I read glyphobet's blog, itemizing frustrations he's had reporting bugs to Ubuntu. While I've not had frustrating experiences reporting bugs to Ubuntu, I've reported bugs to a lot of different open source projects, and had more than a few closed in a way I wasn't happy with, so I can definitely sympathize. I hope in Ubuntu these sorts of experiences are the exception, but certainly there's always room to improve.

In my own experience at having bugs closed in ways I thought were inappropriate or incorrect, while I was initially angry about it, after reflecting I realized in each case it was really a consequence that I didn't understand that particular project's bug philosophy and had filed the bug in a way that didn't adhere to their guidelines.

Following on from my recommendation for apt-buglist where you can see the reported bugs on a package before installing it I thought it might be useful to look at the other side of the coin, reporting bugs in Debian. The best way to do this is with the dedicated tool: reportbug.

One of the reasons free operating systems are so great is because of their bug reporting features. Ubuntu is no exception. Like most other GNU/Linux operating systems, Ubuntu allows users to file bug reports using its bug reporting site, Launchpad. In the free software world, each user becomes a potential beta tester and gets the chance to contribute to the community without ever coding or writing documentation. Unfortunately, Launchpad’s bug reporting tool often scares away users who have no idea what a ticket, project, or distribution is.

"...Welcome to Hardy Heron Alpha-2, which will in time become Ubuntu 8.04. Pre-releases of Hardy are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs..."

I grew up with Microsoft operating systems. I’ve been through MS-DOS 5.0, Win 3.1, Windows 95, 98, Millenium Edition, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP. Notice how I stopped there. After over a decade of Windows, I decided to give Ubuntu a try and now have no reason to install Vista. Here are nine reasons why I chose Ubuntu:

The Ubuntu developers have asked that people help them fix five bugs every day. They are asking for everyone's help whether you are a developer or just a user.

Tracking and squishing bugs (both the six-legged and the computer software kind) is hard, and you need all the help you can get.

As a (relatively) long time Ubuntu user, occasional bug reporter and support analyst, I often deal with bug reporting and I feel your pain about bug reporting, Matt. This happens in many other free software projects, but I think Ubuntu’s popularity gives its problems more exposure, an opportunity to refine the process and maybe inspire others to learn from its mistakes and success.

There are only two months left for the new Ubuntu release to appear. I’ve decided to check out what is it that the Ubuntu developers have been preparing for us. Yet again, there are no huge, revolutionary changes, but some of them are really interesting. I’ve decided to write a few words about them.