We need public open bug tracking. For everything.
No more "put your bug in here, trust us, we'll fix it". They won't. They'll say you're the only one with the problem. Everyone will be so uninspired they won't report bugs.
No more "put your bug in here, trust us, we'll fix it". They won't. They'll say you're the only one with the problem. Everyone will be so uninspired they won't report bugs.
My own personal example is Issue 2600 in Android, which hasn't been fixed several years after it was first , and is a big issue for us non-English-character users (particularly the ñ spanish character ).
The good thing with open bug trackers? You can contribute a patch if upstream is ignoring your request or taking too long to fix it.
If I have a problem on a Mac, I can report it. I will get no feedback, and maybe the problem will get fixed. If it does get fixed, I will get no information about if my bug report led to the fix: the feedback loop is missing - there is no incentive to report a bug.
Open source hardware is a problem, agreed - I hope in the future there will be more of it available. Even open source houses, why not. If there is an open source plan for a house, maybe there will be a community fixing common problems with it.
Your solution to the dead-end of reporting bugs to Apple, is to recommend that I don't use a Mac?
No, the solution is that Apple open their bug reporting up.
If it gets enough attention, Apple will have to care.
Edit: to clarify, I was under the impression that there are already companies that provide "complaint forms" (bug trackers) for products of other companies. So I was wondering if they provide such a tracker for Apple and how much activity it provides. I thought getsatisfaction was such a company, but maybe it was another one.
Seriously, more often than not the feedback is an excuse why they aren't going to fix it. Look, if you aren't going to fix the bug then you aren't; so be it; your choice. But don't tell me your excuse. I don't want to hear it. It will just annoy me and tempt me to get into an argument and waste both our time. Just throw my bug report in the recycle bin and we can both get on with our lives.
(Mind you there has to be a feedback capability for the rarer occasions when the programmer needs to ask for clarification about how to reproduce the bug.)