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60% Of Windows Vista Code To Be Rewritten
Alien54 writes "Up to 60% of the code in the new consumer version of Microsoft new Vista operating system is set to be rewritten as the Company "scrambles" to fix internal problems, according to this report. In an effort to meet a deadline of the 2007 CES show in Las Vegas Microsoft has pulled programmers from the highly succesful Xbox team to help resolve many problems associated with entertainment and media centre functionality inside the OS. Much more at the link."
Spank me, that was of course Wernher von Braun:
"Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby a month. "
Exercise caution when modding this message up: the author acts like a jerk when his karma is excellent.
I've seen two rumours from SmartHouse today. The first was that Apple are going to release a phone soon. Their evidence was that someone from BenQ had told them that they had heard that Apple had approached someone in Taiwan about making phones. Real solid evidence there.
Now we have a ridiculous article about Vista being rewritten with no real sources for the facts.
It appears that SmartHouse is an obscure Australian magazine that is totally unknown even in Australia (I'm an Australian technophile, and I've never heard of it), and that they hope by spreading crazy rumours that they can raise their profile and get some advertising dollars.
See their many, many comments on the MiniMSFT blog
Some particularly choice ones include this and this
No.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
This sounds like bull for so many reasons it is hard to start, but I'd list some reasons it seems absurd.
- The assumption that Apple matters to Microsoft is way off. Apple is a prominent but hardly viable competitor to Microsoft. It occupies a niche that MS tolerates (token competition) and even makes a little money from. But not even the iPod has boosted the Mac beyond its minority status.
- I'm sure the iPod is a thorn in the side for MS, but you can bet for sure that Gates wouldn't spend billions in delays to support Mac without massive, MASSIVE concessions in return. Including killing or otherwise diluting the iPod brand.
- Second you could not beat Vista into any kind of shape acceptable to an OS X user in 6 months let alone a year, short of virtualizing one or other system and allowing it to coexist with the other as a guest. Both operating systems are too distinct. A dumb cocoa / carbon port is not enough. You're talking frameworks, a Unix environment, the look and feel of every single application, the position of buttons within dialogs, the filing system. Everything
- Apple have already gone through one traumatic transition that must have annoyed some of its users. A move to Windows would infuriate the remainder and basically anihilate its developer base. After all, if its running Windows, why program for the Mac at all. They'd just be yet another PC maker. It would be as nonsensical as programming exclusively for Packard Bell machines.
- Where's the value add for Apple if it runs Windows? If a consumer is faced between buying an Apple running Windows and a Dell / Acer / Compaq / Sony etc. running Windows, what reason is there left for choosing an Apple?
- Apple has nothing to fear in the music space from either MS or Sony until both of them pull their fingers out when it comes to their confusing as hell and anal DRM. Plays for sure my arse.
- Finally, that Apple would trust Microsoft that much that it would be akin to allowing a mental patient to cup your furry balls in his hand while he holds a pair scissors in the other.
Now, strange things have happened before, e.g. AOL bending over for MS when they had their own browser, Apple moving to Intel. The move for Apple probably made sense, the AOL one certainly didn't. But this way out there.If there is any convergence between the two I'd suggest it is what I touched on slightly above - virtualization. It might serve Apple quite well to be able to run Windows apps at near native speeds, but even that path has dangers. Remember OS/2? That could run Windows 3.1 programs at near native speeds. The net result is few companies even bothered writing native OS/2 apps since what was the point?
What you need to remember is that Windows is the largest software product ever created, when measured in lines of code. Bigger than the previous record holder, IBM's MVS. Bigger than the Star Wars missile shield defense software that nobody could ever get to work.
Specifically, Vista is 50 million lines of code (Mloc). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_lines_of_code
To compare, RedHat 7 was only 30 Mloc, including sendmail, Apache, and so on. So saying Microsoft are going to rewrite 60% of Vista by January, is like saying they could start now and have the whole of RedHat 7 completely rewritten by January.
Or to pick another data point: it's like saying Microsoft are going to start from scratch now, and write another Windows NT 5.0 by January, and have plenty of time for debugging--because NT 5.0 was only 20 Mloc.
Now do you see why software engineers reading the announcement are more than a little skeptical?
If it's really true that they need to rewrite 60% of Vista, then my professional opinion is that there's absolutely no way in hell they'll have something good enough to ship in 2007.
Even if it's out by a factor of 2 or 3, they're still in big trouble. The original Windows NT was only 4 Mloc, and there was a 5 year gap between Windows 95 and the actual release of NT.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
"Rewrite of Windows Vista underway? Hogwash! I can't believe that headlines get written like this. Totally 100% false. Provably so. I totally agree with Alec Saunders. Can the journalist and editor who wrote this do some homework please?
Update: I just talked with Frank Shaw, vice president at Waggener Edstrom (Microsoft's main PR company), he says this article is absolutely not true. Frank knows more people inside Microsoft than anyone else I know (he hangs out with all the execs). There aren't any Xbox developers moving to Windows, he tells me (verified from other people I know inside Microsoft too).
More on this story is on Memeorandum."
See Robert Scoble's statement on this issue
Enjoy!
I don't give a rat's behind about "karma" here or anywhere else. Don't like what I have to say here? Deal with it!
When someone says 'up to x', you can be fairly certain it will be very near x.
Go look an ad: A new Tv for under $2000!
Guess how much the tv is? $1999.95
This applies to most things, and they sure didn't pull 60% off a random number generator.
DYWYPI?
sAMAccountName doesn't do the same thing as uid, so of course the properties don't have the same name. The sAMAccountName (IDK why it's captalized that way) is the short name for the account inside the domain and needn't be unique. The primary key for an account is the objectSid property; SIDs have been the unique keys for accounts as long as NT has existed. The uid property is only used for SFU when the account is used by the User Name Mapping service.How many because of kernel design flaws? How many because the kernel's security services weren't used properly (or at all) like the parent was saying?
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_No_Vista _Code_Changes/1143232877
Microsoft: No Vista Code Changes
By Ed Oswald, BetaNews
March 24, 2006, 4:05 PM
Microsoft slammed an article by Australian technology publication Smart House on Friday, calling it "speculation." The retort came as a result of a story that cited sources within the company saying as much as 60 percent of Vista code needs to be rewritten.
The article claimed that the Redmond company had to transfer developers from the Xbox team to the Windows division in order to ensure the Vista makes it to a CES 2007 release. Much of the article centered on issues with the Media Center and multimedia functionality, and claimed Intel was assisting Microsoft in rushing out the new code.
Relatively unknown outside Australia before this week, Smart House made waves in the blogosphere and throughout the Apple enthusiast community with a story on Tuesday. In that article, the publication cited an unnamed BenQ executive as saying among Taiwanese manufacturers, the existence of an Apple "iPhone" is "common knowledge."
"This is speculation with no demonstrable basis in fact," a Microsoft spokesperson told BetaNews on Friday. "There aren't any Xbox developers moving over to the Windows Vista team," he said, disputing the core premise of the story.
Representatives with Intel could not be reached for comment.
Microsoft said that Vista is "feature complete," which means that the code writing process is basically over. "The next phase of development focuses on security, testing and fit/finish - not writing new code," the spokesperson added.
The company also reiterated its prior shipping targets -- to business in November, and consumers in January 2007.