Excerpt:
770 is a fully supported Nokia product. As an example, we released a new official OS2006 version for the Nokia 770 only yesterday. So it is also getting better. Also, a new OS2006 SDK was released yesterday. And as I said in my previous post, we follow the situation as we go on and keep on supporting the product.Nokia's Responsibility: Unless Nokia hires an entire second development team, the development on the IT2006 simply HAS to be slower to make room for IT2007. IT2006 and the Nokia 770 may not necessarily have additional features added, but Nokia is obligated to continue to watch for bugs as they appear and then act on the most critical of them.
Our Responsibility: Most consumers don't know what it's like to be part of the Linux and open-source community. The simple fact is that there are far more consumers than there are developers and the developers rely upon the end-users to submit bug reports. When submitting a bug report, first search the outstanding bugs to see if yours already exists. Here's a good example of a bug. Go ahead and comment on outstanding bugs to let the developers know that you're experiencing the same problem and, if possible, add more details like what steps you took to replicate the bug.
For example: A user can report that their Internet Tablet crashes about every 20 minutes while connected to a WPA/PSK network. Another user can find the bug and say "Yes, that happens to me too. I noticed it's after exactly 24 megabytes have been transferred." and a third can say "I have the same problem, but only when connected at home. I use a Belkin 802.11n router at home with WPA/PSK enabled." The fourth report can chime in verifying that they, too, have the same router and can experience the same crash, but it works fine when using WEP instead of WPA/PSK. Now it's much easier for developers to replicate the bug scenario and develop a fix for it. With all this information, it's also easier to prioritize it on how common it is and how it effects the user experience.
What do you mean "I have responsibilities?" I paid for my Nokia 770! Isn't that enough? Short answer: No. The manufacturer is required to "due diligence" in providing a product that functions as advertised. In the vast majority of situations, the Nokia 770 DOES work as advertised. However, the manufacturer is not obligated to know about all potential points of failure upon release nor are they obligated to continue to enhance the user experience AFTER release. In regards to their legal responsibility, Nokia has gone above and beyond the call of duty to respond to user requests by offering Google Talk, an on-screen keyboard, swap memory, and many more enhancements since OS2005. As demonstrated by the recent OS2006 update, they also are continuing to respond to bug reports based on frequency and priority. Our responsibility as Nokia 770 owners is to let them know that there ARE problems and to be as specific as possible. They give us Bugzilla to help us do this.
Final Note: This is not an invitation to flood Bugzilla with complaints. It will make it useless to both other users and developers. Good developer time would be wasted with identifying and closing all duplicate or erroneous bugs. Nokia wants us to have the best possible experience with our tablets: Let's not make it harder for them to provide it.
21 comments:
"the manufacturer is not obligated to know about all potential points of failure upon release nor are they obligated to continue to enhance the user experience AFTER release."
Sorry, that's just funny to me. :D
Seriously, that is a pretty funny statement. Sure they aren't obligated. Just as we aren't obligated to buy any of their products. But when a manufacturer releases a buggy device, they certainly should try to fix the software issues. If they don't, consumers certainly shouldn't continue to support them...
By "enhance user experience" I mean "add features and functionality." I did not mean that they're NOT obligated to fix a product if it does not function as advertised.
The two posts above are missing the point. The first part is to a large extent unavoidable and anyone with a decent understanding of the eletronics industry, particularly computing devices, understands why it is so.
The key word in the second part is ENHANCE. Yes, I believe bug fixes of known issues are certainly an obligation of device manufacturers. However, enhancing the user experience, just as thoughtfix specifically pointed out, is not. Consumers buy a product with the expectation that what it does is what it does. Any enhancements added afterward are a bonus, not the result of obligation.
I realize tossing up another analogy in this crowd is asking for a good flaming, but at a high level one can consider that enhancements are not regularly added to other categorical products we purchase. Buy a steel-handled wrench, and you get what that wrench does-- not what it might do if the manufacturer decides to send out, say, rubber grips to every purchaser. That's a bonus if they do so. But we bought the wrench knowing its scope-- and if we didn't know, caveat emptor applies.
However, if the wrench fails to perform its intended function to our satisfaction, or it fails mechanically, or puts the user at risk, then we have every right to demand the problems be rectified.
Yes, the analogy is imperfect, but the core concept remains true.
You may resume laughing now. :p
Perfect summary, Texrat. Now it's up to the consumers to notify the wrench manufacturer to the conditions and symptoms of failure. Saying a wrench doesn't work is one thing... Saying that the adjustment knob doesn't work in ambient temperatures below zero is another. ;)
Point taken, it's just that the wording of the part derek quoted was a bit odd. I'd say significant bug fixes do actually "enhance the user experience", and they are somewhat obligated to fix bugs...
But I do agree with ThoughtFix that we users have some responsibility as well if we want to see bugs fixed.
The bug you reference is, unfortunately, fairly typical in that it has no input from Nokia that is of any real value. Other than providing pointers on what information to provide, Kalle only offers to forward the problem on to another group within Nokia, who then take no involvement in discussing the problem directly with the end users.
The bug remains unresolved and Nokia show no interest in working towards a fix by informing with the community - their input towards resolution on that bug is zero, nothing, nada, NOT INTERESTED.
It's all very well saying that we have an obligation to report bugs - we know that, and we fulfil it the best we can. Nokia have an obligation to enter into a dialogue regarding each and every reported bug and here they do not fulfil their obligation by a long shot.
At best, qa@maemo.org may enter a pointless "Forwarding to upstream maintainer" post, after which the bug is effectively ignored. It will not be assigned, apparently not looked at or reproduced, there is no request for further information. In short, many bugs are never fixed, so with each new release we have to update our bugs with comments "Reproducible in 3.2006.49-2" etc.
Bugzilla is a two way street. We, the community are doing our bit, and Nokia need to do a lot, lot more to show they are fulfilling their obligation to ensure that bugs that we find are resolved.
Great response, Deckard. That's the kind of feedback Nokia needs for succeeding in the open-source market.
Thoughtfix - I hope you aren't being sarcastic! :)
Here's a classic Maemo Bugzilla bug #303
It's a bug that has been around since the original OS 2005 release, yet has received no credible input from Nokia in that time, and the bug persists to this day in OS 2007.
Discussion of the issues raised by this bug kicked off again recently on the mailing list (.users) here, confirming the importance of the bug entry, yet Nokia appear unwilling to address the issue.
Why should we bother raising bugs if Nokia only ignore them? For some of us we'll keep plugging away, but eventually the situation will have to change, either for better or for worse.
No sarcasm intended, sir. However, "bug" 303 is a feature request, not a bug. The clock application is not primary to the device's operation: It's an option. I am referring more toward crashes, freezes, and errors than changes in the functionality of non-critical applications.
You're right, it is an enhancement request, although some might view it as a bug since the ability to choose the date or time format as a preference is a pretty basic feature supported by most other handheld devices. The way Nokia have implemented this feature is so fundamentally wrong that it is borderline bug for some people! :)
That said, it is an accurate example of how genuine bugs are handled by Nokia. Whether it's enhancement or bug makes little difference - the involvement from Nokia on community raised bugzilla entries is sorely lacking.
The clock application is not primary to the device's operation: It's an option.
Eh? So things can go wrong or be badly designed if it's not a "core" part of the device's operation? Who decides if it's "core" or not?
And it is a bug - or a misfeature if you prefer - Nokia have revealed in the recent thread that deckard linked to that they think the UK runs on 12-hour clocks. That's a bug in the design process: the UK does not. The UK doesn't "run" on either system, so a choice is essential to meet their stated requirements.
It may be "working as designed", but the design is buggy, and the implementation trivial to fix.
Andrew: More or less. They could fix the whole problem by removing the clock applet entirely, thereby "fixing the glitch" without negatively impacting the functionality of the device. And really - if you chose the Nokia 770 to be your primary clock, you have issues that go far deeper than the 24-hour feature request. I'm not pleased that Arizona is not a selectable time zone because Arizona is the only state in Mountain/Pacific that does not run on Daylight Saving Time. I set it to Las Vegas and turned DST correction off, which suits me just fine because it still works. I'd LIKE AZT to be in the time zone list, but it's just NOT. THAT. IMPORTANT.
thoughtfix, that's not the point. The bug/enhancement/whatever's been open since the 770 was released in November 2005.
If they've no intention of fixing it, it should be closed as "won't fix" - preferably with a *good* reason why.
If they're going to fix it at some point, that should be reflected.
Leaving it in a limbo "forwarded to upstream maintainer" is a good demonstration of deckard's point: Nokia treat Bugzilla as a one way street. They get submissions, and we get very little feedback.
I know why Nokia do this, but the familiar refrain of "you can't expect things to change in such a big company overnight" is wearing a little thin after 14 months.
It might well be that one of the basic problems is that Nokia is a profit-oriented company, not some free software project that happens to develop ITOS200x.
Whenever they allow (!) one of their developers to fix a bug, it's their money that pays this developer's time. So why would they spent money? Only if it cuts expenses somewhere else. So they might want to fix a bug that causes people to return their tablets or call the helplines, for example. If Nokia work anywhere near our lines in project management, there'll have to be a project called "Fix bugs for next OS release". It lists all the bugs, it lists what it costs to fix them, it lists what it saves elsewhere - and there have to be more savings than costs for the project to be approved.
I can imagine that people neither call a helpline nor return their tablets nor cause any other costs because of the 12/24 issue. So the 2 hours a developer needs to fix this will never pay off.
(Which brings us back to: Why don't they finally release all the sources they legally can - or at least those they are not willing to further work on themselves.)
Anonymous - in that case, Nokia should be marking the bugs as "WONT FIX" with the reason "Can't justify the cost".
At least we'd then know where we stand.
We can debate forever what bugs Nokia should be fixing: those that will save Nokia money, those bugs that will result in cr@ppy reviews and lose Nokia sales, those enhancements that will result in better reviews and gain sales, those bugs/enhancements that simply p!ss off the customers who have handed over their hard earned cash and actually reported the bugs in the first place.
I don't know the exact criteria, but it would be nice if Nokia at least gave us feedback so that we know where we stand, instead of ignoring our efforts.
I find it amazing how much work we all have to do to explain to each other the things that should be a "given". Tends to occupy about 2/3 of every post. ;)
Probably a silly question this- but is it only Nokia developers who are in the position to take bugs from bugzilla and come up with fixes? Is it that, and only they, who could (let's not get into should) put a 'won't fix' notice on it?
In essence I'm asking whether nokia are the entire support behind bugzilla on maemo, or if, alternatively, there is some bigger 'community' doing that work? And if it's the latter, then I personnaly think that's a good thing, and to be encouraged, and it's perhaps unfortunate that because they designed, built and sold (for a profit one would hope) the devices, Nokia are being held responsible for the progress of every bug.
Good morning, Daniel!
As far as I could see, you're in contact with Dr. Jaaksi in Nokia?
We, the members of Russian linux community, posted in his blog a question about when N800 will be available to us in Russia. But it seems that he's not reading the blog at least for a week or two. Please, can you tell him to pay attention to our questions, if he has some time for us? Or maybe, could you provide us with his e-mail?
I can understand the idea of not asking for enhanced functionality, and just bug fixes. I bought the 770 for what it did the time I bought it, and I found bugs. OS 2005 was upgraded to OS 2006, and even OS 2006 was upgraded with a patch.
OK, but here's a twist. One of the things I expected in an Internet Tablet is going online and visiting sites and seeing certain content, even the ones that were Flash-based. Even with the latest OS 2006, that still can't happen.
So, would this be a bug fix, or adding a feature? It's no longer clear cut.
Another one - I can't presently use the built-in email app to get AOL mail. Providing this would be a new Feature or bug-fix?
So, I would want to add one more catagory beyond "enhanced features" and "bug fix", and that catagory would be "fullfilling expectations." If many customers bought the device THINKING it could do something, but it doesn't, I think this should be something a company could look into to keep existing customers happy.
Mobilepedia - Nokia Mobile Phones Reviews:
http://mobilepedia-nokia.blogspot.com/
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