Has anyone else noticed this?

[Joe1996]

Has anyone else noticed that almost all computer software seems to be badly written recently?

[JackOfClubs]

How so?

[OptimusPrime]

Maybe you should write something better.

[Suicune]

Care to explain how?

[User Deleted]

Other than Adobe flash 10 wont work for me, I don't see any decrease in quality.

[TheMatrix]

What do you mean with "badly written"?
And most importantly: which programs are written badly?

[Joe1996]

I mean badly written in the sense that they are full of stupid and easy to fix bugs and glitches or just dont even open.

Google chrome can't load more than a few pages on Linux.
Google appengine doesn't work on Mac os.
Portal 2 often crashes on windows 7
Adobe flash.. Well, I dont even know where to start with that one.. Everything is a problem with it.
Sims 3 doesn't update without crashing on windows 7
My windows 7 graphics drivers crash about once a week
And the list goes on..

I doubt my Linux computer, windows computer and Mac are all faulty to the extent where things don't work properly.. Not all 3 of them

[Syvelocin]

Portal 2 often crashes on windows 7


Oh, so that's not just because I got it from a torrent that it always crashed on me? :P

Sims 3 doesn't update without crashing on windows 7

I've never had that issue. And my graphics drivers don't crash either. You sure it isn't just you case, you know? Computers get screwed up sometimes.

Other than Minecraft, I've never really had a recent scripting complaint.

[Joe1996]

Oh, so that's not just because I got it from a torrent that it always crashed on me? :P



I've never had that issue. And my graphics drivers don't crash either. You sure it isn't just you case, you know? Computers get screwed up sometimes.

Other than Minecraft, I've never really had a recent scripting complaint.

Both sims 3 and portal 2 mess up regularly for almost everyone.
As for the drivers, I'm unsure. I doubt It's my computer because when the graphics drivers started messing up, I reinstalled windows and the drivers crashed right after installing, I suppose it could be caused by the graphics card though.

[anonymous53]

I've not had any of those problems. Check your system logs to see what exactly is failing, try updating your drivers from the correct websites and run a memtest.

[Joe1996]

I've not had any of those problems. Check your system logs to see what exactly is failing, try updating your drivers from the correct websites and run a memtest.

Like I said, I doubt all 3 of my computers running different operating systems, different hardware and they are different ages, will all have problems with them.
The Mac is a week old, that should be 100% fine and I don't have any other problems with it (Apple written software, at least)

I've updated the drivers, still the same problem, I even tried an older driver.

And maybe you've not had those problems because you don't actually use the programs and operating systems I mentioned. But also, it's only 3rd party things that have the problems.
For example: Everything made my Microsoft on my windows machine is fine (ruling out a memory fault) And the 85% of things not by Microsoft works fine too. It's just the odd program which has a fault.

[Dimitri]

Then stop whinning and take some constructive suggestions that are being made, it might be your machines, just because yours does not work properly does not mean that everyone else's isn't either.

[screamtobeheard]

Google chrome can't load more than a few pages on Linux.
Google appengine doesn't work on Mac os.
Portal 2 often crashes on windows 7
Adobe flash.. Well, I dont even know where to start with that one.. Everything is a problem with it.
Sims 3 doesn't update without crashing on windows 7
My windows 7 graphics drivers crash about once a week
And the list goes on..
Any free software will not be as high quality as software you pay for. No web browser is perfect. Not all software is compatible with Mac. It's one of the few downsides to owning one. I'm not familiar with Sims 3. And the drivers are probably just your computer. Are you sure you have the appropriate ones for your machine?

[anonymous53]

Like I said, I doubt all 3 of my computers running different operating systems, different hardware and they are different ages, will all have problems with them.
The Mac is a week old, that should be 100% fine and I don't have any other problems with it (Apple written software, at least)

I've updated the drivers, still the same problem, I even tried an older driver.

And maybe you've not had those problems because you don't actually use the programs and operating systems I mentioned. But also, it's only 3rd party things that have the problems.
For example: Everything made my Microsoft on my windows machine is fine (ruling out a memory fault) And the 85% of things not by Microsoft works fine too. It's just the odd program which has a fault.

Joe, I run all of those types of systems as well. Also I run all of those programs. Either take the time to look up these issues individually or stop complaining about poorly written programs. For example, Fallout 3's engine had a compatibility problem with ANOTHER codec I had on my system, which caused constant crashes. This was not Bethesda's fault, nor was it the fault of the other codec maker. If you research these issues there are usually fixes for these.
Also, heads up, just because certain Microsoft programs run perfectly on windows it never rules out a memory fault. For all you know when you open up a program it can use up a decent chunk more memory, and hit a bad memory sector. It's happened to me before. They're intermittent problems, don't assume parts are ever "Good" test them thoroughly with programs such as Memtest86+. We tried giving you answers, not everyone is experiencing these problems.

[Joe1996]

Then stop whinning and take some constructive suggestions that are being made, it might be your machines, just because yours does not work properly does not mean that everyone else's isn't either.

The only person I've noticed whining is you, in that post ^^

As for google app engine not loading on the Mac, it was MADE for the Mac, it should be compatible, but today it opened, but I noticed a few simple mistakes in it, very obvious but nothing major

Any free software will not be as high quality as software you pay for. No web browser is perfect. Not all software is compatible with Mac. It's one of the few downsides to owning one. I'm not familiar with Sims 3. And the drivers are probably just your computer. Are you sure you have the appropriate ones for your machine?

No not all browsers are perfect, but even the terrible ones load 4+ pages in a row without going 'oh snap! Something went wrong' or any other error message

[AutoPlay]

I mean badly written in the sense that they are full of stupid and easy to fix bugs and glitches or just dont even open.

Google chrome can't load more than a few pages on Linux.
Google appengine doesn't work on Mac os.
Portal 2 often crashes on windows 7
Adobe flash.. Well, I dont even know where to start with that one.. Everything is a problem with it.
Sims 3 doesn't update without crashing on windows 7
My windows 7 graphics drivers crash about once a week
And the list goes on..

I doubt my Linux computer, windows computer and Mac are all faulty to the extent where things don't work properly.. Not all 3 of them

Google Chrome is an Extension of Chromium which was never designed to run properly on Linux.
Appengine hasnt really worked on Windows for a while either.
Never had any problems with Portal 2 and windows 7. Valve code their games amazingly well.
Never had a problem with Adobe Flash.
Thats only the launcher, try running it in WinXP SP3 compatability mode.
Never use Microsoft to source drivers....

Please continue the list.

[MattVon]

A well maintained computer system rarely experience issues unless the developers truly left a huge flaw in their application; which they shouldn't be releasing in the first place then.
All your mentioned issues, I've never experienced before.

[Wheatley]

I've never had problems with portal 2, VALVe do code their games very well and spend a lot of time and money on them, also generous for making DLC free.

When I used chrome I had no problems on windows xp vista or 7 but opera is much more reliable in my opinion.

Google appengine needs work on Windows i give you that.

I don't use mac or Linux anymore. Too busy with the Windows 8 leaks.

I think, to be honest, there are far more apps available now then ever before, some coded by high end compsnies, some rookie releasers, also, with a wider range of technologies available now, compatability with all systems and applucations is getting harder to ensure. And finally as technology moves along, expectations get higher and higher.

What graphics card do you have?

[TheMatrix]

I mean badly written in the sense that they are full of stupid and easy to fix bugs and glitches or just dont even open.

Google chrome can't load more than a few pages on Linux.
Google appengine doesn't work on Mac os.
Portal 2 often crashes on windows 7
Adobe flash.. Well, I dont even know where to start with that one.. Everything is a problem with it.
Sims 3 doesn't update without crashing on windows 7
My windows 7 graphics drivers crash about once a week
And the list goes on..

I doubt my Linux computer, windows computer and Mac are all faulty to the extent where things don't work properly.. Not all 3 of them
Okay. I'm going to let you in on a little secret about the software community.
Let's take the example of your graphics driver. Why is it badly written? Or a better question would be, why isn't it written better?
To answer this question, you need to think CEO style. Think about profits, your reputation as a company. Companies need profit, or what would be the point of being around?
Now think about it, how many more of your products will you sell if the code is better written? That's right, none.
So then what would be the point of paying someone to fix the code? You guessed it.
So instead, they cover it all with marketing. Now switch back to ordinary user thinking mode.
You are in the store, and you see boxes and boxes of graphics cards around you, all with fancy names and numbers. I guarantee you, many will have an "X" in their product number, it's a cool marketing letter these days.
But what most people(and you too) do, is just look on the box, see all of those checkmarks for features that are completely unnecessary but look cool, and pick that one. Fancy, colourful illustrations on the box is a big attention-grabber as well. You buy the product, the company gets profit. They no longer have to worry about improving the drivers, you probably won't return it anyways.

Same goes for Flash, no need to improve it, people use it anyways.
Video games, same story.

Welcome to the real world.

[Wheatley]

^Can't disagree with that. But competition helps fight this. That's why competition is good,

[darkwoon]

Okay. I'm going to let you in on a little secret about the software community.
Let's take the example of your graphics driver. Why is it badly written? Or a better question would be, why isn't it written better?
To answer this question, you need to think CEO style. Think about profits, your reputation as a company. Companies need profit, or what would be the point of being around?
Now think about it, how many more of your products will you sell if the code is better written? That's right, none.
So then what would be the point of paying someone to fix the code? You guessed it.
Oh, please, not another one of the "corporate greed ruins the fun" kind...

First, graphics drivers are, for the most part of them, written with good quality checks and significant testing being performed, both at the source and at the running stages. Get a copy of ATI's fglrx Linux drivers from 2008, and you'll see what a mess a really "badly written driver" can be.

Second, will you sell more of a software (or a piece of computer hardware depending on your driver to run) if the quality of the code is better? Yes - or more exactly, you'll sell less if the quality of the code is unsufficient for a significant part of your users. And it also hugely depend on the amount of corporate market you're trying to reach - software quality is definitely more important in those.

For the most part, issues in driver and software incompatibilities come from an increase of complexity, both in software itself and in the hardware supporting it. You simply cannot expect a hardware manufacturer to test every possible combination - what they do is testing on "common cases" scenarios, or those that are well-known to cause trouble. The same is true for software: regardless of the coders skills and techniques, even with massive investments in code testing and validation, they'll never be 100% safe from bugs or incompatibilities.

Same goes for Flash, no need to improve it, people use it anyways.
Flash seems to be a different issue, actually: for one part, its source code is obviously a pile of mess, result of many years of poorly directed development. This has clearly made porting flash on different platforms, or even introduce graphical optimizations, very difficult. The time between flash 10 and 11 heavily suggests at some mass-rewriting under the hood. The Adobe developers blogs are also somewhat indicative of a troublesome historical source code burden to deal with.

This is not to say that quality doesn't ALSO suffer from corporate greed - but most of the hardware/software incompatibilities are rather bound to the high complexity and variety of hardware platforms available today.

That, and the quality requirements of users themselves that raised significantly. 20 years ago, people found quite normal to manually create DOS bootdisks to get enough memory to run a game or to know cryptic parameters like the soundcard IRQ or DMA - nowadays, a game that isn't able to properly set the screen resolution to the maximum available, or a graphical card that isn't properly detected when plugged, are considered of poor quality. Maybe we're expecting more than what current development practices can achieve without trouble?

[Wheatley]

However, take Nintendo for example.
When they made the Nintendo DS, they could have made it 3D (as thus technology was around then, not glasses-less but stereoscopic) But because two screens was enough of a step, they left it at that.
Counter arguement for this would be that with the 3DS the glassesless technology was brand new and Nintendo released that straight away instead of taking a glasses aproach first.

Again with Sony and their PSP, there wasn't much difference in time between the 1000s, 2000s and 3000s.
The major changes were RAM amount, less weight and more on board colours. They made alot of money wirh way but could have just missed the 1000s and gone straight to 2000 or 3000
My birthday in may, i got a newly released PSP 1000 and by september the 2000 had been released.

[Weeping]

Well I have 2 computers with Windows 7, and have never experienced any of the problems you mentioned.