Reply #33: vigilanteism is much cheaper [View All]

"Patches" means someone has to find the bugs and fix the program. What a waste!

Think: For that $500000 Microsoft could potentially hire and equip 5 additional QA engineers to work their products prior to release. Of course, these guys aren't necessarily any more qualified than the dozens of other people doing bug testing for Microsoft, but they'd be extra manpower. Naturally, if they find bugs, especially serious ones ("showstoppers") like security exploits, these guys will turn around to the software developers and say, "we gotta fix this."

At that point, the software dev guys are pulled off some other task, and go into the "design spin" cycle along with QA. Then, you end up delaying the release, and that brings down stock prices. No one is happy. Everyone's schedule takes a beating. And the software will STILL have undiscovered holes.

So PATCH the holes you say? Well, that's all jim-dandy and ethical-like, but it's a whole lot easier just to EOL the software and point people to the new version. By patching software, thereby backfilling and strengthening an older product, you are increasingly in competition with your "new and improved" product. Where's the profit in that?

Software megaliths like Microsoft long-ago realized that the money isn't in producing and maintaining high-quality products, it's in producing a lot of product versions and upgrades for consumptive excitement. You don't just release "Windows 2000", and then support the hell out of it; that's "old think". Instead, pre-release "Windows Millenium", then release "Windows 2000", then "Windows 2000 upgrade package", and then "Windows XP". Bam, bam, bam! Lots of product lines, lots of R&D, lots of cutting edge features, lots of happy dipshits who'll buy anything in a colorful package the size of a cereal box.

The first folks to get the axe under this paradigm are QA engineers, of course, especially anyone involved with regression testing and backwards compatibility. Those things are relics of a time when companies took pride in their workmanship, and worse than useless in the new "attention defecit" software life cycle.

You got a bug? Call the hotline! They'll point you to the new version upgrade, which you can download from the colorful ad-packed website. Or maybe it's not something they've seen before... oh, that's a shame. Fill out the form, please. We'll get back to you as soon as we fix the problem *yea right* ... or, you can just try the new version and see if its fixed! Voila! Everyone's happy.

In the new paradigm, where a high-schooler with a grudge can crank out a nasty web worm in a matter of hours, putting up big bounties is much more efficient. If you jumpstart that worm, you'd better not brag to your friends, cos they'll crawl over each other to be the first to rake in that cool cash by ratting on your ass. This does open up the interesting possibility of framing someone for the worm, and collecting the reward yourself, but you'll have to be sharp to give consistent perjury in the trial without blowing it.

Efficiency. Economic profits. Scalabile solutions. Stock options. The new way to avoid entropy in pursuit of these grand ideals is by appealling to the most base nature of greedy humans.