Comments on: Microsoft researcher talks tools, telescope, and iPhone

Speaking to developers at PDC 2008, Rick Rashid notes the Mach kernel he developed at Carnegie Mellon 25 years ago is at the heart of Mac OS X. Plus: toolkits and Worldwide Telescope software.

[rcrusoe]

"If you use a Macintosh or an iPhone, which honestly I would not recommend, you would be using code that I wrote more than 25 years ago,".

And that code is considered by most far superior to the software your company is writing today.

"It just shows you things really do survive and get used in interesting ways,"

[JoeF2]

Yeah, too bad his current employer didn't pick up the code. Their products would be better and actually useful today...

[Perry_Clease]

At first glance at the headline I thought "Cool, a necktie that looks like an iPhone home page, where can I can get one?" Seriously about 20 years ago I bought a necktie with with Mac icons on it.

[BlackMicro]

Lame story! So what's the point?

[kojacked]

Lame comment! So what's the point?

[alawaiblowfish]

He's kind of a walking contradiction, huh? "I wrote the base code for the iPhone and the Mac, but I don't recommend it." LOL, What?! How can we trust that windows 7 is any better? I'm sure you had a hand in that too. After all, Vista was such a resounding success!

This guy is a Joke; just like the crappy, vista-inspired "new" windows.

[rapier1]

He's a joke? Obviously you aren't a developer or in anyway informed about computer science.

[kojacked]

It's not the quality of the code, it's the age. 25 years is a long time for software to continue to be useful.

[supoman]

Prob kicking himself for not taking a job with Apple.

[darthtofurkey]

So why wouldn't Rick Rashid recommend using OS X or an iPhone?
Is he recommending Vista instead? Or is he just a sellout shill for Microsoft now?
And where is the picture of his iPhone tie?

[DrtyDogg]

Do you recommend a competitor's product, why would you expect him to be any different.

[rapier1]

I guess you missed the fact that he works for Microsoft and that this is a Microsoft event.

[emmanuelhuna]

Wow, I'm at the PDC and just watched the keynote on Microsoft Research. Amazing stuff, like helping find a cure for HIV, or using termal sensors to help the environment.

So how does Ina Fried choose to lead her story? With an article title mentioning a very small remark by one of the presenters saying he once wrote code for Apple and uses an iPhone. Ina, are you paid by Apple to come up with this stuff? Are you an Apple religious fanatic or do you just play the fanatic crowd?

Of course the Mac and Linux fanatics jump on the bandwagon and start spitting their anti-Windows hate. Way to go CNET.

For those who are not blinded by hate, check out the Microsoft Research page at:

http://research.microsoft.com/conferences/msrpdc2008/default.aspx

I'm a PC.
Emmanuel Huna
www.ehuna.org

[kojacked]

"For those who are not blinded by hate".

Pot calling the kettle black, eh? I'm a PC too but found the article (and the title) very interesting.

[JoeF2]

"very small remark by one of the presenters saying he once wrote code for Apple"

You must be a newbie. Mr. Rashid didn't write code for Apple.
He wrote an operating system, called Mach, which later became one of the bases for MacOS.10.
May I suggest you google for Mach? Or use MSN Search, if you like that better. You could learn a thing or two...
Mach was based around a Microkernel. Google that as well...
You may also end up finding the discussion between Mr. Tanenbaum and Mr. Torvalds about microkernels. All fascinating stuff. And all stuff that people with a CS education should know.

[emmanuelhuna]

@JoeF2 thanks for the info, I'll read up on Mach (I'll Google it). I have 17 years of development experience on Solaris, Linux, MS-DOS and Windows, so I'm not that much of a newbie. I have to admit I don't know everything.

That said, you missed my point. I was just saying that there were dozens of amazing stories that could have been written about what was announced at today's keynote on Microsoft Research at the PDC. Yet Ina Fried chose to write a story that makes Microsoft look bad since one of the presenters recommended an iPhone. Notice all of the negative comments against Windows and Microsoft then followed.

[emmanuelhuna]

Following up on this whole thread - a couple of remarks:

1) Looks like Ina Fried and/or CNET decided to change the title of this article and add a lot more information on the PDC keynote and the Microsoft research than the original article mentioning only the link of the presenter to iPhone and Apple. Good work CNET - less obvious bias is good.

2) For those wanting to watch the PDC keynote and learn about Microsoft research, check out http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/KYN04/ - Microsoft made all of the PDC videos and Powerpoint presentations available for free to anyone online. Compare that to Apple that charges $500 after one of their Apple Developer Conferences (WDDC). That said Apple fan boys typically have more money and don't care about paying more and getting less (RAM, CPU, etc...)

By the way - to all of the Linux and Mac fanatics who obviously can't have any serious dialog as soon as Windows or Microsoft are mentioned: I'm not a Microsoft employee, but I do use its (amazing) technologies, tools, applications and platforms.

[zvonr]

Classic brainwashed MS employee, thinks that everything they do is the best... most likely never had a iphone in his hand...

[Mark_Anderson]

Irony.

[ppgreat]

Oh, look, the Worldwide Telescope. Presented on the web but only viewable in Windows.

Who would have thunk it?

And, please, saying you're a 'PC' in your signature is like saying things 'rock'.

[inpersonoz]

"It's not the quality of the code, it's the age. 25 years is a long time for software to continue to be useful."

It's not like it hasn't been refined and rewritten many times since then. How much actual 25 yo code remains is questionable. If the quality and functionality is still good, what's the problem?

[arvi123y]

Sounds like sour grapes to me, or is it sour code?

[mpitogo]

I'd like to see Vista running on a phone as small as the iPhone without a keyboard.

[Seaspray0]

Probably not vista, but with all the research into touch interface, there might be something there. I would expect it to be more of a windows mobile release than branded under any other name.

[Mark_Anderson]

I'd like to see Leopard doing the same.

[SteveW928]

Does M$ pay people to make stupid comments like this.... or do you just get stupid once you start working there? Some kind of Ballmer disease?

[Seaspray0]

The most basic of code is the on/off switch. I still use it for my lights. I'll use something more advanced for the computer.

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