Apple frustrations

So I have a beef with Apple and the way it works.

I find a problem with an Apple product. I get angry. But these things happen. Software is software, and there will be bugs.

When they are serious or annoying enough, I look for workarounds on the Web, and I usually find them. I find them all over the Apple Developer Forums. I find them in Mac or iPhone blogs. I find them on Twitter. I find many people who have these problems.

When I then mention them, I am told by (very nice and polite and friendly) friends who are Apple employees to file a bug. That Apple only notices when people outside of Apple files bugs.

That process is somewhat painful. It takes at least 15 minutes, and often much longer, to give enough detail to describe the bug effectively.

When the bug is filed, if Apple pays attention, I am asked to spend another amount of time, sometimes several hours, and freeze the state of my machine so that over the next few days or weeks, more probing questions about the state of whatever it is can be asked.

And then the bug is usually marked as a Duplicate. And the only visibility from this point forward is whether or not the bug that it duplicates is still open.

So. Why, as a paying customer, am I being asked to do free QA work for a bug that Apple already knows about?

I have it on good authority that the fact that a bug is filed from an outside person is given more weight that an bug filed inside of Apple. That authority is me; we certainly did that when I was there.

But I some other problems with this:

1. It marginalizes the Apple employees who do file bugs, or at least it marginalizes the QA work they already did. Apple people can find the bug much closer to when it is introduced that the general public. It could be months before any betas even ship out. It also gives a negative incentive for employees to file a bug on their own code; they are penalized for having the bug, and they never get to see it fixed until it becomes a public problem.

2. Why is it that the fact that the tech press, blogosphere, Twitter-sphere and forum audience are basically ignored on this? When I can literally find a dozen descriptions of the bug that are every bit as good as mine out in the wild, why do I have to file a bug for it to be paid attention to?

In its defense, Apple has a LOT of software, and has a relatively small engineering staff generating and maintaining it. That is what helps keep Apple as nimble as it is. But the attitude of "we'll fix it when the public complains enough in ways that we define (and are obtuse)" makes me insane.

My friends who are Apple employees, I am not mad at you. I am an Apple fanboy from wayback. I am a former employee. Thank your for your hard work.

I just wish this aspect of how Apple works would change.