A few months ago, we chose to add some new features to SVS and change “SVS 2.0 SP2″ into “SVS 2.1″. This is causing customers to wait longer for some important bug fixes that were targeted for 2.0 SP2. In my first draft of this post, I went into all of the details of the decision and explained our QA process and so forth, in hopes that you would appreciate why one project and one release is ultimately better for customers. But I don’t want to go through all that; since SVS 2.1 beta 1 shipped, the heat seems to be off. Everyone is happy with the performance fixes and many customers are rolling the 2.1 beta into production as if it were in fact 2.0 SP2. Still, I wanted to vent a bit of frustration over an issue that most (if not all) software PM’s are familiar with.
Today I’m going to take a pause from discussing SVS and will write from the perspective of an ex-Novell employee and as a citizen of the world.
I heard the phrase “the Great Firewall of China” this week on an NPR report about US technology companies doing business in China. It refers to the government-imposed Internet filters between China and the rest of the world. I had not heard the term before, which surprised me. From my perspective, it is disturbingly apropos and more than just clever word play.
