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Why Companies Don't Fix Bugs

(idiallo.com)
177 points foxfired | 10 comments | 07 Apr 25 20:03 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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cletus ◴[08 Apr 25 05:42 UTC] No.43618654[source]▶
A lot of the time, a lack of bugfixes comes from the incentive structure management has created. Specifically, you rarely get rewarded for fixing things. You get rewarded for shipping new things. In effect, you're punished for fixing things because that's time you're not shipping new things.

Ownership is another one. For example, product teams who are responsible for shipping new things but support for existing things get increasingly pushed onto support teams. This is really a consequence of the same incentive structure.

This is partially why I don't think that all subscription software is bad. The Adobe end of the spectrum is bad. The Jetbrains end is good. There is value in creating good, reliable software. If your only source of revenue is new sales then bugs are even less of a priority until it's so bad it makes your software virtually unusuable. And usually it took a long while to get there with many ignored warnings.

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conradfr ◴[08 Apr 25 06:54 UTC] No.43619034[source]▶
Jetbrains still likes to gaslight you and say you are wrong about bugs or features.

Recent example the removal of the commit modal.

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1. kevingadd ◴[08 Apr 25 08:33 UTC] No.43619532[source]▶
The jetbrains model is every new release fixes that one critical bug that's killing you, and adds 2 new critical bugs that will drive you mad. I eventually got fed up and jumped off that train.
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2. sfn42 ◴[08 Apr 25 08:58 UTC] No.43619659[source]▶
Not really sure what you guys are talking about. I've been using Rider for years and it's been great. I'm using the new UI and I have no problems with commits or anything else.

Recently joined a new team where I have to use VS because we have to work through a remote desktop where I can't install new stuff without a lengthy process, and having used VS for a while now it's so much worse. I miss Rider practically every second I'm writing code. There is nothing that I need that VS does better, it's either the same or usually worse for everything I do.

I hope I'll get a bit more used to it over time but so far I hate it. Feels like it's significantly reducing my velocity compared to Rider.

3. homebrewer ◴[08 Apr 25 17:45 UTC] No.43624482[source]▶
Where to? There's nothing even remotely comparable for many tech stacks. I've been looking for alternatives for many years (also being fed up with their disregard for bugs and performance), but there are none (expect for proper VS for Windows-first C++/C#).
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4. kevingadd ◴[08 Apr 25 18:45 UTC] No.43625184[source]▶
Sadly, I just accepted having worse productivity. I didn't really have a choice, their bugs were actively breaking my workflow, like causing builds to fail. It definitely made me more frustrated and less productive on a day-to-day basis.
5. stickfigure ◴[08 Apr 25 20:59 UTC] No.43626402[source]▶
To be fair it seems to average 1:1 with some surge and recede.
6. pjmlp ◴[09 Apr 25 09:11 UTC] No.43630268[source]▶
Eclipse and Netbeans for Java, QtCreator for C and C++ cross-platform, and VS if on Windows.

If it really must be, VSCode for everything else.

I never was a JetBrains fan, especially given the Android Studio experience, glad that is no longer a concern.

replies(1): >>43632082 #
7. Aeolun ◴[09 Apr 25 10:32 UTC] No.43630657[source]▶
I just accepted I wasn’t going to find anything comparable, and just have to bite the bullet and accept software that has way less features, but at least consistently works, and doesn’t randomly decide to run at 800% CPU when a single file changes.

Now on team Zed. We’ll see how long that is good before it enshittifies too. I’m not sure if I should be happy they’re still not charging me for it.

8. bolster8505 ◴[09 Apr 25 13:50 UTC] No.43632082{3}[source]▶
Netbeans is not for real development. Sorry, I love Netbeans. I grew up using it. It just doesn't have good support for real world Java development. As for Eclipse, I'll use notepad over that any day. I've been programming in Java since highschool, 20+ years ago.

IntelliJ is the best there is for Java, warts and all.

replies(1): >>43632102 #
9. pjmlp ◴[09 Apr 25 13:51 UTC] No.43632102{4}[source]▶
How do you do real world JNI development with IntelliJ, including cross language debugging and profiling?

Quite curious of the answer in such great IDE.

10. SkyPuncher ◴[09 Apr 25 15:44 UTC] No.43633415[source]▶
Hmm, I’ve pretty much never experienced a bug in JetBrains products.

They’re one of the few products that just amazes me with how robust it is. Often, it will tell me I have issues before I even know about them (e.g my runtime is incorrect) and offer 1-click fixes.