Longtime Windows developer, Larry Osterman, blogs about his impressions of working on Windows 7 versus Vista. His main point: Due to better processes the primary build is much more stable, more predictable, and manageable to work with. Sounds like Microsoft has done a good job of keeping the dynamics of developing a significant programming project in check. That’s a good thing for the dev team and forthcoming Windows 7 users. I expect we’ll see a quite impressive Windows 7 CTP at PDC this month because of it.
But for me, it points out something that I don’t talk about very much: At least for me, working in a large team like this, on a product that’s in large part in maintenance mode (yes, it is), doesn’t appeal to me. Yeah, I could write a gadget for a widget that attaches to a button on a dialog that’s burried in a manager accessible through the control panel, but eh, frankly it doesn’t interest me. I know I can do so much more. I’d rather do so much more.
I love the challenge of huge projects, but I’m very much a smaller team is better minded thinker and that’s not the way most well-established products, like Windows, get managed. It makes complete sense the way it is. It’s just not for me. It’s fascinating to read about what the Windows team is up to though.