[docbop]

The hard part is the public has no idea what its really like to do commercial software development. I used to be that human contact for a product like one of you suggested Apple do and a dev and QA engineer. I wish customer could hear themselves they all are 800 pound gorillas on the phone, email. or online and they all are either going to return the product or sue. Then everything is a life ending bug even just cosmetic issues. Then the ones reporting something broken and demanding fixes for some obscure thing that no normal user would ever do, but they came up with it and scream and holler and make threats. I could go on but you get the idea. That is why companies have tough time prioritizing bugs.

The other thing that people don't understand is the cost and time required to fix a bug. Yes, many bugs can be fixed easily, but the big time consumer is QA testing. How many other things broke because of the side-effects of making a code change. So many companies won't release bug files until they can perform a full QA cycle to test the fix. A full QA cycle especially on a product the size of Logic it could take weeks. So that is why companies are fixing things, but wait till they have a large stack of fixes before doing a QA cycle. Then code breaks code and that has to be fixed.
Then the fix has to be packaged and that has to be tested. So the fix and test process is long and costly. One place I worked (a large SW publisher still in business) had fixes to a product I worked on, but never shipped them, the budget wasn't there for the QA cycle. Attitude was a documented bug and/or workaround is as good as a fix.

Yes, I can hear some of you say open source does it. Open source you live on constant update because you are the QA team. One fix break other thing that some other people have to fix. Plus open source can't get sued if a bug fix corrupts or loses data and lawsuit are very real in the commercial world.

So I'm not trying to defend Apple or any software company, but give a peek into the other side. Getting bugs, prioritizing them, deciding when or if to fix, fixing, QA test, repeat and repeat, then package and test package, release. All the while new development is going on and these bugs and code has to be integrated to that bugbase. All the while real customers are screaming, phony customers are screaming even louder, and some large customers have lawyers writing letters.

FYI most new products or major upgrade have bug fixes waiting to be released, before the product hits the store shelves. The lead time to manufacture the CD/DVD's and package the products takes weeks and in that time bugs are found and fixed. I worked at a place where the QA guy started putting bug fixes on the website before the product had been released.