[WinMac] Problem Reporting [Was: Mac OS 8.6]

David Bell(db28[at]alphainfo.co.uk)
Thu, 27 May 1999 10:08:49 -0500

Re my previous comments:

>In my view, while perhaps the 8.6 installer might have handled this a bit
>more cleanly, one always needs to take care in such situations, and be
>ready to re-install the additional drivers if necessary.

There seems to be a variety of experiences in relation to OS upgrades.
Perhaps I could sum up the various responses in this way:

People may or may not experience problems with OS upgrades on any
platform depending on what software and drivers are installed.

The corollary is that if you don't have a decent backup, a reasonable
understanding of how your system (and OS of choice) operates and how it's
configured, then sooner or later an upgrade is going to go horribly wrong
and you'll be left trying to pick up the pieces and looking for someone
to blame! (And for the avoidance of doubt, IMHO if you find yourself in
that unfortunate position - then it's at least partially your own fault!
:-) Where we can help each other is to offer timely warnings of
problems to avoid and/or resolve them.

But what really concerned me when I posted my original message was the
tendency for reporting what is really no more than unsubstantiated
rumours of possible problems. If people feel moved to report problems,
then can they please:

1. Ensure that there really is a problem.

2. Identify the source of the problem. If it's a problem you've
     been having, then say so - maybe someone on the list can help
     resolve it. If you're reporting information you've found
     elsewhere, then identify (and check!) the source.

2. Adequately describe the problem.

3. Include details of how to resolve the problem - if available. Or ..

4. If resources already exist which address, and hopefully provide
     solutions to the problem, then include references to them.

I don't want to single out the poster of the original message here -
because it's something that occurs repeatedly. But the post in question
illustrates what I'm saying. The message suggested there may be problems
with OS 8.6 and referred to a thread in Tidbits - "Files disappearing
after installing Mac OS 8.6" However the thread in question a) quickly
concluded that the files in question were no longer required, and b)
identified a different problem with drivers for non standard/ additional
graphics cards. So the message was misleading at best - perhaps even
unnecessarily alarmist - depending on your viewpoint.

Having now looked at www.macintouch.com (thanks to Alex for suggesting
this resource) it is clear that there are some (but not many) problems
with OS 8.6 - and that, for the most part, those that do exist have
fairly clear solutions.

No one objects to problem reports if they help others avoid or resolve
the same situation. I suggest that if we all try to follow these
guidelines - at least as far as the situation allows, it will benefit all
of us on the list.

David Bell
Alpha Information Services Ltd
Glasgow

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu May 27 1999 - 08:15:49 PDT