Found a bug? Do not report it here!

Hey gang,

Thanks for your continued participation! It's great to see community members assisting one another.

Over the past several weeks I have noted an emerging trend in topics that are actually bug reports. Spoiler alert: this is not the proper venue for reporting bugs.

If you encounter a sufficiently disruptive bug and you want to get it fixed, I encourage you to utilize an official technical support channel. Use reason to determine where best to begin-- if you paid for a support contract, begin by exercising that support contract. As with any technical support issue, be prepared to invest time and endure some level of frustration (we've all been there, myself included). And remember: not all bugs are created equal.

Here are the three possible starting points-- stay tuned for some examples to help you decide where to begin:

1. File a bug with your distribution (e.g. Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian)-- if in doubt, start here
2. File a bug with your computer manufacturer (e.g. Dell, Samsung, Acer)
3. File a bug with a specific open source project

Indications that it's probably best to start with your distribution (not an exhaustive list):

• You are unsure how to proceed with your bug report
• You installed your distribution on a computer and it doesn't work as well as it does on, e.g., Windows*
• You paid for a copy of your distribution or paid for one of their service contracts
• You changed a system configuration option and undesirable things started happening
• You performed a software upgrade from your distribution's official repositories and undesirable things started happening

Indications that it's probably best to start with your computer manufacturer (not an exhaustive list):

• You know the computer is Wi-Fi or network capable and has Wi-Fi or networking hardware, but according to Linux it does not
• In the spirit of the the prior bullet, you know your computer has XYZ hardware, but in Linux you cannot use it
• You installed, upgraded, or plugged in a piece of hardware, and undesirable things started happening

Indications that it's best to start with a specific open source project:

• There are indications (output, logs, domain of the undesired behavior) that a specific package is at least the proximate cause of undesired behavior
• You are a developer or power user that's not afraid of the command line, applying patches to source code, compiling source code, building and installing a Linux kernel, parsing log files, or running programs in a debugger
• The undesired behavior can be easily reproduced

Cheers, I hope this helps