🚀 go-pugleaf

msissom@dnaent.com wrote: 
> Nonsense, without even resorting to legalsleaze hair splitting, 

Theres no hair splitting about it. There are implied warranties.
Software manufacturers disavow them in the licenses because they
couldn't possibly uphold them.  

> there
> are faults in every product available on every market. You expect a
> perfect product from one particular industry even though you happily
> accept imperfection in every other product that you purchase.

Not perfect, no. Just fit for the purpose for which it was sold. This
condition is not very well defined for software, but it is beginning to
be worked on (software publishers here in the UK have recently been
subjected to the sale of goods act, and made to refund payments).
Possibly the most important thing is a better educated public so
products can be sold on their merits, not on hype. One contribution to
that end is high profile Open Source projects like Linux, which point up
flaws in the commercial model by doing so well in a free environment. 

> Straighten up. Either apply your ideals everywhere, or admit that
> Eden doesn't exist and find a viable compromise. I'm all for the
> second. I only expect the *same* from software manufacturers that
> I expect from the manufacturers of other products. I don't expect
> perfection from anyone.

Me neither, *but* as a professional software engineer I believe that our
industry is sloppy in the extreme when it comes to the idea of what
constitutes satisfactory quality. If we take microelectronics and
compare it with software, it has to be noted that Intel was lynched for
*one* bug in the Pentium, but noone flinches at thousands of bugs in the
average software product. I think the two are of comparable complexity
and have comparabel levels of risk attached. 

Now arguably the software is easier to fix, and to a large extent I
would agree with that, but it also has to be noted that the current
schemes of licensing and copright make it impossible for an individual
to repair the system themselves. They have to wait for the manufacturer,
who may never respond to their request. I think thats worth trying to
fix, don't you ?

I'm not a free software fanatic. I do believe that greater availablity
of source code, and an acknowledgement from software companies that
their customers deserve more rights would be to the good, but I do not
expect everything to be free (gratis) or even Free (Open Source).

Simon