Moonbase;449092 Wrote:
>
> The product itself (Duet and the Controller, mainly) keeps getting more
> unusable with every "update" -- one starts getting anxious ("What will
> break this time?") instead of happily anticipating things getting better
> and more usable -- and being able to USE it for what it's meant: An
> enyojable way of listening to and showing off your music.
>
This is why I've decided to get very picky about the build that I'll
run on my server. Yes, it's fun to play, but I also like to sit an
enjoy my music. Unless thre is a particular bugfix or feature that I
NEED in a release, I sit back and wait for the dust to settle. Even
then, after I install it, if it doesn't work out, I immediately go back.
I just don't have time any more to dig in and try to resolve issues
that weren't threre previously.
I suspect others (inlcuding yourself) are getting to the point.
Moonbase;449092 Wrote:
>
> Successful products are "emotional" products, remember? So why isn't
> the emotion a good one, but frustration mostly?
>
I agree that this could start to be a problem. If the product starts
getting a rep as being frustrating to use and being unstable, the
beginning of the end could be neigh. There are so many media streamers
popping up out there that do music and video, people will start going
elsewhere.
Moonbase;449092 Wrote:
>
> Look at the "new" controller firmware. It LOOKS worse. It's unusable
> beyond expectation. It needs more keystrokes for simple functions. It
> doesn't behave logical or even consistent. BUT it has overlaid screens
> that nobody needs, it overlaps badly rendered cover images with status
> lines, it uses LARGE fonts so that you have to wait for some information
> to scroll until -- in the middle of reading -- the screensaver pops in
> and you have
After reading this (and some other posts) I cringe. The controller FW
is one area that has definitely required stabilization over time, and it
has. I suspect I'll be staying on 7.3.3 for a long time! At least I
have that option. I wonder why there has been such an overhaul on the
UI on the controller? I wasn't aware that it had so many problems?
The flip side of this is that it is *good* that they release
not-fully-baked versions of software to solicit input from the user
community. As long as they continue to take the input and incorporate
it (which I think they tend to do). These releases are always clearly
labeled as BETA, so you always have fair warning.
I'd like to think (and perhaps I'm being too much of an optimist) that
what is going on is that they are beefing up the feature list and making
some major enhancements that will shake things up a bit, making things
unstable for a few releases. They will continue to work on things to
bring it back to stability. They've done this before - look at the new
streaming and synchronization feature. They rewrote the basic
underpinnings of how the products works. Frankly, that's a move that
takes balls. And they worked to get it working correctly. Now we have
a great new feature and things are good again.
My hope is that the SW dev team continues to work in this fashion. And
I can sit on the sidelines (by choice) and wait for the dust to settle
each time it gets shaken up.
--
maggior
Rich
---------
Setup: 2 SB3s, 3 Booms, 1 duet, 1 receiver. SuSE 11.0 Server running
SqueezeCenter 7.3.3, MusicIP, and SqueezeSlave.
Current library stats: 27,698 songs, 2,304 albums, 439 artists.
http://www.last.fm/user/maggior
Looking forward to new Porcupine Tree, Megadeth, Alice in Chains, and
The Beatles Box set. September will be an expensive month :-)
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