word on some of the results of the testing process.The reason it took so long, so says Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president for Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group at Microsoft, is from the sheer feedback, and apparently not just from the Send Feedback option on every Windows 7 program title bar.
So if you want to get a word in to Microsoft, don’t shoot an email. They won’t read it. Instead write a blog post including the term “Windows 7,” and you’ll be set.
Sarcasm aside, if what this man says is even half-true (can you really read every blog, comment, and news story about Windows 7 out there on the free web?), then they’re sifting quite the load of information. As it is, the Send Feedback items alone were quite monumental. According to Sinofsky, Microsoft received over 500,000 reports— over 500 reports for each developer on the team to read through and address. During a “peak week in January,” they were receiving one report about every fifteen seconds.
Concerning device compatibility and driver issues, Microsoft recorded over ten million devices on systems running Windows 7, 75 percent of which ran using drivers preinstalled with the system. Almost all of the remaining 25 percent of drivers were able to download drivers from Windows Update or directly from manufacturers.
Sinofsky goes on to describe just what a “bug,” according to the developers, is. It sounds rather broad, especially with that phrase, “any one of dozens of different ways that the software can behave in a way that isn’t expected.” He probably could have said just that and left it and we would have been content, but you know how long-winded people can be when dealing with public relations:
For us a bug is any time the software does something that someone one wasn’t expecting it to do. A bug can be a cosmetic issue, a consistency issue, a crash, a hang, a failure to succeed, a confusing user experience, a compatibility issue, a missing feature, or any one of dozens of different ways that the software can behave in a way that isn’t expected. A bug for us is not an emotional term, but just shorthand for an entry in our database representing feedback on the product. Bugs can be reported by a human or by the various forms of telemetry built into Windows 7. This broad definition allows us to track and catalog everything experienced in the product and do so in a uniform manner.
To the man’s credit, he has personally answered over 2,000 emails from beta testers since August, and that’s actually quite a feat; I’ve personal experience in the matter of answering back hundreds of confused emails from angry parents and students since the exact same month, and it can wear on a body.
Speaking of “bugs,” he also said that Microsoft already has plans to fix a fair 2,000 of them in Windows 7, and I’m willing to bet that there’ll be plenty more before this beta is finished in August. Go, go, Windows.
As a side note, don’t you think I’m entitled to 1/250,000th of the profits made on 7 for my two Send Feedback items? Maybe if I play their games and sue Microsoft, I’ll get recompense.
What do you mean by this?
Unlikely. Though I haven’t read the license you would have had to accept, I’d expect to find a paragraph in there stating you’re not entitled to any compensation.
So, what flavour of Linux do you use?
ya the beta testing is “as is” you are testing and resporting back things with no compensation. “Microsoft is not liable for…” it goes on and on, read the whole EULA, but because i got more than just the beta my rules were different as a ___________________
dude, grow a sense of humor
Putting bugs and go go together sounds like an inspector gadget reference to me.
Go Go robot, humor!
What do you mean by this?
I mean something along the lines of, “yippee skippee: less bugs!” Unless you’re avidly anti-Microsoft or a spider, less bugs in Windows is generally a good thing.
Also, I’m using Ubuntu right now, though I wouldn’t say it’s my system of preference.
Oh, and the part about getting compensated for my testing time wasn’t meant to be taken literal. Though I wouldn’t mind. I’m sure none of us would. Wishful thinking.
Edited 2009-02-27 04:14 UTC
Testing windows is like working for free at McDonalds in your spare time. Why would _anyone_ do that? You could be doing something meaningful with your time! Volunteer for a charity, read a book, spend time with your loved ones or whatever.
Because you pay lots of dollars to Microsoft, they should hold up their end of the bargain and release working software. You are _PAYING_ Microsoft to properly test and engineer the software.
For every hour you spend testing Windows you are basically donating $30 to a convicted corporate felon who’s _only_ stated goal is to extract as much money from you as it possibly can.
Help out testing Ubuntu and you improve something that you have the _rights_ to use, improve, redistribute and even sell. Help testing Ubuntu and you are helping out millions of people. For every hour you spend testing Ubuntu you are basically donating $30 to millions of people all over the world.
Have you ever beta tested software before? You use the software normally, and report bugs when they occur. You just don’t sit there randomly testing features.
Because I pay lots of money to MS, I want the damn thing to be functional, therefore I want them to test teh hell out of it. MS is a big company, but not big enough that they could effectively find bugs at a rate that would allow Windows to be released. It’s very complex.
Nice number, but meaningless, and entirely made up. The Beta is free. If you like Windows, why not be a tester? It gets you better software in the end, and it costs nothing but a little time. It’s my time, don’t tell me how I can best use it.
Again with the 30 bucks? It’s a bogus number, give it up. Ubuntu isn’t out to be a charity, you know. Their stated goal is also to be a successful company, which means making as much money as possible.
Debian or another of the community based distros are the ones that need time and money donated to them, not Ubuntu, they have the same goals as MS. They just want to sell you support.
One of the main reasons to test Windows is because it’s sometimes cool to play with new software, to see how things are going, and maybe get a say. Read the Engineering Windows blog, they seem to be really listening to customers this time, and that is what testing is for. So the money you spend on the final product is money better spent.
If you work in a corporate environment and need windows, testing software before release allows you to be prepared for the new product, to know what works and what doesn’t, and to perhaps get something fixed so your stuff works.
.. that’s kind of a statement, isn’t it?
No company is big enough, not in a reasonable amount of time, Windows is too big.
You know that referring to any business as a “convicted felon” just makes you lose any credibility.
Anyways, welcome to the world, this is how it works. Business makes product, consumer buys product. I guess in your la la land, software developers all get paid from that mysterious money tree right?
I sure hope you and your family live in the woods living off the land, because god forbid they should be working for any busineses, or are forced to purchase any product. Hey, how are you even writing this? Did you make this computer out of a tree you chopped down? No, you purchased it from a corporation who “only_ stated goal is to extract as much money from you as it possibly can”…now grow up.
Corporations are dedicated to making as much money as possible _within_ the bounds of law, which is why Microsoft was in fact found guilty of monopolistic practices, which is in fact a major crime, not to mention anti-capitalistic.
As a consumer and citizen, the free market is a means to creating the greatest social good through economic growth, technological innovation and job creation, I don’t care about making as much money as possible. And that is why I am grateful that we have rules against anti-competitive practices which inhibit all those things. It’s a good thing that people do care about other things besides money or we’d still be using crappy dialup on rubber couplers over analog handsets owned by Ma Bell.
I don’t understand this. You seem to be saying that beta testers for Windows 7 or Ubuntu are somehow paying $30 an hour for the privilege. Said money goes either into Microsoft’s coffers or to ‘millions of people’ somewhere, depending which product you’re testing. Not my words – yours.
Now, brace yourself, I’ve got some good news for you – it’s quite free to beta test either of them! I’ve been testing Windows 7 since mid January and it hasn’t cost me a penny. And last time I checked, Ubuntu was just as free to beta test!
No, he’s saying that beta tester is a paid for job that in this case some people are doing for free so a corporation saves some money in the process of developing a commercial product.
It’s a matter of maximizing the profit getting people to work for free.
Then he went to compare it with beta testing ubuntu, which is a free (in every sense) product.
Where is a beta tester paid? Can you give some examples please? Most beta testing is done for a company by customers. Companies have paid QA people, but those are not beta testers.
Most know example could be game testing, being the kind of job most teens dream about
(they might change their mind though if they asked people working at, say, Eidos).
Beta testing is part of the QA process, and it’s only done for free when you can find enough people willing to do so.
At least they seem to have worked out what bugs are at last.
Be shamed if you did not find any.
The title says it all: Where is this Microsoft bugtracker, and why aren’t their beta testers allowed to access it?
Microsoft’s bug tracker has a lot of super sensitive information. Things like a bug that crashes MSIE due to a buffer overflow in the DHTML parser (usually the bug has a test case or sample file attached as well). Another category is bugs opened as a result of Microsoft partners calling in, clearly they need to keep customer data confidential. At the end of the day, Microsoft has a lot of things they don’t want to share with the public, that’s why it’s called closed source; because you’re out of the loop.
NT – No, Thanks ! I never will report bugs to improve a overpriced, proprietary, closed, full of DRM, with an abusive EULA operating system made by a company that uses and abuses its monopoly position to kill or damage competitors.
I prefer to help free software with bug reports and ideas.
Microsoft should pay por people to test and/or give partial or discounts for the product acquisition.
So, then what you really want to say is that you are simply a troll with nothing better to do with your sad little life but post nonsense about products and services you do not use…smart.
http://connect.microsoft.com — you can file bugs there (as I have a decent handful). The bugs will be examined by someone at MSFT and possibly discussed with their team.
You’ll eventually get a response saying:
1. “We’ve fixed this in the next release” (Closed, Fixed)
2. “This isn’t a fix we feel we can include in Windows 7, but will evaluate it for the next version of Windows” (Closed, Won’t Fix)
3. “This isn’t actually a bug, no matter how you actually want that widget to work — it’s actually working as we’ve designed it. But if you get enough people to complain, we’ll consider re-examining it.” (Closed, by design)
It’s not an open source project, but there is a way to track your bugs, provide comment and validation on other bugs and rate bugs and get some feedback from a developer. (Many of the complaints you’re hearing about Windows 7 are because someone’s precious bug got closed as “Won’t Fix”)
I don’t know if the public has access to this, but I’ve been using Connect for years and I like it.
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