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Stuart · 02-10-2005, 01:25

The problem is that (AFAIK) no physical product is technically as complicated as most applications or operating systems. Windows has in excess of 2 million lines of code. How many physical products can you think of that have in excess of 2 million parts? OK, Airliners do, but I can't think of any other machines.

Then there are outside influences that may cause the software to fail. These can range from hardware incompatibilities (a friend who works for a game company was told they had worked out there are over 40,000 possible combinations of PC setup), through hardware failiures. Software/configuration problems could also prevent software working.

I am not excusing software companies. Far from it. They should be making every effort to ensure their software is as bug-free as possible. However, it is impossible to ensure it is totally bug free.

And, as stated above, it's also impossible to guarantee that even bug-free software won't be affected by a badly configured PC or software incompatibility.

02-10-2005, 01:25	#5
Stuart - Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Somewhere Services: Virgin for TV and Internet, BT for phone Posts: 26,546	Re: Whose fault is it anyway? The problem is that (AFAIK) no physical product is technically as complicated as most applications or operating systems. Windows has in excess of 2 million lines of code. How many physical products can you think of that have in excess of 2 million parts? OK, Airliners do, but I can't think of any other machines. Then there are outside influences that may cause the software to fail. These can range from hardware incompatibilities (a friend who works for a game company was told they had worked out there are over 40,000 possible combinations of PC setup), through hardware failiures. Software/configuration problems could also prevent software working. I am not excusing software companies. Far from it. They should be making every effort to ensure their software is as bug-free as possible. However, it is impossible to ensure it is totally bug free. And, as stated above, it's also impossible to guarantee that even bug-free software won't be affected by a badly configured PC or software incompatibility.