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Inside The Development of Windows NT

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the making-the-monster dept.

mrpuffypants writes "Winsupersite has a 3 part series this month about the history and development of Windows NT all the way up through Windows Server 2003. The author goes fairly in-depth describing how Windows is developed, managed, and how all 50 million+ lines are compiled daily. Part One covers the history of NT from its early days at Microsoft and Part Two discusses how the deployment of the forthcoming server version of Windows is coordinated daily." *shiver*

7 of 681 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm by CoolVibe · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Both articles feel like "feel-good" articles. There is little mention about IBM and OS/2, and the relationship between the two in the beginning of NT.

    It's just a big advertising piece about how NT is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Sure, it has some entertaining facts, but I'm still not buying it.

    1. Re:Hmm by tshak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      NO, it's a piece made by developers, you know, people who care about code, not all of the politics and conspiracy theory's around them.

      --

      There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
  2. Re:There we have it by chrisseaton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    _All_ developers are cocky - very cocky. It's not just a Windows thing.

  3. Why do Microsoft reviewers always sound... by defile · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...so full of shit?

    To step around the topic for a second:

    Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows is dedicated to providing all of the information you need to evaluate Microsoft's current and upcoming Windows operating system technologies. These exciting products include Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows XP Media Center Edition (code-named Freestyle) Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Media 9 Series (code-named Corona), and Windows Server 2003, which will launch in April.

    Sounds like it'll be an EXCITING, unbiased, hard hitting, honest review to me!

    Maybe that's not the best example. But even when you read technical treatises on Microsoft technologies the authors always manage to pack in gushing, surrealist praise.

    Wasn't there even a book? THE AWESOME POWER OF DIRECT3D? Amusingly enough, it was released several months after John Carmack and the rest of the gaming industry started bitching Microsoft out for pushing Direct3D over the clearly superior OpenGL.

    I'd hate to be all conspiracy here, but damn it's either that or believing that all Microsoft reviewers/writers are really stupid.

  4. Developer Count. by Grendel+Drago · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You forgot the five thousand developers.

    Each person would need to review 50,000,000/(5000*30) = ~333 lines of code per day. Not quite so intimidating.

    --grendel drago

    --
    Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
  5. Re:Incremental build? by SnowDog_2112 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In all the software groups I've been involved in, it's considered good practice to do a full clean build nightly. Doing incremental builds is fine for developers, but when you want to make a drop that goes into an automated testing suite, etc., you do a full clean build each time, "just to be safe."

    --
    Not representing or approved by my company or anybody else.
  6. Competition by sql*kitten · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's really interesting to see how Microsoft actually relate to their competitors. They wanted to run on PPC, but IBM messed them around. They wanted to work with Novell, but Novell weren't interested. Even Intel failed to deliver on the promise of i860.

    Given that, is it any wonder that MS would rather do things "in house" than rely on third parties?