Why has Microsoft really been successful? Forget what you have read elsewhere. In Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters, a ten-year veteran of the front lines of the software development wars gives the real story on why the company has succeeded, what it does well and what it does badly, and what it needs to do in the future. The book has first-hand information on how Microsoft works internally: the relationships between programming teams and the rest of the company; how Microsoft recruits and interviews people; the sacrifices that are made to get software done; the lure of stock options; and what it is like to be sued by your own government. The insights are relevant for anyone interested in Microsoft, the software industry, or business in general.
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About the Author
Adam Barr worked as a programmer at Microsoft from March 1990 to April 2000. He worked on several software projects, including the first two versions of Windows NT, interactive television, Softimage, and Windows 2000. He lives in Redmond, Washington.
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By Bruce Murphy
Nominally a from-the-trenches view of life inside Microsoft, this book instead swings between crying out in defence of the company 'Why does everyone hate us?' 'Clearly the best definition of what is part of an operating system is whatever is included', and a few interesting anecdotes. We learn very little about the on-the-ground management or organisation and instead are treated to a two-chapter rant on why an interview system the author never really worked with is broken (but still the best in the industry!), or a fascinating story snippet about life inside a small video processing company Microsoft acquired. Sadly, the remainder of the book devolves into a plaintive series of transparently one-sided chapters where everything from the convicted anti-trust actions to API release practices are defended at tedious length.
This book contains a few snippets of interesting material, but is overall too tedious for me to suggest anyone reads it who isn't looking for a case-study of Microsoft employee indoctrination.
This book contains a few snippets of interesting material, but is overall too tedious for me to suggest anyone reads it who isn't looking for a case-study of Microsoft employee indoctrination.
By calmly
Barr acknowledges some well-known Microsoft idiosyncrasies, such as the overemphasis on puzzle-like tests during interviewing and the management affection (not so unusual among software management) for crazy long hours by programmers (apparently independent of results). However, all in all, who stays at Microsoft for 10 years and then has so much good to say but a die-hard? If you want to know everything you never wanted to know about API's and why your next release of a Windows release may have hundreds of API incompatibilties, this book may help you. I suspect an outsider could have written as "inside" a book on mattters of substance. It's not clear Barr has burned any bridges with Microsoft by what is revealed in this book: was that ever his intent? The title seems intended at face value.
By Matt
Amazon Verified Purchase
Adam Barr shows us some interesting things about what it's like to work for the most successful software company in the world. His arguments in defence of it against its critics are pretty weak, but they do provide an insight into the mindset and culture of Microsoft. Makes for interesting reading. For once, we get a view from the trenches rather than from the lofty heights of management. Worth getting.
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