There has been much noise on the arrival of Vista in our lives with deep emotion and drama. Having used Microsoft's latset Operating System for over 6 months I can relate to this emotional experience!
To me, an operating system is much like a car; it’s a means to an end. We expect it to do the business; start first time, get us to where we want to go safely and quickly, and without breaking down etc. We don’t celebrate that it achieves this, but get very emotional when it fails, as we rely on it, day in day out, to get us where we want to go.
However, emotions aside, it’s time to take a dispassionate view of the Vista Saga. I’m not one who views Vista as a great product marred by poor perceptions (as Microsoft would suggest) or that Vista has transitioned overnight from a Skoda to a Rolls Royce with the arrival of Service Pack 1. But nor do I believe Microsoft was invaded by gremlins that had too much food after midnight.
What I do believe is that Microsoft are finding it harder and harder to build on top of windows. Vista, of course, is not a single operating system, but just one more incarnation of NT which had to inherit legacy windows which itself was built on DOS (and with many bits, 16, 32 and 64). It has also had to cope with many files systems from FAT to FAT32, NTFS (and until it was jettisoned from the plans, WinFS). It has also had to cope with the myriad of configuration architectures, from .ini to .reg to metabase to .xml. The list is not exhaustive but you get the drift.
To me, an operating system is much like a car; it’s a means to an end. We expect it to do the business; start first time, get us to where we want to go safely and quickly, and without breaking down etc. We don’t celebrate that it achieves this, but get very emotional when it fails, as we rely on it, day in day out, to get us where we want to go.
However, emotions aside, it’s time to take a dispassionate view of the Vista Saga. I’m not one who views Vista as a great product marred by poor perceptions (as Microsoft would suggest) or that Vista has transitioned overnight from a Skoda to a Rolls Royce with the arrival of Service Pack 1. But nor do I believe Microsoft was invaded by gremlins that had too much food after midnight.
What I do believe is that Microsoft are finding it harder and harder to build on top of windows. Vista, of course, is not a single operating system, but just one more incarnation of NT which had to inherit legacy windows which itself was built on DOS (and with many bits, 16, 32 and 64). It has also had to cope with many files systems from FAT to FAT32, NTFS (and until it was jettisoned from the plans, WinFS). It has also had to cope with the myriad of configuration architectures, from .ini to .reg to metabase to .xml. The list is not exhaustive but you get the drift.
The Microsoft Windows dynasty, whilst hugely successful, has got fatter and fatter and is now not just clinically obese, but morbidly so. This overweight geriatric, whilst sporting beautiful clothes, is about to croak.
Vista stuggling to delete a 443 byte shortcut in under a minute
Microsoft’s mantra of compatibility has lead to windows inheriting everything from the past. This has resulted in the bloating of windows and critically, 3 increasingly impossible missions: Performance, Quality & Security.
Windows development and testing is constrained by the many "personalities" that exist within it and the many compromises that Microsoft have had to make to ensure compatibility.
Trying to ensure performance, quality and security whilst not impacting on compatibility must be like trying to tap dance through a mine field. And of course testing all the different components, personalities, configurations, files systems is a gargantuan undertaking that in reality could never be completed fully.
So the real problem isn’t the developers or testers but the impossible mission that Microsoft set itself in the name of backward compatibility. Fortunately it looks like Microsoft have an alternative plan to develop a compatibility free, fat free replacement called MIDORI.
The only question is whether Microsoft will try and put windows on an Atkins diet to extend its life or accelerate Midori to enter in a new dawn.
Whatever they do, I just hope it does the business.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment