SW2005 Beta Testing Boycott

"Jeff N" wrote in news:burbs0$kbfk5$1@ID-

?????

interesting concept.

wonder how their marketing dweebs would handle that?

"Well, with our beta program, we discovered 17 bugs from 6 users......"

What if they had a beta program and no one came?

At least everyone involved would get a nice shirt. :)

--nick e.

Absolutely it would!

The beta testers from SW04 found somewhere over 3000+ bugs. If it wasn't for the beta testers then you would have more problems then what you had when 04 was released.

If you don't want to test it then don't do it. But don't try to get it boycotted that's stupid... If it wasn't for the Beta testers then you wouldn't have some of the working functionality you have today. I'm not saying that everyone should do this but at least give everyone choice to decide, besides jumping the gun and try to boycott it.

Besides SW05 isn't even ready for beta testing yet.... Jumping on the boat a bit early aren't we Jeff?

Regards, Scott

Could you let me know when SW2004 is ready for beta testing?

Thanks, nick e.

Are you feeling all warm and fuzzy from going to SWWorld or something? I was a Top Beta Tester. I think #15 or something. So I think I have a right to complain that despite all the Beta testing we still received a fairly buggy release and subsequent SPs. BTW-not nearly half of the bugs reported were fixed in SP0. So did it all really matter? You are saying that it would be even worse if the Beta didn't happen. I can see that. But I can also see how it may make them realize that there are a lot of unsatisfied users out here that would like to see a change. Is a boycott the best method? I have no idea and quite frankly wouldn't be the leader of a movement like that. I simply wanted to get the majority feelings on it what would happen, hence my simpy 4 word question.

Next time instead of asking "Would it change anything?" and trying to get an understanding on how everyone feels I'll just ask "Who's with me?". That wouldn't be jumping the gun now would it?

I'm just wondering what would happen. Not gathering a war.

If you did this you would likely revolutionize SolidWorks. I mean think of it, the couple dozen whiners in this news group refusing to beta test SW2005. SolidWorks would have to sit up and take notice. Forget the other 285,000 users of the software who might participate. We all know the people in this news group are the best cross section and best representation of the true world-wide SolidWorks community. They'd have to listen. In fact, I know they will read this post right here. They have to. I mean, who in their right mind would try to develop software without first gauging what a single news group has to say. Forget the fact that you have nearly 300K other users and are part of a multi-billion parent company and that you were founded by some of the brightest minds in the parametric CAD world.

Hey, LISTEN UP SOLIDWORKS. We won't stand for this anymore. Either you start listening to this news group or I am going to withhold my maintenance. Let's see how you will survive without my $1250 per year.

Oh, and by the way, let's also boycott it if they don't port to Linux by 2006. That will teach em.

No I don't think it would. It would possibly just make the release of

What are these "assembly notes" that are supposed to be the 3rd most favorite thing in 04?

The 05 enhancements sound nice. The subsketches could be really cool if they remain linked to an external file. I'll have to wait to see these. I'm sure I'll be disappointed if I keep thinking about what they *could* be.

Some might call this treating the symptom, instead of the disease.

Jim S.

Jeez, you guys don't know how good you have it. Flip over to Autodesk if you want to see some bugs and how *not* to fix them. Two of the last three IV Series releases had bugs so bad that I couldn't use the software. I've had defects logged for YEARS that have gone unfixed... real problems that cause unpredictable geometry. Credit SW for being honest about the defects that exist and their commitment to fix them.

Brian

Well, i feel that the testing did help. Most of the bugs I submitted were fixed as of sp0. What Solidworks needs to do is keep from breaking stuff when they fix existing bugs.

I think crashing is about on par with 2003 sp5, maybe a little less actually. For me, thats about a crash every other day.

Then there are other thing that aren't bugs. Like the new bom, I still can't size the columns down as small as I like.

Jason

"The updated user interface features Windows XP-style icons with 256 colors"

OH MY GOD!!!

Finally!

Do you have ANY idea how long i have been asking for this?!?!

Way to go SW!!!

-nick e.

honest?

like pulling a SP because pdf-printing is allegedly broken?

Like I don't have bugs submitted (SPR and all) that have never been fixed. sheesh.

--nick e.

Jeff

as you have said in this thread you are asking a general question in order to stimulate debate. Well here is my contribution.

People have mentioned that if a boycot of the beta testing happened then all those thousands of bugs would not be found and we would be in worse position - Well this got me thinking.

Imagine if a boycott had happened for 2004, then the tthousands of bugs would not be found - but the next question is - would SW then release sw2004? I am not so sure, as releasing 2004 with an additional 2000 bugs would certainly backfire and if a released SW2004 was even worse than it currently is, then SW's reputation would be trashed. I don't think SW are that stupid to endanger the reputation of their product to such an extent. So they would have had to either delay release untill 2004 (as the name says) or employ testers and slash budgets elsewhere to pay for these testers.

Which would they have done? I don't know - but either way the product would have been better. The downsides to these two options are :-

If release delayed - Results would have been a slower release cycle to a more realistic 1 per year.

Resources spent in house on testing with budgets cut elsewhere - Results would be as quick a release cycle but with less functional additions and more concentration on reliabilty and core features.

Perhaps the boycot of beta testing is a better lever than any boycot of subscription payments if your goal is greater stability over function.

Are there other scenarios I have missed?

What are your comments on the above?

Regards

Jonathan Stedman

I hardly consider THAT a downside.

--nick e.

At least they pulled it. I just wouldn't get PDF functionality for months.

Well put Jonathon. I was thinking the same thing but couldn't put it in "less than harsh" words.

We all need to remember that beta testing wasn't born out of a desire for large corporate software to become better. I believe it was born out of small software shops that lacked the personnel and funding to do their own testing. Shareware comes to mind. I think at some point big companies caught on to the fact that they could enlist zealous users to do free testing, in exchange for a little metal credit, free t-shirt, or whatever. Basically, they found a way to save money. I've been a beta tester in the past, for large and small softwares and really used to enjoy it, until I started to feel more and more used (again, Autodesk comes to mind, circa

- Eddy