[Info-vax] Dave Cutler, Prism, DEC, Microsoft, etc.

[Neil Rieck]

On Nov 19, 7:24 am, Neil Rieck <n.ri... at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> I just received a copy of “Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create
> Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft” and find it a
> riveting description of the activities of Cutler and other DEC people
> at Microsoft (I’ve only read the first four chapters)
>
> 1. Dave Cutler was the lead s/w designer of VMS but, emotionally-
> socially, was a diamond in the rough.
> 2. Gordon Bell was Cutler’s patron at DEC who thought that Cutler was
> the most productive s/w developer at DEC.
> 3. Cutler wanted to leave Digital in 1981, but Bell convinced him to
> set up a research arm away from Maynard (which turned out to be
> Seattle)
> 4. When Bell left DEC in 1983 after suffering a heart attack, Cutler
> lost his patron
> 5. Nathan Myrhvold was concerned about three major things at
> Microsoft: UNIX, RISC, and portability (and kept sending memos to Bill
> Gates reminding him of these potential problems in Microsoft's
> future)
> 6. Without Bell around to protect Cutler’s group in Seattle, DEC was
> able to shut it down (other groups had patrons, Cutler’s group did
> not)
> 7. Nathan Myrhvold heard about the demise of Cutler’s RISC project and
> set up the meeting between Cutler and Gates
> 8. Gates only wanted Cutler’s s/w people but Cutler wouldn’t agree to
> a deal without bringing along his hardware people.
> 9. Cutler wanted to bring along DEC hardware people who would help
> Microsoft change the technical direction of the PC industry
> 10. Gates became Cutler's patron at Microsoft (it seems that Cutler
> always needed a patron to compensate for his gruff personality)
> 11. The first version of this multi-personality (DOS, OS/2, Windows,
> whatever) portable OS was called “Portasys” and ran on a custom PC
> designed by Cutler’s group based upon the Intel i860 CPU. It was never
> meant to be sold; only used internally to develop a portable OS.
>

Okay so I've now finished chapter 8 of 10 of the book “Showstopper!
The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at
Microsoft”. Sixty percent of this book is about "Decies" (DEC people
at Microsoft including Dave Cutler) with the remaining stuff being
about the "Microsofties" including Gates, Ballmer and others. If you
enjoyed either one of "Hackers" or "Soul of a New Machine" then you'll
like this book. I consider it to be a natural succession to "DEC is
Dead, Long Live DEC"

p.s. There was a whole lot of stuff I didn't know about Windows-NT
like: many of the Microsofties wanted to keep/extend DOS (FAT32) or
the OS/2 file system. It was the Decies who pushed for NTFS.

Neil Rieck
Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/