I just experienced quite possibly the most frustrating thing that has ever happened to me with linux. In fact, this may well be the first time I’ve seriously complained about it.
There is a ‘feature’, errr bug, in Kmail relating to smtp accounts. It used to be that if you queued email using one smtp server, you could change the smtp server by going into the settings and it would send all the emails with the new server you selected. Some time back, that changed and it would only send emails you queued after changing the smtp server settings using the new server. In other words, it was saving the server information in each message stored in the outbox. The only workaround is to open up each email (thus taking it out of the outbox) and requeue it. Due to the queuing order, and the fact that each email had to be handled individually, with many emails queued, the only way to get the job done correctly is to open them all at once (resulting in countless windows open) and then requeue them one at a time. Frustrating, but it works.
Fast forward to today. I spent several hours on the airplane from Abidjan to Paris catching up on back emails. I had numerous emails in my inbox that I was saving for a time that I could respond. Many of them related to Free State Project work that has piled up over the last couple weeks. I had queued up almost 30 emails to send. When I arrived, the internet connection here did not allow me to send email using my default SMTP server. So I began the process of changing servers. I opened all of the emails. When I requeued the first one, Kmail crashed.
When I reloaded Kmail, none of the emails opened with it…
Not only did I lose several hours worth of work, I don’t even know what I did and where to go to recreate it.
After I figure out how to submit a bug report, I’m going to go to bed and pretend this never happened…
V-
Software is a piece of…
I have been dealing with software since the early ’70s and in the business since the late ’70s. Along with work I end up providing tech support to family and friends. I often get some variant on the question, why did it do that? My answer is that fundamentally all software is a Piece Of Sh.. (POS). It may be a useful POS but it is a POS nonetheless.
The issues is that software is the or one of the most complex things humans do. it also has the problem that it is practically impossible to comprehensively test it. Good engineering practices and good testing can minimize the POSness of software but it cannot eliminate it.
So, just to cheer you up, be aware that you will always be vulnerable to software problems unless you give up computers as well as all interaction with a society that uses them. Since some of those interactions are not voluntary you cannot escape the POSness of software. 🙂
Ouch! I’m sorry. I guess if there were any in there for me, we’ll catch up tomorrow! 🙂