Lack of Support
Stephen Boursy
client (right now I'm using Outlook Express instead of Agent for usenet as I
just got a new
PC and haven't installed the software).
The only problem I really have with Mozilla products is that there's no
convenient way to notify them of problems or ask questions. Knowledge
bases, etc. don't cut it--there is no substitute for human interaction. Of
course you won't get that with many other products as well but it would be
nice if Mozilla would put on a human face and encourage rather than
discourage such interaction. They do after all represent something
different and less greedy.
For example I went to PC-Cillin after reading reviews of their virus
software and they offer a free scan online but it only works with the
Microdollars browser. There was no email address to report this to at
Mozilla. When I wrote to the PC_cillin folks they said they don't support
Firefox and you'd get no browser protection if you bought their
product--couldn't report that either.
Not a complaint really--just a source of disappointment.
Steve
Leonidas Jones
You're in one of the best support groups for Mozilla products. Check
Chris Ilias' help site for more options:
To report problems, there is Bugzilla:
What you are talking about would be tech evangelism bugs. Search
Bugzilla carefully before filing a bug, to make sure it isn't a
duplicate of an existing bug.Read the following carefully before filing
a bug:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/tech-evangelism/
Lee
Charles Hawkins
> <snip>
> The only problem I really have with Mozilla products is that there's no
> convenient way to notify them of problems or ask questions. Knowledge
> bases, etc. don't cut it--there is no substitute for human interaction. Of
> course you won't get that with many other products as well but it would be
> nice if Mozilla would put on a human face and encourage rather than
> discourage such interaction. They do after all represent something
> different and less greedy.
> Not a complaint really--just a source of disappointment.
>
> Steve
The thing about community-driven projects like Mozilla is that they are
just that - community-driven. Code writing is handled mainly by
community contributions. Documentation is handled mainly by community
contributions. Tech support is also handled largely by the community,
through such means as newsgroups (such as this one), mailing lists, IRC
channels, and the like. As for bugs, the accepted method of reporting
them is with Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org
More of a centralized structure would probably be neccessary to "put on
a human face." Actually, I think Mozilla puts more effort into its
"human face" than most open-source projects. I imagine Netscape might
present more of face, though I haven't used their Firefox-based Netscape
8 and so can't really comment on it.
John Thompson
> I use Firefox as my default browser and Thunderbird as my default email
> client (right now I'm using Outlook Express instead of Agent for usenet as I
> just got a new
> PC and haven't installed the software).
>
> The only problem I really have with Mozilla products is that there's no
> convenient way to notify them of problems or ask questions. Knowledge
> bases, etc. don't cut it--there is no substitute for human interaction. Of
> course you won't get that with many other products as well but it would be
> nice if Mozilla would put on a human face and encourage rather than
> discourage such interaction. They do after all represent something
> different and less greedy.
Have you tried the Mozilla support page?
http://www.mozilla.org/support/
--
John (jo...@os2.dhs.org)