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Re: [Linux] Linux Kernel Hardware Support Strides Ahead While Rivals Fall Behind

__/ [ nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ] on Wednesday 02 May 2007 15:09 \__

> 
>> | While poor old Vista was getting bogged down in endless meetings
>> | over minutiae like shutdown menu elements, the Linux kernel team was
>> | pounding pell-mell down the trail like a team of amped-up sled dogs.
> 
> 
> Yes, and the Linux kernel has never needed a 60% code rewrite.  This
> speaks well of the basic design of the Linux kernel:  it is something
> you can keep building on.  As for Windows, the Wall Street Journal
> article was revealing to me:
> 
> http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/archive/06jan/bigb_microsoft.htm
> 
> Apparently the XP code is so spaghetti that it could not be upgraded
> without a major rewrite.  Now that it has been accomplished, I was
> prepared to believe that in the future Windows would be working with a
> better basic design.  In fact this must be true to some extent, but
> the news about Vista has been so bad that it seems to me that it goes
> beyond just the usual bugs in a new OS.  Or maybe it's just the
> interface between the remaining 40% of spaghetti with the new code, or
> continuing bad design decisions (eg, basing installation permissions
> on the file extension, integrating the browser into the OS, etc), or
> rushing to get the product out the door too quickly (6 hours given to
> do 16 hours of work, as the Microsoft programmer recently complained
> in a blog you posted here).


A couple of years ago I had the misfortunate and overwhelming experience of
having to handle a huge C++ library (computer vision). You're talking about
hundreds of megabytes of code/binaries from various large companies and
academic institutes and a loose set of acronyms, code, and identifiers. The
documentation was fine (not really fragmented; not perfect either), but its
scale was enormous. At the time, my supervisor asked me to do some research
and see if moving the whole shebang to something like Java would be doable.
Simply put, nobody who was new around here was able to master this beast. It
was chaotic and it took many hour or days to write a simple program. It was
all about getting your mind filled with orientating information, or else you
couldn't even write a single line of code. Modularity and absraction was
probably lacked.

With many key developers leaving Microsoft, I imagine that the situation is
very similar. They rely on past work whose code is not manageable. New staff
-- however large in volume -- cannot solve the problem. Training/teaching is
a cycle, so you hinder those who can educate when you introduce and usher
new people.


> Microsoft always had good talent, I know some of them and can vouch
> for that, so obviously the blame for a lot of the mess has to go to
> chief software architect Gates himself, the one who set the style,
> basic design decisions and criteria, operating culture, etc.
> 
> You can bandage over spaghetti code and ultimately get most of the
> obvious bugs out, but it's not pretty or fun to work with nor a good
> basis for future expansion.


I am relieved whenever I see further evidence of this. I know that no matter
how many $billions Microsoft throws at the problem, Windows remains a dead
end, which is good news to Free operating systems that steadily stride ahead
(even getting past the 'chokeholds', threats, FUD, manipulations and
kickbacks, as Michael Dell has just shown us).

Microsoft's route to success is dependent on complete redesign. Inertia won't
last forever and the clock has been ticking for 2-3 years. You can 'squeeze'
a few more miles with a broken bike, but sooner or later the guy with
motorcycle will get past you. Another factor to consider here is the role of
the desktop (versus the network-oriented paradigms, mobile devices, and so
forth).

-- 
                ~~ Best regards

For governments that eavesdrop, here is a quick list of tags: Communism,
Hawaiian shirts, China, Suitcase, Martha Stewart, Encryption, Prison,
Stalin. Thanks for tuning in.

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