Pay No Attention To The Bugs Behind the Curtain

Recently I expressed my concerns ( Wix: Forced To Use Beta Software ) about the release schedules and methologies employed by WiX 2.0/3.0. As usual my concerns were downplayed with comments like this one from an anonymous user:

You are overreacting.
WiX/Votive 3 is pretty stable and if you test the .msis correctly you won't run into dark holes.

Unlike your beloved InstallShield which likes to crash from time to time ;)

Wow! I've been in this business for a long time and it's very rare that I hear companies tell their customers `You are overreacting`.

Of course, I'm not overreacting. The last official release of WiX v2 and wiX v3 was May of 2007. That's nearly 8 months ago and another 12 months to go since Rob said it's unlikely to be resolve this year. So if you want to use any of the bleeding edge progress you have to comb your way through weekly releases.

Recently I was doing just that when I discovered that in the latest build of WiX that the Votive WiX Projects won't appear in Visual Studio 2005. Go back a build and they work.

Now I ask you: How many developers who read my blog work for companies where their iteration schedules are measured in years instead of months, drop untested preview builds on their customers, expect their customers to troubleshoot the problems and file their own bug reports, search blogs for release notes and tells them that they are overreacting when they suggest that the status-quo isn't working?

:Pause:

All you Microsoft employees can put your hands down now. Does anyone else still have their hand up?

Anyways, I know that's not how we do it where I work.