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Forum Discussion
Software Updates
Hi all, I am surprised there has been no software releases for many, many months now. Netgear must have their dev's working from home and to say this is due to COVID would be laughable. Anybody k...
Since any OS changes would have to be tested on multiple hardware platforms, which is difficult to do remotely, I disagree that COVID being the reason is "laughable". Netgear sales are also likely down (though they may have spiked at the beginning as companies put work from home capabilities in place), so there may be limits on hours for the developers.
But the base Linux Jessie is also getting long in the tooth, and I suspect that much of their effort is going toward updating to a more recent distro, which would require more time than a standard update and even more testing on hardware.
We will have to agree to disagree there then on the COVID piece...
As an employee of a multinational technology organisation, I can honestly state from personal experience that whilst there have been some challenges brought about by COVID, notwithstanding our workload increasing significantly, we have continued to support our customers and released new / updated software for our plethora of products. I believe this is testiment to our robust business continunity planning.
I take your point if they are looking at signficant software changes / migration to a new distro... An update would be nice from Netgear to keep us appraised however.
steveoelliott wrote:
As an employee of a multinational technology organisation, I can honestly state from personal experience that whilst there have been some challenges brought about by COVID, notwithstanding our workload increasing significantly, we have continued to support our customers and released new / updated software for our plethora of products.
My own company has also done this (and also has brought new hardware products to market).
Though this could still be COVID related. Overall capacity for most companies has gone down, and Netgear might have put some things on hold.
Is there something you believe is in dire need of updating that does not entail moving to a newer base distro?
I. too, work for a multinational technology company, and our software and hardware are unique products. Our software developers cannot have one of the devices at home on which to perform any testing. Our test organizations for hardware and software must, therefore, spend at least some time in house to perform their function. So, changes are being pretty much limited to fixing of problems so as to limit that time. Sales are way down, and so is internal funding for enhancements that is generated by sales. Enhancements are pretty much on hold unless there is a specific commitment to a customer regarding them, which typically means they are not at least fully internally funded.
That does not mean we are not supporting our customers' real needs. Just because they may have become accustomed to periodic updates does not mean they really need them.
Netgear does not normally announce enhancements in advance. I suspect that's because they don't want to have to keep explaining unforeseeable delays.
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