Comments on: Ballmer explains Windows delays — or, how Vista is like Iraq http://www.wordyard.com/2006/10/16/ballmer-windows/ Technology, politics, culture Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:43:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Scott Mace http://www.wordyard.com/2006/10/16/ballmer-windows/comment-page-1/#comment-279 Scott Mace Wed, 06 Dec 2006 00:07:59 +0000 http://www.wordyard.com/?p=1145#comment-279 Don't forget the other monumental hubris of post-XP Microsoft: The decision to kill the standalone Internet Explorer browser. As if standalone browsers weren't going to matter anymore. Then came Firefox and Safari, and the rest is history. Don’t forget the other monumental hubris of post-XP Microsoft: The decision to kill the standalone Internet Explorer browser. As if standalone browsers weren’t going to matter anymore. Then came Firefox and Safari, and the rest is history.

]]> By: Ian Rae http://www.wordyard.com/2006/10/16/ballmer-windows/comment-page-1/#comment-278 Ian Rae Tue, 17 Oct 2006 17:23:21 +0000 http://www.wordyard.com/?p=1145#comment-278 I think there are about 30,000 programmers at the Redmond campus. It boggles the mind how that many coders can get anything done that doesn't duplicate, simulate, or break what others are doing. For many years they coped through specialization. Each programmer got something tiny, like a single Win32 API call, to work on. Then after XP they pinned the needle the other way, and a rewrite orgy began. It produced some good things. XAML is good. They completely rewrote Window's TCP/IP stack; which is quite an act of chutzpah, and now it supports multi-core CPUs in useful ways. But overall they ended up suffering, as you say, exactly the sort of problems that a Big Bang approach would bring. In a way it's a smart move though. Most people are quite happy with XP. So any next version had to be a long-term, next-generation thing. People will love Vista in 2009. I think there are about 30,000 programmers at the Redmond campus. It boggles the mind how that many coders can get anything done that doesn’t duplicate, simulate, or break what others are doing. For many years they coped through specialization. Each programmer got something tiny, like a single Win32 API call, to work on.

Then after XP they pinned the needle the other way, and a rewrite orgy began. It produced some good things. XAML is good. They completely rewrote Window’s TCP/IP stack; which is quite an act of chutzpah, and now it supports multi-core CPUs in useful ways. But overall they ended up suffering, as you say, exactly the sort of problems that a Big Bang approach would bring.

In a way it’s a smart move though. Most people are quite happy with XP. So any next version had to be a long-term, next-generation thing. People will love Vista in 2009.

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