Nobody wants apple to release faulty firmware but again why has this only come to light now ? i would assume people were beta testing back when this was first announcecd in april/may. If this problem was as someone suggested because of miscoding or trying to fix one bug which then created another then obviously apples process is flawed.
Why release the GM to the beta testers only one week before it was to be released to the public. Did they hold back the GM because thats apples policy to only have afew days between GM and final release. If so then on this occasion its meant that new bugs have been found and its now delayed.
I just think the whole beta process is flawed and apple needs to look into why so many bugs have been found soo close to launch date.
Sorry but the above is wrong in almost every way.
The level of complexity present in any modern OS, even a mobile one, is truly staggering and that's before you include all the in-built applications, the need to ensure that all public libraries work as designed, variations in hardware (yes, even on a platform with only 6 variations) and on and on and on. The beta process is designed to move software from feature complete versions (or, depending on, uh, dependencies within the project at least a framework complete version) through to theoretically bug-free release software. Note: theoretically bug-free. In truth that's almost an impossible goal as even mission-critical software designed for a single hardware configuration that has untold millions thrown at it will almost always have bugs hanging around in the code.
Now in the case of iOS Apple went into Beta mode on September 15th. This beta is supposed to be a closed beta ONLY for software developers and serves two purposes. First, to allow devs to test their own applications against the new codebase and fix any issues (or take advantage of new features) and second to find and fix bugs. Both of these goals have been achieved in the six or so weeks between the first Beta and golden master being released.
At some point between the last-but-one beta and the GM a bug seems to have been introduced. This is a common problem and is why there is a nice long gap between the GM and the official release. The GM is no different to any other beta release really, it's just the point that Apple look at the bug list and decide it meets their criteria for release and, by definition, it includes changes from that last-but-one beta. In the case of a new bug being found (and this could be something that's been in the iOS 4.2 code on iPad since day one but has only become a problem because of a relatively minor change) then the GM simply becomes another beta and a new GM is released.
This is a perfectly normal software development life-cycle and people need to start understanding this before being so quick to criticise. Mobile software is developing at a ferocious pace right now and the fact that iOS, Android, WP7, Symbian, webOS and the rest are of such a generally high quality is a testament to just how well the development process works. Where it goes wrong is when people who don't understand that process, who haven't worked as developers or team leaders or project managers and who, frankly, haven't got the first clue as to just how hard this sort of thing is to do get the wrong end of the stick and start complaining and demanding deliverables in time-frames that would require genuine miracles to achieve with any semblance of quality control. Honestly, some of the demands I've seen on Macrumours with regards iOS 4.2 on iPad wouldn't be out of place in a Dilbert cartoon.
To try and avoid ranting on for pages let me sum this up: A modern OS is a massively complicated piece of software with thousands of interlocking pieces. A change to one of those pieces can, in theory, affect any other piece. The fact that modern mobile OS's can go through two, three or four major revisions in a year and deliver products with few, if any, major bugs is almost beyond belief and speaks volumes of the companies producing them and the talent developing them. This needs to be clearly understood and evaluated before complaining about a delay of a week or two in a major product revision.
