Kupa and friends,

I have worked with software companies big and small and no one releases software bug-free. All they can do is address as many of the ones they know about as they can before the money runs out. There is eventually a time when the product must ship or die, whatever shape it is in.

I understand that.

The demands of market often call for introducing new features, making it a priority over fixing old bugs people have lived with anyway. It's a tough call, but new features mean revenue. You can't expect people to pay for a bug fix.

I respect that.

When a small company relies on a single product for income and the money's running low, a lot of testing gets rushed. After all, you can't keep testing if you can't pay testers. And real users will ALWAYS find problems that testers missed, use the prodcuts in ways never anticipated.

Totally been there.

It's not unreasonable for a customer to buy a software product and expect it to run as advertised, bug-free. It is, unfortunately, a little unrealistic. Being a little more realistic (cinical), I held off on the upgrade to see what real users had to say. Sort of like waiting for the reviews of "Episode I" rather than standing in line overnight to get tickets for opening day.

I am neither surprised nor disappointed that there are problems. I don't blame CL or hold them to an unfair standard. While many people are rightfully upset with the problems in the software, I don't believe they were caused by sloppiness, apathy, ignorance or greed. I believe you guys did your damndest to put out a damn cool product. While many users are suffering the fate of early adopters, I see the potential for an EXTREMELY compelling upgrade. I'll just wait for that first patch thank you...

So the point of this ramble is... well, my respect and sympathies to the team at CL. I wish more people were aware of what it takes to make software happen. Perhaps you would not get slammed as unfairly. Meanwhile, IMHO, how you respond to the genuine issues your customers have is what will have the lasting impression on the user community. Thank you for your admirable effort so far.