Show-Stopper!: Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft - Softcover

Zachary, Pascal G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0751516295 ISBN 13: 9780751516296

Publisher: Sphere, 1996

Synopsis

In 1988, "Microsoft" chief Bill Gates launched an extraodinary campaign to ensure his company's domination of the next generation of the computer revolution. Under programming legend David Cutler, he assembled a team of programmers who worked day and night for five years, spending $150 million in the drive to unlock new intricacies of both computer technology and the marketplace. "Windows NT" was the result, a complex system capable of repeatedly and reliably working on millions of computers throughout the world. This is the story of that team and its achievement, a tale of money and power, colourful characters and clattering egos in the workplace, and an adventure on the frontiers of new technology.

About this title

Review:

Showstopper! is a vivid account of the creation of Microsoft Windows NT, perhaps the most complex software project ever undertaken. It is also a portrait of David Cutler, NT's brilliant and, at times, brutally aggressive chief architect.

Cutler surely ranks as one of the most impressive software engineers the field has ever produced. After leading the team that created the VMS operating system for Digital's VAX computer line-an accomplishment that most would regard as a lifetime achievement--he went on to conceive and lead the gruelling multi-year project that ultimately produced Windows NT. Both admired and feared by his team, Cutler would let nothing stand in the way of realizing his design and often clashed with his programmers, senior Microsoft management and even Gates himself. Yet no matter how involved he became in managing his 100-programmer team, he continued to immerse himself in every technical detail of the project and write critical portions of the code himself.

Show-stopper! is also a fascinating look at programmer and managerial culture behind the Microsoft facade. The portraits of the men and women who created NT not only reveal the brilliance of their work but the crushing stress and the dislocating effects that new wealth had on their lives. For some team members, the NT project ultimately destroyed their marriages, friendships and virtually every human relationship outside of work. Show-stopper! also reveals the uncertainties, false starts and blind alleys that dogged the project as Microsoft repositioned NT from an improved OS/2 to something that would ultimately challenge both OS/2 and Unix for the title of the world's most powerful operating system.

Review:

Steven Levy author of "Hackers, Artificial Life," and "Insanely Great" G. Pascal Zachary managed to get total access to the formerly unseen programming catacombs of Microsoft and has made the most of it with this riveting look inside one of the world's most fascinating corporations. Great reading for hackers and computer virgins alike.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sphere
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0751516295
• ISBN 13: 9780751516296
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372