Re: [IMail Forum] Amazing IPSwitch Problems

[IMail Admin]

I have been a beta tester for a lot of companies over the years (WordPerfect, Corel, Novell, Microsoft, and others), and I have found that most (if not all) software companies release their software before it is ready.  When I first ran into this, I was shocked, but I've since come to see it as the norm.   Having a lot of development experience, I at least understand why this happens.  It is virtually impossible to anticipate all the possible uses, possible hardware involved, all the possible scenarios that real life presents.  Beta testers are not only a small sample of the real world, they are usually *not* typical of the real world (for one thing, they volunteered to be beta testers), so beta testing can only carry you so far.   Nor do I think it is fair to compare this situation to other industries.  I don't know of any other industry where companies are expected to completely renovate their products every few years (think of cars, where the big changes are the look of the grill and the body shape).   To me, the ultimate test for IMail (or any other new major release of a software product) is not whether there are bugs in the initial release, but how the company deals with those releases.  Are they open and upfront?  Do they admit the mistakes, get to work on them right away, and give an honest estimate of a time table?  Are they responsive to their customers?  If the answers to these questions are all yes, then the products are likely to be a success, even if there are big initial problems.   A year ago, it was clear that Ipswitch could not answer yes to those questions, but times have changed.  I'm watching carefully now to see how they handle the situation -- that will show us their true colors.   By the way, when I do install IMail 2006, it will be first to a test server, before I roll it out live.  Anyone who jumps on this big of an upgrade without some advanced testing deserves whatever happens afterwards.   Ben Bednarz BC Web   ----- Original Message ----- From: Joe Wolf / Internet Specialists, LLC To: IMail_Forum@list.ipswitch.com Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 8:10 AM Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] Amazing IPSwitch Problems Lynn, I respect your opinion, but believe me when I tell you there are other ways to look at things.    You seem to believe and accept that when an upgrade is released you should not use it until others test it out.  You accept that there will be many problems and are willing to wait for the hot fixes, etc.   I am one that believes that a released, non-beta product should be 100% free of major problems.  Yes, I accept that there may be some small issues that don't effect the product as a whole.  I believe there is a reason for beta testing, and I choose not to be a beta tester.   Most industries work the way I describe.  For some reason too many people are willing to accept the problems in our industry.  Some blame this on Microsoft, and I am no Microsoft fan, but Ipswitch takes this scenario to a completely different level.  One of the most popular add on products seems to follow right on the coat tails of Ipswitch in releasing defective products, but that's a different story.   I am not a beta tester.  I don't want to be a beta tester.   Imail 2006 should not be having any of the problems listed on this forum.  Perhaps we might hear of a misspelled word, or term inconsistency, but not major features failing to work, or a surprise that you need to retrain all your users.  This is completely unacceptable to me, and I believe it should be unacceptable to you as well.   Why do you feel you should sit back and let others solve all the problems before you jump in?  Isn't that the purpose of a beta?    If I ran my business the way Ipswitch runs theirs I would not expect to be in business very long.    -Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: Lynn Floyd To: IMail_Forum@list.ipswitch.com Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 9:57 AM Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Amazing IPSwitch Problems Uptime is the goal, if you do not know how a new product or upgrade is going to effect your system, why apply the upgrade immediately once it is out.  I work in an industry that comes with upgrades about every 2 to 3 months, some major and some minor, There are adventurous ones out there that do the upgrade immediately, but most of us do not.  This is because of knowing that with any upgrade of any product there are issues.  Testing by the company does not always find all the bugs, as they do not know how each system is being used, and how each system is customized.  Differences in hardware, OS, security, and additional programs makes a difference in the way a product behaves.  If a company tests on each system the way we each have ours set up, then their server farm would have to be huge, and that would take forever, and upgrades would not be in existence.    SO, a lot of us Sys Administrators do not upgrade until the upgrades have been out at least 3 to 5 months, sometimes more.  As for the brave ones, they usually have found the bugs before most of us get around to upgrading which by then there are a few patches/hotfixes that can be applied.  So, if you had problems with the install this weekend wait, I am.  I most likely will not be upgrading to 2006 until the spring.  And by then I will have tested it in a dev environment.     For those that use other products, apparently you did not like IMail, or had issues with IMail.  Why are you still here, and reading this forum, do you not get enough e-mail?  Are you trying to steal trade secrets?  I know that there are issues with any Mail server that is out there, so go find out the issues with your server and bug their Forum/help support system.   Lynn Floyd [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anderson County Library  http://www.andersonlibrary.org     From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Travis Rabe Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 10:25 AM To: IMail_Forum@list.ipswitch.com Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Amazing IPSwitch Problems Amen,   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christopher Jones Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 7:41 PM To: IMail_Forum@list.ipswitch.com Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Amazing IPSwitch Problems   Yeah I agree there are other products ..   But I also agree with trialling a new product before upgrading. How many people have just gone in and upgraded their current imail and come across problems? I am in the process of replicating our 8.21 setup on a dev server and will be upgrading that one shortly. I don’t agree with just blindly upgrading for the sake of it .and with so many new features, there are going to be bugs. So it needs to be trialled before just upgrading.