[Bug 1269199]

[Andy-90254]

What I object to is the message you're sending.  The problem has not
been resolved in any sense of the word.  "Deflected" would be closer to
the truth.  "Won't fix" is also reasonable nomenclature for this
situation.  "Resolved" implies fixed.  While that may be what you
consider it as far as the application code proper is concerned, it is
not an accurate reflection of the status of the problem from my point of
view.

There are facts, and then there is customer service.  If you wouldn't
say it to your grandmother, then you shouldn't say it to anyone else,
especially not a customer.  And yes, anyone using the software is a
customer aka user.

The fact that nobody else is willing to go out of their way to take the
time and energy I put forth, along with the knowledge required to make
it all the way to this point speaks not to the solidity of the software,
but of the tenaciousness of the user.  I spent over 8 hours today alone
chasing this down trying to get it resolved.  The vast majority of users
- especially those of a non-technical background - wouldn't put up with,
nor spend their time on this kind of nonsense.  First the application
would get dumped for something else, and failing satisfaction with that
- then abandonment for a different OS entirely where the support system
doesn't force the user to be a tech guru.

I've been using Linux for years and I've been as big an evangelist as
anyone.  But quite frankly I'm embarrassed to recommend it to anyone
without a strong technical background because of exactly this kind of
issue and associated attitude.

I do appreciate that the problem is not strictly within the konversation
code proper, but instead within a component used by konversation, but
that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do.  To say "nor do we have
such old Qt versions ourselves to test with" is patently false, because
I didn't go out of my way to downgrade to this version.  This is what
came with the system and is readily available to anyone that wants it as
I installed it fresh not one month ago - the one labeled "LTS" - Long
Term Support as you well know.  Do I expect you to go out of your way to
test with an older version when something newer and more exciting is
available?  No, not really and I can appreciate that there is a newer
library component which may or may not fix the issue.

While upgrading to newer software (where "software" could mean a wide
variety of things from just the library to the entire OS) might be the
proper solution from your point of view - and I'm not necessarily
objecting to that as the solution (upgrading the library, not the OS),
what I do object to is the general "it's not my problem you're on your
own" attitude.  Which leads me back to - is that what you'd tell your
grandmother?

The proper way to have handled this would have been to take ownership of
the problem - whether it's truly your area of responsibility or not -
and guide me as far as you're able.  That means this response "The crash
happens deep in the Qt library. I suggest to update Qt to version 4.8.5.
While you are using newest KDE 4.12, you are still using a quite old Qt
4.8.2." was a very good start and I applaud Cristoph for it, but could
have gone one small step further with "Do you need help with how to do
that?" and then a bit of handholding through the process; even if you
didn't know how and it meant figuring it out yourself.  Instead that was
the end of it as far as your team were concerned.  As the process failed
(locating a pre-built library as well as compiling one), I should have
then been helped with reporting the issue to the proper place;
personally "walked" to the next link in the chain so that I didn't feel
abandoned.

Finding that place - and procedure -took me all day today, when with a
bit of help from someone knowledgeable like yourselves, that time could
have very well been reduced to minutes.  And that's the real issue here
- the "we really don't care because it works for us so go figure it out
for yourself" mentality.

No response is expected, just do better next time.  For granny's sake.
It's just the right way to treat people.  Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you.

Thanks

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1269199

Title:
  Qt library crashes

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