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Aside from niceness, NDAs and fear of litigation, there are other factors that influence the lack of detailed product information and critiques. A lot of patrons may use library systems but often their interaction is limited and indirect with a specific vendor's product. It is often rebranded, customized and integrated with other products to meet a specific library's needs. The patron often has no idea which product they're using and might make only occasional use. Given the situation, I wouldn't expect the volume of popular blog posts, comparisons and bug reports as for something like Firefox or Microsoft Word. Even comparing to other back end software, I'd expect something like relational database or payroll software to see broader use and adoption across industries than certain library systems. With more use and evaluation, I'd expect to see more public feedback and complaints about the software in a Google search. The library community can be relatively small, specialized and niche compared to other markets. As a comparison, I once worked for a large original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that sold computers to end users. They were looking to move from their home-brew phone technical support, ticketing and CRM system to a commercial product, preferably with focus and experience with our industry needs. I was involved in some of the evaluation and meetings with vendors. We ran into some similar problems of not being able to find many public critiques or much information about significant bugs or problems (NDAs?). Of course, vendors had their lists touting prominent customers. They even gave us a contact or two at companies using their products who would say generally nice things about them. However, really useful information was most likely to come out of our own testing and evaluation, along with informal back channel sources, not from the vendor or public information available on the Internet. In other words, I think there is more at play here than librarians simply (and stereotypically) wanting to play nice. It seems to be more or less the case with other niche products in other industries, too.