buggy releases

I have 3 separate suites for my computer, ESET, Kaspersky & F-Secure...I have for years bought these suites & no this is NOT a comparision but a statement to the fact that this year it seems these suites & particularly programs in general have not been completely tested. ESET has a notification problem , keep getting pop ups when nothing is wrong. Kaspersky tho has a full year paid for gets confused on when you subscription is up. One screen shows the correct date, another is wrong. I had it pop up saying it ran out really not funny. F_Secure well it has shutdown issues and takes minutes to close . Sorry for being wordy but have things gotten so complicated that vendors can't get all the bugs out? These programs are have an important job & maybe its me perhaps just need to get back to separates or maybe they should just get them right & stop issuing endless yearly updates that take months resolving issues. I don't pay bucks to test software and have issues...Sorry for being wordy...

 

Much as your intent is probably not to compare them the end result will be just that. We just can't resist
Seriously though I think there is a common thread here and the commercial pressure of releasing the product when it is 95% done has become widespread. Of course it is not a good practice and all too often we are forced to put up with annoying bugs which shouldn't be there

 

well it's unacceptable for a program that you just paid for to tell you a month later it's expired ? & refused to work, how does a company not address that. I have another that just pops up your program needs attention , you look at it there's nothing wrong with it. I don't get do people really accept this as common practice?

 

Well,for exactly these kind of situations...promotions and free giveaways exists..and free alternatives And i mean it,because i will never pay again for a buggy software just like you and to spend months in forums to resolve the problems.When it's free...everything is different when you know that your pocket is not being hurt.

 

I think it's crazy, it never used to be this bad! Avast, windows didn't shut down properly (2 months, bit of a show stopper.) NIS I get multiple icons appear (2011 and 2012) it's a windows fault so they can't fix it. Kaspersky, no comment! Eset v5 many issues. The included av from my isp scares me.
All these I have licenses for, currently using v4.2 eset which after many patches works very well.
If games are released in this state people go insane yet we seem to put up with beta testing paid for security products?

 

but it has become common place for vendors to release what is in my opinion beta ware & take money for it, not right. I run another program that take forever to shutdown (F-secure) its been this way for quite awhile, please tell me no one saw this in the beta & they can't fix it? I can't believe that. IMO vendors need to extend licenses for buggy programs or to be honest stop releasing them every year, just make improvements instead of making a whole new release...

 

when the final release is out that is when the real testing starts. all products will have some bugs. Eset smart security 5 has been smooth for me. I used NIS 2011 and again no issues. I have run numerous versions of f-secure including betas and haven't had any major issues. I don't really like yearly versions since they have a tendency to rush to meet a deadline. I prefer a product version released when ready. I had quite a few different problems with kaspersky products but Ive never heard about the problem you describe nor do I remember reading it on the kaspersky forums. I dive in and use products on day one and overall most security products seem alright on my machines. The only way to solve these issues is to help the vendor by report the issue and provide the information the vendor asks for. Eset is one of the few vendors which has avoided the yearly releases which I hope they will continue with. its hard to compare security software to games. security software hooks deep in to the operating system and has to cooperate with every software that is used.

 

Working as a System Test Analyst for a software company, I can say that it is VERY difficult to test for every single scenario. In fact I think it's impossible. As for making new releases every year, we do it to stay in competition with other vendors or to fill the needs of customer requests, such as feature additions. Fixing bugs isn't easy either. Our devs just can re-code a portion of the program and expect it will just work. It will have to go through another round of tests, usually due to the changes that the devs made touching other areas of the program.

 

I have to agree with this. An example is Bitdefender IS 2012, which I recently purchased and installed. The result: BSODs all over the place! This, of course, probably could have been avoided if I had installed the trial first--but, sometimes when we see it on sale for a really good price, we fall for it! My fault!

 

There are a couple of issues I think. Firstly, it is now an exteremely competative market. Secondly the companies are no longer run solely by computer geeks building a nice product largely for their own satisfaction and built to their own standards. They are fairly large companies (in some cases very large) with responsibilities to employees/investors etc and as a result bottom lines have become the main (or at least a bigger) driver in theur decision making process.

Combined that has brought marketing to the fore to maximise market share and therefore profit. This brings pressure at a high level in the organisation to keep to release schedules so not to throw-out the press, magazine, review cycle the marketing guys have set-up to promote their latest (why is it always a year ahead?) version. Do you really think in their product road-maps they say we would quite like to get a product out by July but heh-ho if its not ready we won't bother? No they tell their developers to get it ready or else. If that means going with a few bugs so be it.

If you look at small one man band type products (Defensewall/Sandboxie for example) they stay in beta until they are ready because the developers cannot cope with the demand generated from a poor release and retain direct personal responsibility for the quality of their products.

I laugh when the developers on the beta forum's for the big boys say it will be ready when it ready. The reality is it will be ready when it does the basic things and the marketing guys want it released.

My tuppence worth anyway.

 

I own 4 suites including 2 mentioned in the original post and I agree, they are ALL buggy. I am going to thin it out to 1 or even 0 when renewal time comes around next year. I would not care in the least it product cycles were longer if the end product was better.

 

the vendors seem to think it is now an acceptable practice!

 

As far as Eset, I disagree. I find this the best version to date. As far as HIPS working in automatic mode, a picture is worth its weight in gold.

 

Glad you are having a good experience with it. I might feel the same if I only used it on 1 PC but on my home network I can't access other machines. I could work around this on v4, but not v5.

 

I think all software have bugs, but some are more appearent.I have had some of the same issues.So it comes to choices, we either deal with it or dump it and move on to something less buggy or at least less noticeable.I went with the latter.