it's not a bug, it's a featureとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Coined by American computer programmer Sandra Lee Harris in 1971 at Digital Equipment Corporation.

成句

it's not a bug, it's a feature

1. (computing) What one user may consider a software bug, other users may consider to be a useful feature or an intentional consequence of the system's design.
2. (humorous) A self-deprecating response when confronted by a bug in the software that one is authored or is introducing to another user.
3. (by extension) Affirms the validity of a counterintuitive behavior within a system; it is by design.
   • 1999 September, “Long-term Test Cars”, in Popular Mechanics, New York City:

     One annoyance, or maybe it’s one of those “it’s-not-a-bug-it’s-a-feature” situations, is the gearshift.

   • 2025 May 15, Bart Jansen, quoting D. John Sauer, “Brown Jackson questioned how courts help multiple victims with only one litigant”, in USA Today‎, New York City, retrieved 15 May 2025:

     “It is a feature, not a bug of Article 3 that the courts grant relief for the people in front of them,” Sauer said.

参考

• one man's trash is another man's treasure