Of course, the reasons of these bugs and crashes are various and, before submitting a bug report, users should watch this video but sometimes they could be simply avoided by following these simple rules:
Keep your OS up-to-date.
Update your GPU drivers.
Use the latest version of Blender.
To lower the number of reports, I suggest to use the “Nudge Theory” on several pages of the website, but to begin, with the Downloads page.
I think that it would worth considering to add a simple/short sentence on the Download Page (and why not, on the Blender Splashscreen ?) to incite users to follow the three steps above.
My suggestion:
Blender works best with an up-to-date OS and with the latest GPU drivers.
or maybe:
Users noticed less crashes with Blender on an up-to-date OS and with the latest GPU drivers.
Blender works best with an up-to-date OS and with the latest GPU drivers.
This is not true. Everything may work fine, but it will stop after the OS/drivers update.
New drivers may have a bug. The new OS may have changes that Blender does not yet support.
Users noticed less crashes with Blender …
Talk about crashes on the Download Page or Splash Screen, it’s like writing on the package that you are buying a broken product.
In any case, if the user is unable to read what is written on the Create Report page right under his nose, everything else will not help. However, I find the “design” of the Create Bug Report page itself terrible, this is what needs to be improved.
Yes, a new GPU driver version may cause problems but most of the time, it solves problems. There’s a reason drivers are updated: performance improvements and bug fixes.
Do you really think it’s better not to advise Blender users to regularly update their drivers?
Also, if something goes wrong with a new driver version, it is still possible to downgrade to the previous working version.
AFAIK, on Windows 10, you can’t stop the OS to install updates, you can just delay them.
Whatever what people do (install Windows updates or delay them), they will be installed anyway at some point.
Btw, it is usually highly advised to install OS updates: for performance, stability enhancements and security reasons.
Everybody knows that softwares are not bug-free. And Blender users generally know that Blender is constantly in development and despite that, bugs can happen.
The wording of these sentences could certainly be improved but hiding the truth to users is considering them as kids, IMO.
That’s why the Nudge Theory can be useful: it gently advises people to perform actions that are good for themselves.
