Joel on Software

2001/02/21

What's up at Fog Creek Software?

Sometimes I think we should be called Fog Creek Renovation, since we're spending a lot of time fixing up the new office. Michael got all 3 bathrooms working. David is working on new halogen lighting downstairs. Babak came up with a great layout, and I assembled some kewl curvy bookcases. You venture-capital funded wimps probably never had to touch spackle.

More interestingly, we're getting close to shipping 2.0, the next major version of FogBUGZ, on March 1st as promised. If you have any urgent feature requests email David directly. If you bought the first version, the upgrade is free.

In an earlier column I slammed Netscape for using the entire world as beta-testers, and then ignoring the bug reports that came in. Here's how we're going to do beta tests. First of all, we're limiting the beta test to people who promise to install the beta. We're inviting a select group of people to install the beta, and asking them to tell us when they will be installing it. During that time, we will literally be standing by the phone on our toll-free line to help them with any problems that come up. For our 1.0 users who are upgrading, this is the best way to get help and be sure the upgrade goes smoothly.

If you tried out FogBUGZ using our on-line demo, but didn't buy it, I'd sure appreciate a quick email telling me what you thought. I'm obsessive about listening to customers.

We've got another very cool product in the oven, which I'm super excited about, but that will have to remain a mystery for a few weeks. Stay tuned, all will be revealed in good time!

College students: my company has paid summer internships in New York City, including free housing, free lunch, and the chance to develop software people will really use, with great mentors on interesting projects. Don't miss this chance of a lifetime. We only have a few spaces and they always go fast, so apply today.

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You’re reading Joel on Software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies.

About the author.

I’m Joel Spolsky, founder of Fog Creek Software, a New York company that proves that you can treat programmers well and still be highly profitable. Programmers get private offices, free lunch, and work 40 hours a week. Customers only pay for software if they’re delighted. We make FogBugz, an enlightened project management system designed to help great teams develop brilliant software, and Fog Creek Copilot, which makes remote desktop access easy.