github - the user gagging tool

It is no secret that there are no bugs in open source software. At least not from the developers' and maintainers' perspectives. User perspective does not matter and here is how.

Every open source developer is afraid of bug reports. They panic from every one submitted into their trackers and close most of them w/o resolution. github empowers them for that by allowing permanent closure of the tickets.

In a normal business environment even if a support person closes a user's ticket, further feedback from the user re-opens it. At least that is how companies with a shred of ethics operate (not Microsoft, no of course).

On github bug reports, closed w/o so much as asking "Can you upgrade to our next version, or are you stuck on the bugged old one for whatever reason?" cannot receive any further feedback or clarifications to the developer's complete misunderstanding of the problem.

github empowers the inept developers and gags the users in a "STFU!" way. Boo, github! You are monsters.

Posted by: LinuxLies at 09:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Genius developers always do that: create bugs. What do they never do?

If you answered 'test' then you are correct! Genius developers never test their code and never run their genius decisions by their user base.

Enter TexStudio - a better fork of TexMaker, about which I already blogged. TexStudio did not seem to be permeated with a hint of madness, unlike its parent project. But two things: the developers have insulated themselves from their user base by moving their code and tracker to github. Now every user has to register there as well. Another online account for everyone.

And here is my pet peeve: if one is an advanced user doing real work, they would have tons of macros to accelerate text entry. And if you have multiple profiles, then sooner or later you would realize that your precious macros are disappearing without trace. After a bit of digging you would find that after you enter a macro, the current profile is not saved automatically and it is enough to switch profile and macros would be gone.

First of all, do not save macros in the profile, unless the user wants them to be local to it. Save it globally! Second, if you save macros in profiles, save the profile automatically once the user Okays the macros dialog box. Otherwise in your genius stupidity you allowed the user to store their macros in memory only, without persisting them to disk, and the user has no way of knowing it!!!

And how do you envision it, to begin with? So I want to use a macro to enter some LaTeX code... Only in one profile, you think? So if I have two or more profiles, I would have to re-enter the macros into each of them, and remember to save every time? What on Earth were you thinking???

So my request to all genius open-source developers: cut down on genius ideas and keep it simple. We, your users, are sick and tired of you non-stop pumping new half-baked functionality into your software, of which there is too much. We are only interested in stable and functional software. It provides no value if you develop something which works 50% of the time, and also introduce bugs into what previously worked.

Posted by: LinuxLies at 09:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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