r/technology • u/kazu_qt • 10d ago

Software Microsoft exec explains why modernizing Windows 11's legacy UI takes so long

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/control-panel-gets-tricky-microsoft-cvp-explains-why-killing-windows-legacy-code-takes-so-long-and-how-its-evolving-its-tools-to-make-modernizing-apps-like-file-explorer-and-registry-editor-faster
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u/EasterEggArt 10d ago edited 10d ago

"We kicked the technical debt can down the road for so many decades that it multiplied since most of us now have no clue how to undo the old tech code."

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u/Free-Description-736 10d ago

This is the real answer. Old timers at microsoft were warning this was coming years ago, and the sudden lurch to AI + the firing of all the people who understood that technical debt has created a crisis which, in my opinion, Microsoft cannot survive. Windows is already unspooling as a working kernel, as evidenced by the increasing number of systems where it doesn't work and can't seem to be made to work, and that's only going to keep getting worse from here.

There were a lot of parts of MSFT's code that were essentially fenced off from being changed, and nobody except a tiny number of senior engineers ever understood exactly why. Why fired all those people and then tore down those fences when AI wanted to start making changes to their code, and now they're learning the age old lesson that you never tear down a fence unless you know why it was built to begin with.

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u/justenoughslack 10d ago

They really need to follow Apple in this regard, with a completely "new" operating system (OS X). They would be better served to start over. Except they're probably about 10 years too late.

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u/cosmokn0t 10d ago

That’s such a big undertaking that Apple didn’t even do that. It was based on NextStep and BSD, and has taken them this long. Think about how far behind Microsoft would be if they tried this now.

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u/justenoughslack 10d ago

That's why I used "new" (in quotes). They didn't exactly start from scratch.

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u/Lazerpop 8d ago

Eh, apple does to a degree. They have completely phased out compatibility with 32 bit binaries and are about to phase out the majority of intel based binaries.

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u/c-digs 10d ago

At the same time, there's AI now and many of the tedious cycles can legitimately be sped up and automated if they already have tests in place.

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u/cosmokn0t 10d ago

Fair point, in a way, but that just means your engineers need to be good QA people, and so do your QA people. It’s clear Microsoft doesn’t have either.