Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

I have been using nokia mobile phones all my phones. There are two things that you will see in a nokia device no matter if it was a symbian device or a maemo device.

1. Lots of new features
2. Lots of bugs.

Nokia always introduces new features. For instance who does not remember the nokia 6610 which in those days was the best phone. It had all the greatest features from multi tasking to fm radio. But the 6610 had so many bugs. I brought all the internet tablets to date starting from the 770 to the n900. Nokia was the first one to have devices with large touch screen with internet access. It had great features like pc style multitasking. Then came the n800 with the ability to video chat on portable devices and also be online 24x7. Those devices had thousands of bugs.

In the same time apple released the first iphone which really had no features. The only new thing which apple really brought was capacitative touch screens and accelerometers. The ui was simple and it had very few bugs. It always used to work the way it was supposed to because there were no complicated features. Slowly the iphone got each feature and with the release of iphone 4.0 it will be on par to some extent with the features of the n900.

So i was wondering if going forward towards meego we want the most advanced features with nokia grade bugs or we wanted a more dumbed down version with lesser bugs.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

Neither :)

but I want the ability that the community can add new features and remove bugs.
Not that this should encourage Nokia to release half-baked, bug-ridden products....

But if I really have to make a choice between more features and less bugs, I choose less bugs: bugs imply poor quality (software-wise), which can scare away potential buyers and give a bad image for the company.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

Features mean nothing if they are all buggy and don't work properly....

Are you listening Nokia?

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

For my day to day 'smartphone': i NEED good, stable features (email, browser, media player, phone functions). Any additional features are welcome as long as they don't introduce any instabilities.

But, to answer your real question: You can have an open platform such as maemo and still maintain a bug-free system on it aa long as the core applications get enough TLC. Herein lies the bulk of the complaints against maemo on N900. They don't have much excuse to release software codes that are inferior to iphone's original release 3 years ago (see:modest).

Ps: original iphone has 2 'killer features'; the browser and the media player (ipod software). Back then there weren't any other mobile browser with such well designed zoom/pan controls with good javascript sipport.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

More bugs for sure, I love being frustrated, wasting my time, swearing and pounding my head against the wall.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

Voted more features because I'm a fan of "Release early, release often", rolling releases, direct community involvement... etc.

All software has bugs.. the idea is to identify them, fix them, and release that fix ASAP. More people looking for bugs == more bugs found.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

@fatalsaint: that's great for community releases... but... remember PR1.2 ;(

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

Which is precisely my point. I think it should have been released shortly after it was frozen. That was what? 2 months ago?

Were/is/are/could there be bugs? Yes, of course. But it also fixes many other bugs. Sometimes, fixing bugs begets other bugs. Then those bugs get fixed.

Constant cycle.

Actually, ideally (IMHO), each of the different softwares should have been released as separate updates and not all bunched into one big new "version" but each part of it updated separately as they were fixed.

But, that's just me.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

open wide, release early, release often. ;)

(Poll does not list my response)

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

I don't know enough about Nokia's predicament on PR1.2, but I certainly wouldn't underestimate their judgement... there's gotta be a good reason if they delay (?) such release for so long.

Here's one take: Their rate of adoption for firmware updates gotta be pretty high too, due to:

1. The main selling point of N900 is that it can stay always connected to the net
2. Their auto-update mechanism is pretty effective in notifying users whenever there are new updates available
3. After that, it's just a matter of 2-3 clicks to get things going.

So any mistakes (on PR1.2) will be propagated really quick to a big majority of their userbase. Something that shouldn't be lightly regarded... especially if the problem involves disabling of the device.

Yeah, I agree about making core app modules separate from the base release;

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

I didn't say "zero testing" ;). Test enough to be relatively sure no permanent damage is going to happen to the device.. and let it loose.

Yes, there will be bugs. Yes, people seem to forget that and they scream, loudly and obnoxiously I might add, and so yes - I'm pretty sure that's why Nokia does it this way; and as such: we get to wait 2+ months for fixes that every day make people more angry.

But this thread wanted my opinion.. and personally: I believe releasing early, having people report the bugs, and then fixing those bugs quickly is the way I would do it.

Yes, users are annoying and angry and don't usually report bugs in a very "meaningful" manner - but you aren't winning either way... people here aren't exactly quiet about the bugs that are already fixed and just not released, either.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

I'd pick better, coherent support and an well spelled-out upgrade path.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

No argument there. The ? around the future of the N900 is frustrating.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

Going back to topic, I don't think the number of features are always directly proportional to the number of bugs.

Ergo, it's not less bugs vs more features.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

That is the point.
Why accumulative bugfixes?
We all "update" appmanager several times a week.
Maemo.org members fixing his projects' bugs as soon as they can.
Nokia leaves buggy OS because they are debugging internal OS... no sense.
Fix a bunch of bugs, give it to us, and so on.
I only can realize they WERE NOT FIXING ANY BUG all this time.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

Wrong thinking. "We" update often, but the majority probably not at all.

Stable release = less support = more time to prepare for the next release.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

Sorry, I can't understand this (not trolling):
Do you think pr1.1.1 is stable so they have time preparing pr1.2?
I don't think so.
Anyway, after pr1.2, will be "next release" for us, do you think it?
Regards.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

I voted "more features" coz with gadgets I like being on the edge...

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

what is so buggy about the current PR1.1.1?
does the complete os crash/reboot a lot?
do the shipped apps (phone/web/mail) crash a lot?

not at my place, its pretty rock solid software wise, and i do install stuff from extra dev, i have overclocked it to 250-900, so i should be prime candidate for a instabile phone!

look there are quite some performance bugs, thats true even overclocked some things are just slow, modest opening inboxes and more stuff in modest. But also conversations opening the conversation of a new incomming sms why is that soooo slow with the cpu spiking?? it almost doesnt show anything on the screen!,

thats what i hope they fix first everything should be quick to respond, instant feedback. Profile, Profile, Profile....

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

I'd like to know why the whole phone jams up for a few seconds when an SMS is received.. You can be typing away in a conversation and listening to music and then it locks, goes silent for a couple of seconds and then the yellow swooshing box appears and it releases.. Was it such a majorly intensive task to render the box?

On topic, I'd vote neither - for me the device doesnt have many bugs, other than the on screen keyboard being useless in the internal browser because it inserts text in a completely messed up order.. And it has most of the features I want out of a phone.. I find the bugs I do run into as annoying as the missing features I run into

I'd settle for Nokia being more interactive and vocal within the community, fewer questions of "why isnt this.." or "when will that.."

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

ps; Topic title has a bug: can we get it changed to "Fewer Bugs vs. More Features..."
Fewer is for things you count, like hangovers; less is for things you measure, like beer. If I drank less beer, I'd have fewer hangovers.:D

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

My thoughts exactly.

Posts like these usually strike me as having an attitude that "perhaps if we show what we think here, it will become a reality", as the OP was quick to (rightfully) call on Nokia on this pattern.

I don't think that this kind of logic (features vs bugs) exists anywhere inside Nokia. The bugs we see in Nokia's products aren't necessarily caused by the features and there's a larger explanation for why we must encounter bugs time after time in new products. I believe this "bigger picture" to be Nokia's tendency to release new devices and services faster than what they can truly manage.

With this view in mind, simply thinking that Nokia prefers "quantity" over "quality" in their products isn't true. I'd guess they prefer quantity in regards to number of models against perfecting only a few models.

However, sharing the viewed idealism of the OP, I would like to see Nokia release products with no bugs and therefore I've voted accordingly. We all know they already have enough features in their phones (as nothing's been added since the N95!). :)

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

People stated many times before there should simply be a stable and unstable/nightly builds available for those who choose to go bleeding edge.
I'm fine with this even if it means I'll have to flash my phone from time to time.- I have a choice to do so at least.

Re: Less Bugs Vs More Features... Which one do you guys want?
 

You are reading between the lines, right? :) No, I'm talking in general.