On the subject of software reliability

Brian Densmore DensmoreB at ctbsonline.com
Thu Nov 6 15:57:39 CST 2003


http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5103267.html?tag=nefd_top

'Microsoft issued the first major patch for the new version of its Office software, fixing a flaw 
that could result in lost work.

The "critical update," released late on Tuesday, applies to three of the four major applications in 
Office 2003--the Word word-processing program, the PowerPoint presentation application and the 
Excel spreadsheet software, according to a Microsoft bulletin.

The problem happens when a document created with one of those applications is opened with an 
earlier version of Office. If the document contains graphics elements created using the OfficeArt 
tool, the earlier version of Office will misinterpret that part of the document and add invalid 
data to the file when it is saved.

An attempt to re-open the file with the Office 2003 application that created it could result in a 
corrupted document, missing content or other errors. '

It hasn't even been a month has it since they released it?
This has always and I suspect always will be Microsoft's
biggest problem. This is why Linux is better. Not as prone to
trash your work from version to version. Something M$ is 
notorious for.

Brian




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