DaveC leaves NT

If you've read this, you would already know about this. Dave Cutler - arguably Microsoft (if not the century's) greatest programmer is moving from working on the NT kernel to the Live initiative.

I finished reading Showstopper just a few days ago - and for those of you who've read it, you can imagine how big a move this is for Dave. If you haven't read it, I strongly recommend that you do so - it changes your opinion of Microsoft and NT and software development in general. I've been hoping to meet Dave for a long time but I'm not sure how to arrange such a meeting (meeting Bill Gates seems to be an easier task!)

I've spent the last few days looking through the NT kernel code - especially the scheduler and related areas. Frankly, it is the most beautiful C code I've ever seen in my life. In fact, I told a friend "You feel like hugging and kissing it - it is so beautiful". It takes quite a programmer who can write code which is both insanely fast, robust but also so simple that someone new to kernel mode like me can still understand it (I even make half intelligent statements like "Ah..so that's how we pick which thread to run next").

I really don't know anything more than what is written in that article (we got a nice long mail from Kevin Johnson this morning ). This shows how seriously the company is taking the entire Live initiative. This is something we're in for the long haul.

The day DaveC left NT. Wow.

For folks unfamiliar with Dave Cutler and his work, let's just say that this would be like Linus Torvalds leaving kernel development to go do something completely different.



# Tuesday, August 01, 2006 2:03 PM
Comments:
Wow.

You know, this seems to reinforce the shift to the web. I don't blame MS for this: right now the bulk of incoming money is end users and companies shelling out their money for software that has cheaper up-front equivalents (Linux, Open Office, etc). It it reminiscent of AOL, where once people found out there is an alternative that's cheaper, AOL lost a lot of business, and still is to this day. All because they didn't adapt.

So I don't blame MS for this. The Live services, I assume, are MS's attempt to adapt to the new advertising-based economy. End users and corporations don't have to pay for it, yet you can still make money off of it from advertising. It's a tempting business model, one that has worked for other big names like Yahoo and Google. It will be interesting to see how it works for Microsoft.

Best of luck to you guys in that respect.
# posted by Blogger Judah Himango : 10:09 PM, August 05, 2006
 
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