One of the most pivotal moments in my software engineering career came from reading the leaked NT source code (6-7 years ago) in conjunction with reading the Showstopper[1] book. The NT leak is particularly fascinating because it included all of the author history, so you can see exactly what files Dave Cutler worked on. The book goes into detail about how we ended up with things like kernel modules having pageable sections -- which is fascinating in its own right.

The book describes Cutler coming in and revamping certain assembly routines and you can see exactly what routines are being talked about in the actual source code.

Cutler's code was (and I'm sure still is) absolutely beautiful C code. It really impacted the way I write NT-style C code.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Mic...

I haven't watched this video yet but I'm looking forward to it, having read Showstopper[1] quite a few years back.

One thing that stuck out to me when I was still in my early 20s thinking I needed to work all the time was the mention that Dave would always take holidays on time, every time without any debate.

While I may not love Microsoft, it was probably my first real exposure of a highly competent and qualified person who wasn't grinding 24/7.

It still feels nuts to write it but it's a holdover from rural (and retail) life where the mindset is basically "The more you suffer, the more virtuous you are".

As much as I still struggle to properly take time off (that is, it's easy to postpone because of X or Y being more important), thinking about Dave's view is always a good reminder that it's not a choice between taking a break and being good at X.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Mic...

True to form, Cutler had a break with DEC, and they gave him a carte-blanche VAX "skunkworks" with Prism/Mica.

DEC eventually shut this down, which prompted his departure for Microsoft. This is unfortunate for DEC, as they eventually poured the company into their Alpha RISC processor, which did not live as long as DEC hoped. Prism might have been a superior design.

At this time, Microsoft was maintaining a UNIX kernel in their Xenix product, so they knew a good kernel engineer when they met one. Microsoft was the leading UNIX vendor in the early 80's.

Cutler famously disparaged the UNIX kernel (his notable saying was "Get a byte, get a byte, get a byte byte byte" to the tune of the finale of Rossini's William Tell Overture).

Microsoft dumped their Xenix onto SCO about this time.

What is more interesting to me was Cutler's involvement with Azure. He must have had some sway over CBL-Mariner, Microsoft's RPM-based Linux distribution.

Much of Cutler's earlier work is documented in the "Showstoppers" book:

https://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Mic...

The book doesn't really delve into the Xenix decisions, if I remember correctly.

Without Cutler, Microsoft would likely have ended up on a BSD kernel, as Apple did.

Reminds me of the book Showstopper and the personal stories in - its about the creation of Windows NT. Pretty interesting how things where not so differnet some 30 years ago

In case anyone is interested: https://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Mic...

Windows NT was originally going to be OS/2 NT. Due to the architecture of NT, it could support many different APIs.

Due to the success of Windows 3.0 and the lack of OS/2 success, Microsoft wisely decided to expand the Windows API to the Win32 API and have it be the default API.

The book Show Stopper, has a good account of the early days of NT.

https://www.amazon.com/Show-Stopper-Breakneck-Generation-Mic...

It is interesting read.