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http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/windows_vista_work_in_progress.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
Frankly, I’m so used to getting assaulted with auto-update stuff every time I install a new piece of software, it doesn’t bother me.
1. The Nintendo Wii performed a software update last night that upgraded some of its core functionality and added a screen burn-in protector that was mentioned in the docs but wasn’t part of the core box.
2. Vista hit me with 3-4 patches immediately after installing the RTM code, and has since done a couple more
3. Every MMORPG you buy is patched weekly, if not more often than that.
4. Half the non-MMORPG games you buy are even patched automatically, many of which download huge multi-hundred meg patches the day you buy them.
What people should be striving for is the happy middle point, not one of the extremes. We shouldn’t be throwing crap out the door and then hoping to just patch it later (what if your patcher is crap??), but on the other extreme, we shouldn’t have 3-year development cycles that are so huge, they might as well have just thrown the crap out the door 2 years ago
I like patches - it means something changed ... it might also have been a
new feature being added rather than just bug fixing.
I think patches are fine. Throwing an incomplete product out the door with
the hope that you will simply be able to finish the remainder of your
development cycle with patches is assinine and I've seen that model used
too frequently.
