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."

Comments

Please Don't Interpret this Incorrectly

[eldavojohn]

Ok, we all know how the majority of Slashdot feels about Microsoft. It's not a positive feeling. I myself don't like them.

But please don't use this 60% figure as proof that Vista will suck. Because it doesn't necessarily mean that.

Once again, we have the Slashdot spin to deal with:

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.

Scrambling to fix problems? If they're saying their release date is sometime in 2007, I don't think they need to scramble. They actually seem pretty lax about when this is going to be released. Hell, I heard about Longhorn years ago and they sure haven't been "scrambling" to do anything with that. Stop making it sound like Microsoft is running around with their heads cut off. Because I highly doubt it.

I interpret this to mean that Microsoft is stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility. They have identified so many problems that it needs major revision and good for them.

Do you remember Windows 98, first edition? Do remember how much better second edition was? I do. Why the hell they didn't just wait on the release is simple. Money.

They could release Vista prematurely but now we wait until 2007. And if you hate Windows, like I do, why do you care? We're still going to be using Linux anyways.

So please, look at this move as a gesture to try and release a quality product and not slop out some POS OS that they are only releasing for the sake of income.

Re:Please Don't Interpret this Incorrectly

[spaztik]

I'd rather they wait and get it right before releasing Vista rather than going through the excruciating process of installing security updates/service packs/second editions on a hastily released product. Or even better yet, having to go out and spend money on security software to fix the holes that shouldn't exist in the first place. Please get this one right Microsoft.

Re:Please Don't Interpret this Incorrectly

[gstoddart]

Hell, I heard about Longhorn years ago and they sure haven't been "scrambling" to do anything with that.

Clearly. This was supposed to have been Longhorn by now, wasn't it?

Stop making it sound like Microsoft is running around with their heads cut off. Because I highly doubt it.

They've been announcing later release dates, fewer features, delays in their Office suite, and god knows what else.

When a critical security bug is found in IE6, and then immediately found in the supposedly completely redesigned IE7, it gives one pause for concern.

It is beiginning to seem that Microsoft is becoming a victim of their own intertia. They built a huge, overly complicated beast, based entirely off proprietary technologies of dubious value. They've been promising the moon for years, and now they're starting to promise the next county because the moon is unobtainable.

So please, look at this move as a gesture to try and release a quality product and not slop out some POS OS that they are only releasing for the sake of income.

I asked this yesterday in another thread, but I never got an answer ... given all of the features they've announced wouldn't be in Vista, WHAT is it, if NOT a release for the sake of income? Except for a new whiz-bang interface, I haven't really heard what compelling features Vista is supposed to have. From what I can tell, they're removing some of the suck, and a few incremental improvements, what motivates me as a consumer to want it?

Certainly all of those shiny Longhorn features they touted have been dropped from it. It sounds like it's a minor evolutionary upgrade to Windows at best. Hardly the Earth shattering, Next New Thing they've touted it as being.

And in the mean time, people might just decide to buy a Mac.

60%?

[(1 -sqrt(5))*(2**-1)]

I've scanned TFA an ungodly three times: “60%” occurs in the title and summary, but nowhere else; can anyone divine its provenance? I'd wager it hails from the statistical nether-æther of sensationalist journalism.

That said, I think there's trouble brewing for any company that chants “innovation” like some apotropaïc mantra: you have it or you don't (and it tends to go hand in hand with testosterone).

Wow! 60%??!!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a lot of GoTo statements!!!

Re:Wow! 60%??!!

[birder]

That's what they get for giving it to their "goto guy".

Third Rule of Software Development

[Error27]

Always add gaming programmers late in the project and to improve security and reliability.

Re:Third Rule of Software Development

[maxwell demon]

Always add gaming programmers late in the project and to improve security and reliability.

Of course. For example, the programmers of FPS games are likely good at writing AI which fights against the user. Just the thing you need for a secure OS, because you know, the biggest security problem often sits in front of the screen.

Come on

[Serapth]

When has Smarthouse.com.au steered you wrong in the past????

Seriously, some of the shit that gets posted on Slashdot is the geek equivelant of a tabloid.

Re:Come on

[general_re]

When has Smarthouse.com.au steered you wrong in the past????

Never. Not one single time. Who the fuck is smarthouse.com.au?

Re:Come on

[Dystopian Rebel]

Slashdot is the geek equivelant of a tabloid.

This is simply not true.

If Slashdot were like a tabloid, we'd have poorly written diatribes everywhere and a picture of a naked woman on Page 2.

Cowboy Neal, I'm waiting for Page 2.

Re:Come on

[notnAP]

...we'd have poorly written diatribes everywhere and a picture of a naked woman on Page 2.
Cowboy Neal, I'm waiting for Page 2.

Please Dear God may I not find a picture of a naked Cowboy Neal on page 2 tomorrow.

The Mythical Man Month.

[khasim]

A good book and it discusses how adding MORE programmers to a task means the project will take LONGER to complete.

So, adding more programmers to a late project, and not slipping the date even more to account for them, [b]probably[/b] means that the final result [b]will[/b] suck.

Re:The Mythical Man Month.

[0kComputer]

Hence the expression "9 women can't have a baby in 1 month."

Re:The Mythical Man Month.

[SeeMyNuts!]

In any given project there are just so many parallel tasks. The optimum number of developers is about the same as that level of parallelism (plus a secretary and a manager). It allows compartmentalizing things, so each developer has a chance to become an expert in that area and be productive. Adding more developers just increases communication overhead, training overhead, petty squabbles, micromanagement of the mess, etc. Taking away developers leaves holes that will require additional time to complete.

I hope the article summary is wrong and that Microsoft isn't so incompetent as to substantially re-write an operating system in the last year of its development! Talk about a death spiral.

"That's no moon, it's the accumulated mass of all our new bugs!"

Re:The Mythical Man Month.

[gowen]

There's a quote in "The Bluffers Guide To Maths" that say

If a five-piece jazz band can play 'Honeysuckle Rose' in six minutes, you might think a ten-piece could play it in three minutes. In fact, it would take at least 12, because everybody's got to have time to take a solo

Slow news day?

[paeanblack]

Microsoft is pulling some staff from an finished project and assigning them to an unfinished project...targeting a similar market, no less...

Brilliant!

So what?

[helix_r]

Shut up, fools, 99+% of you are going to end up using Vista anyway.

Re:So what?

[fatted]

Shut up, fools, 99+% of you are going to end up using Vista anyway.

I think you'll find that the answer is merely 98.2%. Who's the fool NOW!!

Re:Apple, "MacOS W", & the real reason for the

[Mr Z]

Darn it, I read this post without my tinfoil accessories.

--Joe

so lets make a list..

[naelurec]

1. Internet Explorer 7 still has major security issues that plague Internet Explorer 6

2. Microsoft Office is delayed

3. Vista is delayed.

4. Microsoft restructures the Windows division before a major OS release

5. Daniel Lyons from Forbes is underwhelmed with the Vista presentation and finds it complex and of little added value.

6. Microsoft elected not to utilize its .NET tools in developing bundled applications that will ship with Vista, instead opting for lower level languages that are more suspectible to security issues.

7. Throughout all of this, the security team at Microsoft decided to school Apple on security (I wonder if no one at Microsoft was paying attention?)

8. Businesses sold on the "Software Assurance" and other licensing gimmicks are getting very aggervated at was could be considered bait-and-switch (get SA, get updates .. oh wait, we don't have updates because we are delaying ALL of our major products..)

9. There is the possibility of major rewrites to Vista (though until it is confirmed by another source, I'll take it with a grain of salt..).

Interesting.