Preventive
Pesticides for Your PC
Software flaws
and incompatibilities affect all
businesses, but small companies suffer
most. "They don't have big service
contracts or law firms, so they don't
have leverage," says BugNet
President Bruce Brown. "And they
don't have IT departments either."
With that in mind, BugNet and BUSINESS
WEEK offer some tips to help
entrepreneurs keep the little buggers at
bay.
Version 1.0? No Thanks
"New and improved" may be fine
for soap, but not for software. Too many
initial releases and upgrades are forced
onto the market before they're fully
tested. In fact, savvy buyers have become
so wary that software publishers are
moving away from easy-to-understand
numerical sequences. Windows NT 5.0, for
example, will be sold as Windows 2000.
Beware of the Buggy Fix Any
modification to your system can bring
bugs out of the woodwork. Even patches --
small bits of programming intended to fix
bugs -- can contain more bugs. So don't
do it casually: Before you install new
programs or drivers, make sure you know
what clear, specific benefit to expect.
Even a program that runs flawlessly by
itself may be incompatible with other
programs, and seeking a fix may leave you
caught between two vendors. One BugNet
subscriber couldn't install Corel Quattro
Pro 7 on her new Windows 95 PC because it
conflicted with pre-installed Microsoft
Explorer. Neither company would take
responsibility for the mismatch -- but
both were happy to sell compatible
upgrades.
Do Your Due Diligence Before
you buy any software, talk to other users
and consult BugNet or another online
forum for known problems. (There are
helpful links under "Bug Jumps"
on BugNet's site.) Brown says the Mac
sites are comprehensible to lay users,
but PC bug forums are usually technical
or specialized. Also check the vendor's
site to see if patches are already being
offered.
Bug Your Software Vendor Before
you buy a program, find out who provides
support. Often, it's not the software
publisher, especially with Microsoft
Corp. products. Support for pre-installed
Microsoft software, for example, falls to
PC manufacturers, such as Dell Computer
Corp. or Gateway 2000 Inc. Insist that
the provider help you. When talking with
techies, take names and badge numbers. If
you don't get satisfaction, ask for a
supervisor and keep working your way up
the chain of command. It's a radical idea
in the software world, but you do have a
right to demand that products you pay for
perform as advertised.
By
Edith Updike
This article was originally published in
the Apr. 26, 1999 print edition of
Business Week's Frontier. To subscribe,
please see our subscription
policy.
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