Show Stopper! Cloth: THE BREAKNECK RACE TO CREATE WINDOWS NT AND THE NEXT GENERATION AT MICROSOFT: Amazon.ca: G. Pascal Zachary: Books

Product Description

From Amazon.com

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 grueling 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.

Showstopper! 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. Showstopper! 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.

From Publishers Weekly

Released in mid-1993, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT software is arguably the best attempt yet at a universal operating system for personal computers, allowing PC users to open a file, move text or graphics, calculate a row of numbers and run several word processors, spreadsheets and other applications at once. With Windows NT (which stands for New Technology), Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates hopes to extend his dominion, with NT serving as the foundation for everything from desktop systems to corporate information networks. Critics, however, observe that the hardware required for NT is expensive and note that a forthcoming Microsoft operating system, Chicago, may eclipse NT. Wall Street Journal reporter Zachary tells how Microsoft wizard David Cutler and his team of programmers, working intensely for five years, overcame technical snafus, thousands of bugs, workplace skirmishes and collapsing personal lives to create Windows NT. This is both an enlightening primer on the management of complexity and a rare behind-the-scenes look at the cutthroat software wars.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Dave Cutler was reared on adversity. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, May 31 2004

By

Rodrigo Strauss (Sao Paulo, SP Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Show Stopper! Cloth: THE BREAKNECK RACE TO CREATE WINDOWS NT AND THE NEXT GENERATION AT MICROSOFT (Hardcover)

It's really a wonderful book! If you are a software developer trying to figure out how the big projects are done, or if you are just someone who is trying to figure out what is inside a software developer mind, go and read it.

For software developer:
Don't forget, it's a book written by a non-technical person. Sometimes, the writer tries with no success to explain the difference between C and C++, the function of the memory manager and other ones. The first chapter of the book is just terrible. He starts telling the NT's manager history, since he was a child. But don't give up. The book will get really interesting after the second chapter.

For software developer relatives:
Want to understand why your husband stays working until late hours? Want to figure out why most programmers think they are the best human beings alive? Read this book. I hope you can understand us reading this. I'm still trying to make my wife read this. :-)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read if you are interested in Software Development, Jan 25 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Show Stopper! Cloth: THE BREAKNECK RACE TO CREATE WINDOWS NT AND THE NEXT GENERATION AT MICROSOFT (Hardcover)

I am a beginner to the programming. it helped me a lot with a lot of interesting insights into the programming and the life of a programmer through this novel story of creation of a mammoth operating system called Windows NT.
helped to better understand the design cosiderations, priorities of a modern day operating system like NT, complexity management in a large scale software development project by controlled chaos and also gives an interesting insight into the inner workings and life at microsoft.

though this book won't go into a lot of technical details, gives very interesting technical anecdotes where ever appriopriate. As mentioned in the some of the reviews above, it focusses on the people behind the NT even with their personal details, with two chapters devoted to the NT's chief architect dave cutler and also about scores of other people on the project.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read if you are interested in Software Development, Jan 25 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Show Stopper! Cloth: THE BREAKNECK RACE TO CREATE WINDOWS NT AND THE NEXT GENERATION AT MICROSOFT (Hardcover)

I am a beginner to the programming. it helped me a lot with a lot of interesting insights into the programming and the life of a programmer through this novel story of creation of a mammoth operating system called Windows NT.
helped to better understand the design cosiderations, priorities of a modern day operating system like NT, complexity management in a large scale software development project by controlled chaos and also gives an interesting insight into the inner workings and life at microsoft.

though this book won't go into a lot of technical details, gives very interesting technical anecdotes where ever appriopriate. As mentioned in the some of the reviews above, it focusses on the people behind the NT even with their personal details, with two chapters devoted to the NT's chief architect dave cutler and also about scores of other people on the project.

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