Only the last item is expected - to work as advertised.
The US market is open and very competitive, only a few foreign companies do well
there. Renault, Fiat, Rover, et al, couldn't cut it. Audi almost pulled out a
few years ago, and Volkswagon were very shakey for a while. Also, the consumers
tastes are quite different in the US than most anywhere else. Maybe they don't
need the latest engine, substantially the same as the previous engine, to feel
good about themselves.
The software companies get away with it because of people like you and I who buy
the stuff and don't return it when it is defective. You did return GPL 1.0,
right? Consider this: if the software companies wait until all bugs are removed,
they will never ship a single product and you will now be using a really nice
fully debugged version of DOS 1.0. As an interesting aside, the open source
concept with Linux is another approach to getting a quality product, some might
say it is a better approach.
Personally, I think GPL 1.0 didn't need fixing. I like the addition of Force
Feedback support though. It has been one of the best software products that I
have ever purchased. The latest version of F1RS has more bugs, with the ump***
patches that used to come along until Ubisoft started to call the patches MGP
and demand money for them.
Bottom line: GPL 1.1 has some positives, and some negatives. I can't wait for
GPL 1.2 now - same features as 1.1 but without the timing problems, and maybe a
different solution to the slo-mo problem. Whining won't get the job done, and it
makes you feel worse. Encourage guys like Randy Cassidy to improve the product
and offer your full unconditional support to them and the other developers. Not
just the core GPL guys, but VROC, SpyBoy, GPaL, etc.. too.
Keith.