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Honestly, I don't understand Microsoft. These guys solve the most mundane problems with most elegant solutions and with sound edge-case handling scenarios, the

Honestly, I don't understand Microsoft. These guys solve the most mundane problems with most elegant solutions and with sound edge-case handling scenarios, then they destroy all the effort with subpar programming where it matters and with user hostile behavior where they can't botch it.

airstrike 1mo ago
They're a very large organization with engineers of widely varying skills in projects with very different timelines. I get what you mean, but it's really hard for any organization this size to drive consistent quality across the board.
waz0wski 1mo ago
> // Assume everything in the dir is a vaild image file Yep.. And image files were, and continue to be, a huge exploit attack vector
- bayindirh 1mo ago
  We had bigger problems back then, and the function ran considerably rarely when compared the other parts of the OS, so it was a valid assumption at that age. However, I still remember Wine laughing at Windows for WMF exploit and end up being affected from the same exploit. Now, that was a good laugh.
amelius 1mo ago
They simply find some problems more interesting to solve than others. Just like the rest of us.
- amelius 1mo ago
  (Perhaps it shows that Apple engineers are pushed to grind at the boring problems more; therefore maybe it is better to work at Microsoft)
  - bayindirh 1mo ago
    Early in my career, I have read a blog post from someone senior about boring/entertaining work. In short it stated to following: Even if you work on exciting things, the project will always have boring parts. You'll need to develop these parts as well, so be prepared and show the same respect to all parts. So, I'd personally rather work on all parts equally well rather than winging boring parts and create something subpar.
    - amelius 1mo ago
      Maybe. By the way, I chose Apple as an example but their software is just about as bad, only slightly better.
wongarsu 1mo ago
That's simple. The Windows Kernel is a collection of mostly elegant solutions, with a strong peppering of backwards-compatibility cruft, all the way from NT3 to Windows 11. The Windows userland received a lot of effort until about Windows XP, and since then is a collection of subpar programming, half-finished projects and user-hostile patterns (with some notable exceptions) Different teams with different goals and different management
- Sohcahtoa82 1mo ago
  > Different teams with different goals and different management Not to mention the stack ranking policies that caused engineers to sabotage other people's work and avoid collaboration in order to keep themselves high on the stack in order to avoid being fired.

airstrike 1mo ago

They're a very large organization with engineers of widely varying skills in projects with very different timelines. I get what you mean, but it's really hard for any organization this size to drive consistent quality across the board.

waz0wski 1mo ago

> // Assume everything in the dir is a vaild image file Yep.. And image files were, and continue to be, a huge exploit attack vector

bayindirh 1mo ago
We had bigger problems back then, and the function ran considerably rarely when compared the other parts of the OS, so it was a valid assumption at that age. However, I still remember Wine laughing at Windows for WMF exploit and end up being affected from the same exploit. Now, that was a good laugh.

amelius 1mo ago

They simply find some problems more interesting to solve than others. Just like the rest of us.

amelius 1mo ago
(Perhaps it shows that Apple engineers are pushed to grind at the boring problems more; therefore maybe it is better to work at Microsoft)
- bayindirh 1mo ago
  Early in my career, I have read a blog post from someone senior about boring/entertaining work. In short it stated to following: Even if you work on exciting things, the project will always have boring parts. You'll need to develop these parts as well, so be prepared and show the same respect to all parts. So, I'd personally rather work on all parts equally well rather than winging boring parts and create something subpar.
  - amelius 1mo ago
    Maybe. By the way, I chose Apple as an example but their software is just about as bad, only slightly better.

wongarsu 1mo ago

That's simple. The Windows Kernel is a collection of mostly elegant solutions, with a strong peppering of backwards-compatibility cruft, all the way from NT3 to Windows 11. The Windows userland received a lot of effort until about Windows XP, and since then is a collection of subpar programming, half-finished projects and user-hostile patterns (with some notable exceptions) Different teams with different goals and different management

Sohcahtoa82 1mo ago
> Different teams with different goals and different management Not to mention the stack ranking policies that caused engineers to sabotage other people's work and avoid collaboration in order to keep themselves high on the stack in order to avoid being fired.