Windows Vista is built on a framework that can’t support it
At a wedding the bride is supposed to have something old, something borrowed, something new and something blue and a silver sixpence in her shoe. All of that for good luck. Vista is just old(er) operating systems with a shiny new face on it.
Not that this is a totally bad thing. Vista is working just fine for some and who knows, one day the masses may even like it. But this could be a while in coming.
Microsoft is hell bent on keeping backwards compatibility to some point all the way back to Windows 95 days. Though, good luck getting Vista to run those old programs, I’ve had no luck with it. Nor do I care.
Who still uses software from the Windows 95 days? You? Perhaps you over there in the corner? No, no, I didn’t think so. Backwards compatibility should be maintained to XP but for me that’s where it should stop.
For all intents and purposes, no version of Windows has ever been “new.” Microsoft has probably reused and modified code since the Windows 1.0 days. Granted, Vista may not even use that code, it might have been commented out (so as not to work) but dig down deep enough and you’ll probably find traces.
The code just keeps growing and growing and the framework is starting to decay. Windows 7 may as well be the last operating system of this code base to be released. After Windows 7 something else will have to happen.
The New York Times says Microsoft needs to start fresh. Make a new operating system from scratch, fresh. The company can certainly afford to hire the talent to do it but can it keep them long enough to develop an operating system from top to bottom?
Mac OS Classic (pre-OSX) was an awful mess. In 2001 Apple may have irked customers by moving over to Unix based Mac OSX and not making it compatible with anything that came before it. Those people got over it and Mac OSX may be one of the most reliable operating systems on the planet.
If Microsoft wants to solve similar problems in its operating system then it will have to scratch everything done to this point and start over. They have actually tried with something called Singularity.
Singularity is a made from scratch operating system being researched in the labs only. It is unlikely to ever be released to the public. But, it would be a fresh start and most likely more reliable. Perhaps even as reliable as Mac OSX.
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June 29th, 2008
… that windows NT was a total rewrite and thus traces from Windows 1.0 are quite improbable… The windows foundation is more versatile and solid then people give it credit, windows NT was designed with security and modualrity in mind .. what is put on top of that can be a problem. The reform that people keep screeming for should address these parts more then the core of the OS.
June 30th, 2008
And Windows NT is more than 10 years old. If it is really designed with security in mind, how come Windows is so vulnerable? Use the internet for two hours on the default settings and *bam* enough spyware to make you clean it for an hour or so.
July 4th, 2008
The OSX comparison is completely bogus. A company of basically one software product and a minuscule and free falling market share can do anything it wants without much downside. If you want to limit yourself to a small hardware choice as well as software lock in and call it most reliable because it’s a closed system, up to you.
Microsoft has billions in support contracts, other minor software like Exchange, SQL, Sharepoint, IIS and others that are responsible for the vast majority of business transactions in the US. It can’t simply blow off compatibility. Try to look at the whole scope of the problem for a change. Writing a new OS with no legacy code and supporting same would be hideously expensive for very little real value to them. Business market is where they make money and long term support is the gravy.
July 9th, 2008
One definition of the word singularity is:
“Astronomy. (in general relativity) the mathematical representation of a black hole.”
Given this fact, I think that “singularity” is a particularly apt name for software emanating from Microsoft.