Nextcloud has far too many bugs

I like Nextcloud: it is probably my favorite piece of software that I run. But man it has a ton of bugs. Their support forums are full of people reporting problems, and there is no solution.

Sometimes, the support forums do report that “Yes, this bug is listed in the Github bug tracker.”

There are more than 2,300 open bugs.

It is ridiculous. I saw a changelog that said the update would fix a bug I was seeing. I installed the update. The bug was still there. Quality control in this project is deplorable. I have another bug that I experience daily that has been open for almost two years.

What is dismaying to me is that the main developers have a Microsoft mentality: let’s add new features! No, we’re not going to work on bug fixes: debugging is boring.

In a couple of years, after I retire, I may decide to learn PHP programming. I haven’t really been fond of PHP.

Way back when, I read (well, got through the first few chapters) of a programming book that pointed out that software can be written to be mathematically provably correct. For every memory allocation, the math can add to the sum of debt. Memory should be specifically de-allocated, which subtracts from the sum of debt. When at the end of your source code, the sum is zero, you’ve handled all cases of allocating and de-allocating.

Nothing about PHP makes me think this is true for that language. Maybe I just don’t know the language well enough.

But, PHP does run a ton of super successful projects. So there must be something there which is valuable.

But yeah, I’m not going to be competent at writing PHP for years. Hopefully, someone at Nextcloud will get tasked with fixing bugs before then.

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