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Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft Hardcover – June 1, 1994

by G. Pascal Zachary (Author)

34 customer reviews

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The phenomenal success of Bill Gates and his Microsoft Corporation hinges, above all, on an ability to look to the future. Not content with holding a bulging share of the market for software applications, nor with dominating the crucial operating systems business by virtue of its DOS and Windows programs, Microsoft is always looking to the future. And the future for Microsoft now goes by the name of Windows NT. A software innovation of the first order, NT could redefine the standards for computing throughout the world, into the next century. NT endows inexpensive personal computers with the capabilities of giant mainframes -- yet without sacrificing the inherent flexibility and appeal of PCs. Showstopper! is the inside story of this stunning breakthrough in computer technology. Stripping away myth after myth, this unprecedented tale lays bare the messy, wrenching reality of winning innovations. To date, America has dominated the global software industry through creating cutting-edge code and by depending on both the ingenuity of a few visionaries and the coordination of huge, costly teams of programmers and testers. Gates -- a managerial genius as well as a technical visionary -- promotes an atmosphere of controlled chaos at Microsoft, and the story of Windows NT perfectly reflects this ethos. The brain-child of David Cutler, a legendary programmer recruited by Gates in 1988, NT took five years and $150 million to complete. For much of that time, the massive program demanded the obsessive attention of more than 200 testers, writers and technicians. Focusing on Cutler's mercurial ability to inspire and lash his team, Showstopper! brilliantly portrays the human drama of this mammoth undertaking exposing the pressures, disappointments and ultimate triumph that emerge from a cauldron of constant deadlines, competition with peers and a perpetual war against the inevitable and ubiquitous bugs in the program -- among them the potentially lethal "showstopper." Gripping vivid and accessible, Showstopper! reveals the outsize personalities that stand behind great advances: the mavericks, the organizers, the fixers, the motivators. Even as they wrestle with forces that threaten to tear them apart, Cutler and his team feverishly hunt for

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Showstopper! is a vivid account of the creation of Microsoft Windows NT, perhaps the most complex software project ever undertaken. It is also a portrait of David Cutler, NT's brilliant and, at times, brutally aggressive chief architect.

Cutler surely ranks as one of the most impressive software engineers the field has ever produced. After leading the team that created the VMS operating system for Digital's VAX computer line--an accomplishment that most would regard as a lifetime achievement--he went on to conceive and lead the grueling multi-year project that ultimately produced Windows NT. Both admired and feared by his team, Cutler would let nothing stand in the way of realizing his design and often clashed with his programmers, senior Microsoft management, and even Gates himself. Yet no matter how involved he became in managing his 100-programmer team, he continued to immerse himself in every technical detail of the project and write critical portions of the code himself.

Showstopper! is also a fascinating look at programmer and managerial culture behind the Microsoft facade. The portraits of the men and women who created NT not only reveal the brilliance of their work but the crushing stress and the dislocating effects that new wealth had on their lives. For some team members, the NT project ultimately destroyed their marriages, friendships, and virtually every human relationship outside of work. Showstopper! also reveals the uncertainties, false starts, and blind alleys that dogged the project as Microsoft repositioned NT from an improved OS/2 to something that would ultimately challenge both OS/2 and Unix for the title of the world's most powerful operating system.

From Publishers Weekly

Released in mid-1993, Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT software is arguably the best attempt yet at a universal operating system for personal computers, allowing PC users to open a file, move text or graphics, calculate a row of numbers and run several word processors, spreadsheets and other applications at once. With Windows NT (which stands for New Technology), Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates hopes to extend his dominion, with NT serving as the foundation for everything from desktop systems to corporate information networks. Critics, however, observe that the hardware required for NT is expensive and note that a forthcoming Microsoft operating system, Chicago, may eclipse NT. Wall Street Journal reporter Zachary tells how Microsoft wizard David Cutler and his team of programmers, working intensely for five years, overcame technical snafus, thousands of bugs, workplace skirmishes and collapsing personal lives to create Windows NT. This is both an enlightening primer on the management of complexity and a rare behind-the-scenes look at the cutthroat software wars.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product details

Hardcover: 312 pages
Publisher: Free Press (June 1, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0029356717
ISBN-13: 978-0029356715
Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1 x 9.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 34 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #129 in Books > Computers & Technology > Operating Systems > Windows > Windows Desktop
- #315 in Books > Computers & Technology > Software > Microsoft
- #449 in Books > Business & Money > Biography & History > Company Profiles

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Dennis A. Porter

Enlightening

February 8, 2014

Format: Hardcover

I read this book several years ago following a question to my technical account manager from Compaq (now HP). Specifically, "How could a guy like Dave Cutler turn out something like VMS, one of the best operating systems ever, and then produce garbage like NT?". One could argue that NT was the best OS Microsoft ever produced; but compared to other server operating systems in the market place, it was junk.

Zachary's book provides one of the closest things you're likely to get to an insider's account of the development of WindowsNT. One reviewer called it "Riveting". I wouldn't go that far - it doesn't read like a Grisham novel, but then again, it's not supposed to. Another reviewer panned it because it didn't have certain specific information such as cost of development. This book is likely interesting only to those who have an interest in the fields of OS development or IT. It certainly answered my question as to why Cutler could lead the development of VMS, a robust and reliable OS one could argue was ahead of its time. Then lead the development of what arguably was Microsoft's most ambitious undertaking up to that point, but turn out something that, while newer, was in no way near the quality or reliability of the operating systems already in existence, such as the various flavors of UNIX, VMS, and yes, Novell.

Zachary's narrative details what I felt was an undisciplined process of development; one might even say chaotic. Cutler was trying to institute various controls, etc. However, much like the effect of Murphy's law, Bill Gates would start meddling in the process. And meddling is an accurate term. Cutler would try to convince Gates that they needed to stop adding new features, and get the current OS as bug-free as possible so they could meet deadlines, etc. If I remember correctly, many times when Gates wanted something added to the OS it would break some other feature or service. I am not a developer, so I don't know how many bugs in a year of development would be considered excessive. If my recollection serves me, "Show Stopper" claims that Microsoft fixed more than 35,000 bugs in one year. Bill Gates was the chief developer, but all I recall seeing was a marketing wiz trying to control things beyond his limitations, thereby hindering the impact that a guy like Cutler could have on the project.

It's clear that Mr. Gates knew the market place well. He knew also that churning out trash to the market place where a product doesn't yet exist was profitable. Remember Windows 95? He also knew, much like the Soviets, that when possible it was easier and cheaper to borrow and steal rather than develop from scratch. Think Windows and Java.

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Jason R. Stevens

A great glimpse into the birth of Windows NT

November 29, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Without a doubt a must read for anyone interested in why Windows 10 is the way it is, you need to go back to see how Windows NT got off to a rocky start, to ultimately become the most popular commercial operating system in the world. It offers the inside story of OS/2 NT transitioned into Windows NT, and how basing it on a microkernel allowed for the quick shift in the primary API from OS/2 to a new and extended Windows API. This is also about how Microsoft found their footing to ship an industrial OS on their own without the support or backing of IBM. It's a great read!

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Benjamin Sparrow

This is not particularly tedious, but it does bear note as a slight ...

February 24, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This work is an engrossing introduction to one of the most fascinating periods in Microsoft's history. I have detracted a star only because, for a book whose subject matter limits its target audience principally to geeks, it feels the need to explain a number of rudimentary topics which should be well-understood by aforesaid audience. This is not particularly tedious, but it does bear note as a slight blemish upon an otherwise splendid title.

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A customer

Enjoyable reading for NT administrators and developers alike

March 15, 1999

Format: Hardcover

This book presents an entertaining account of how the first version of Windows NT was developed. It tells the "story of NT," how it was created and the personalities of the people behind it. It isn't a technical book and it doesn't try to be one -- its purpose is to entertain, not to inform. Even so, anyone who works with NT on a regular basis ought to read this book -- it will lead you to appreciate NT as a human achievement as well as a technical one.
When Windows 2000 is released, NT will become Microsoft's flagship operating system. This fact makes Zachary's book all the more worth reading.

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A customer

Great background for MS networking standard-bearer!

February 4, 1997

Format: Hardcover

I found this book to be:
1. A good read. This is oftentimes not a quality on books dealing with computers. Pascal held my attention by focusing on the personalities behind the development of NT, not the technical info. There are many books out there that do that. What he offered was interesting insight into the people behind the product.
2 Well balanced. The technical aspects were simply explained without being condescending or disinteresting. Again, this is a very difficult balancing trick.

As a network administrator and an MCT, I found the background information provided by Pascal both entertaining and useful.

I would recommend this book to any individual seeking to learn more about Windows NT, for whatever reason. I've put it on my recommended reading list for my students

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A customer

A must for every programmer !!

September 13, 1998

Format: Hardcover

It's a briliant read. The Author portrays a very vivid picture of the programmer and his life through a software project, the peer pressure, the deadlines, the compromises and everything else a programmer can go through.
Thankfully, this is one book that does not talk about Microsoft or its Creaters,(Mr. Gates).
If your day begins and ends with 'NT. Then this book is a must for you.

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