Rating:

I didn’t really know what to expect when I started reading this book, but was intrigued by a story about a large development effort, such as the one of Windows NT. The book didn’t disappoint on this count: It is packed with details about the organizational aspects of the project, about the people involved and their habits at the time and the politics that surrounded it.

However, as a software developer myself, I would have wished some more technical details. I guess that it would have spooked off many potential casual readers, though, so I understand why it was cut shorter.

Still, anyone familiar with modern development will find many interesting nuggets and be able to comprehend the stories that transpired during the development. For example: What a late pivot in a project (in this case, from OS/2 to Windows compatibility) means, how stressful bug fixing before a big release can be, how important working builds are, how program managers make constant demands, etc.

Except that everything seems to have been on a more extreme note at Microsoft at the time, which makes the book all the more captivating. Comparing the development practices at the time to the ones of nowadays is also interesting in itself: Although build labs have become a rarity, DevOps teams fight with similar issues around build pipelines in 2025.

I guess I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a story about a huge development effort, how it was pulled off and which types of personalities were involved in it. Having a knack for the history of computing helps as well!