Interview With Initiator of DirectX

Miguel de Icaza writes "There's a great interview from Shacknews with Alex St. John, one of the earlier DirectX / gaming guys. He talks about almost losing his job going against Bill Gates, and talks a bit about the MS development & political process. 'You know why the X on the Xbox is a glowing green X? The original codename for Direct X was the Manhattan Project, because strategically it was an effort to displace Japanese game consoles with PCs and ultimately the Xbox. We called it the Manhattan Project because that was the codename for the program developing the nuclear bomb. We had a glowing radiation logo for the prototype for Direct X, and of course as soon as that got out and the press covered it, it caused a scandal.'"

Comments

And also, I know from personal experience...

[EWAdams]

... a very aggressive, pushy, and offensive person who will try to take maximum advantage of his trade partners in his business dealings. A company I was once affiliated with threatened to cancel a contract with Microsoft because of his behavior. Microsoft caved and cleaned up their act. But if the rumors are true, he was only acting in the way his boss Gates taught him to.

Most scathing comments about Vista yet

[drinkypoo]

FTFA:

The biggest foolishness is Vista's security architecture. Any time someone questions Vista's security, Microsoft accuses that person of being anti-security, or is just bummed because they can't do naughty things that they otherwise wanted to do. Vista's security is weird, it's like a house made out of concrete walls but has screen doors. It's an enormously overbuilt security system with huge, gaping holes. It's extremely intrusive, and it gets in the way of the user's experience without actually being secure. It makes it even harder for consumers to download things and play games, without actually gaining any security benefits. It basically fucks up legitimate applications while leaving holes for the bad ones to just climb on through.

Holy shit, Batman! That's the strongest anti-endorsement of Vista I've yet seen. It's not news, but it's the first time an insider who is really in a position to know what's going on behind the scenes (assuming he still has friends inside Microsoft, which is probably a safe assumption) has said anything this negative.

This slightly earlier paragraph was almost as good:

What you see with Microsoft is, without people at Microsoft who realize that the operating system does not add value to gaming, it gets in the way, they think they can add more value by adding in more shit that only gets in the way of making a good game. Unfortunately, Vista does that. Microsoft added more shit that impedes game development. It's certainly possible to make great games in Vista, it's just more of a pain in the ass than it needs to be. I think Vista is a missed opportunity for Microsoft to have done a better job in supporting PC gaming.

If you still needed any evidence that Microsoft doesn't understand games or security... there it is.

Re:Most scathing comments about Vista yet

[spyrochaete]

Alex St. John is a regular columnist for Computer Power User magazine and he is constantly bashing Microsoft. This interview was fascinating in that it revealed where he's coming from, but it doesn't really excuse his demeanour. Take his words with a grain of salt - all he writes about is Microsoft and he never has anything positive to say.

Re:Nice cigar

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't he actually say "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"?

Okay, it's apocryphal, but who cares who said it? Most psychiatrists agree with the sentiment.

Re:The Microsoft way

[Anonymous Coward]

For all the talk of heartless corporations name some that have intentionally murdered their employees or customers to maintain their power.

Ford has beaten employees within an inch of their lives and descided that death related lawsuits were cheaper than a recall.