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Wii Internet Channel
First post from the Wii browser!
Comments
EDIT: Apparently every region except North America has it now. Ouch. Just tried it, works perfectly!
Shockwave doesn't work at all.
I even tried deleting the channel and redownloading it. No dice. Though I can report that apparently deleting the channel doesn't affect your cookies at all, sites still remembered who I was when it came down again. So I guess if you're worried about getting rid of your personal information before you sell your Wii in the future you're kind of up the creek for now.
Blah blah about beta software. As far as I'm concerned if you're releasing and promoting it to the public at large it's not beta anymore. This crap should have been worked out long before it ever hit the wild.
Also, if you sell your Wii, all you have to do is format the system memory in the options screen.
Services like Gmail and Flickr are beta in name only. They're open to the public, inviting new users to use them without telling them what exactly that little beta subscript means. The Wii Browser is the same way. This is a product that's been marketed to the most non-tech savvy people around but that didn't stop them from sending a message to every Wii advertising that this free browser was available. I know that it's a public preview. You know that it's a public preview. Most people, however, would read that and think that it's more a free trial than unfinished product. The point I was trying to make is that if it's not ready to have the wraps taken off then keep working on it. Doing otherwise is not going to convince people that it's worth paying for down the road. For a more eloquent diatribe of the state of beta software in today's market I'd point you in the direction of John Gruber's recent article on the subject. The point is that releasing (and worse, promoting) software that isn't ready for public consumption leads only to weaken the market when you eventually release.
The first consequence you neglect is the waiting. When you develop software there is a point at which it works well enough to be very useful, but is still significantly buggy. We have decided that it is often worth it to suffer using this beta software because the new functionality often outweighs the damage caused by the bugs. If you apply your logic to another field, such as medicine, you will see it is clearly flawed. If there were a cure for your disease that existed now, but had some side effects, would you rather suffer for another year or take the medicine now?
The other thing you don't realize is that public beta testing and the suffering of users is what makes having such a bug-free final product possible. Before public betas, developers would release final versions of software loaded with bugs. Some companies still do. It is simply not possible for a small group of testers to test the software in every possible situation. By having a wide open public beta you are able to maximize bug reporting prior to the official release. Not only that, but you can get a lot more significant input from actual users as to ways to make the software better. Free availability of software during the testing phase is a major reason why open source software tends to be more stable and secure than proprietary software tested behind closed doors in small labs.
If you don't like using software that has a few bugs in it, nobody is forcing you to use it. This is the kind of mentality behind Linux distributions like Debian. They refuse to include any software in the stable version of Debian that isn't 100% proven. You know what? Using a computer with Debian stable lacks so much functionality, that you would be driven insane. All of the software is at least 1 if not 3 or 4 versions old. When deciding on which software to use, we all have to make some decisions. Should you use the beta version of the word processor that has the better spell checking feature even though there is a bug in the print preview screen? Should you use the nightly build of Firefox that has the new feature that will cut your browsing time in half even though it will crash a few times a day? Different people answer these questions in different ways, and that is why developers are careful to properly label their software.
You are right, beta is not an excuse. It is a warning. It means, use at your own risk. If you don't think the buggy trial version of Opera Wii is useful, don't use it!
The version you do not want released is the alpha version!!!