If it takes 1000 Microsoft engineers to code Windows 7, how many are required to change a lightbulb?

?p??pu??s ???snpu? u? s? ss?u???p ?u???p ?sn? ???? ??uou

All smartass-ery aside, we're pleased to see Microsoft's attempt to more fully engage the development community as it marches towards a 2010 release of Windows 7. The 1,000-strong engineering team is comprised of 25 different feature teams each made up of about 40 persons on average. The whole dry but peculiarly intriguing setup is fully detailed on Microsoft's new E7, corporate transparency blog sitting just beyond the read link.

By the way, how many Apple employees does it take to change a lightbulb? 13, 1 to do the screwing and a dozen lawyer-types to prepare for the recall.

[Via Pocket-lint]

[david @ Aug 20th 2008 6:42AM]

lightbuld? never heard of it

[j_g_puff @ Aug 20th 2008 6:49AM]

clearly it should have read iBulb.

[Blaine Oliver @ Aug 20th 2008 9:44AM]

Im quite pleased that there was an insult for both sides, making it an inpartial flame :)

[jc @ Aug 20th 2008 6:45AM]

more like 12 lawyers to sue any source of light...

[Derbeste @ Aug 20th 2008 2:28PM]

More like:

How many MS employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

13

1 to screw in the lightbulb...

12 to hold you down and spread your butt cheeks.

[Craig @ Aug 20th 2008 6:45AM]

Isn't this post just screaming to start a fanboy flame war?

[Skyride @ Aug 20th 2008 6:52AM]

Lucky im impartial then. :) (I think OSX is technically awesome and better than windows but i prefer vista and have heaps of apps i need that are windows only).

[Juxtah @ Aug 20th 2008 6:55AM]

I agree skyride, that and mac hardware is horribly overpriced.

[Skyride @ Aug 20th 2008 6:58AM]

Ye, that too. My mate just bought a 20" iMac. Spent £1K on it **head in hands**

Although hes a mac fanboy so i guess its money well spent for him.

[Snitch @ Aug 20th 2008 8:16AM]

@Skyride, I agree with you that macs should be price more competitive, but you can throw 4GB or ram on any PC and it will just eat it up and never run as fast or flawlessly as macbook with just 512MB of ram, Why is that???? i don't know the answer to that, but i do know is a fact cause i do own similar systems. Maybe Microsoft should work more closely with OEM's and take more control over their product and if a system is not up to specs to run the OS, they should just not license them at all, instead of just looking at $ signs

[thedesolate1 @ Aug 20th 2008 8:32AM]

And out of all those engineers how many of them have an clue?

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Aug 20th 2008 8:38AM]

Crisis averted. Fanboy war prevented.

You guyyysss... HUG.

[ctrlaltdelete @ Aug 20th 2008 6:25PM]

uhm...i just read an article that they arent.


something n tomshardware or so...

[f14tomdog2 @ Aug 21st 2008 6:20AM]

at snitch, but then they would be douche bags like apple and not allow self builders take advantage of the os (aside from hackintosh , which is illegal)

[loosely_coupled @ Aug 21st 2008 6:32AM]

@Juxtah

Actually, Thats not necessarily true. Yes, you can get a junky windows PC for $500, but if you actually compare specs to specs, Most higher-end Macs are only 10-20% more than an equivalent PC, if that. Especially if you buy minimal RAM/HD upgrades and just do them yourself. The 2.66/2.8Ghz Mac Pro is very competitively priced with a dual Xeon Dell workstation, and the Macbook Pro is only a couple hundred more than an equivalent PC, although at the moment the 8600GT is a piece of crap. The iMac is pretty unique so it is hard to compare, but the new "designer" all in ones from PC manufacturers are just as much.

[Esteban @ Oct 27th 2008 12:48PM]

@loosely_coupled

I dont know about you, but there are some of us that care about an "extra hundred dollars" when buying an important piece of hardware. And if i can get an equivalent machine for less than the competitor, then that is a win for me.

[Level 5 @ Aug 20th 2008 7:18AM]

dozen lawyers ftw.

[EllPee @ Aug 20th 2008 7:14AM]

Q. What's a Lightbuld?

A. Something that you make in a hurry

[w4rh34rt @ Aug 20th 2008 6:50AM]

LMAO! That made me laugh, so it's not the worst joke I've ever heard heh.

Anyway, I've always thought that how windows manages if what makes them suck, and maybe this time they can sort it out and push out a decent OS by 2010 and maybe make people say, "Wow!", for once.

[Jason @ Aug 20th 2008 3:00PM]

"I've always thought that how windows manages if what makes them suck"

By all means, take your time and finish laughing before you type.

[Darak @ Aug 20th 2008 6:51AM]

You forgot several links referencing MobileMe.

[Skyride @ Aug 20th 2008 6:55AM]

but they'd file an iLawsuit against engadget.

[initialxy @ Aug 20th 2008 9:34AM]

@bloodythespians, you mean engadget doesn't want to get SueMe.

[initialxy @ Aug 20th 2008 9:35AM]

oops, sorry @Skyride. copied the wrong user name. my bad.

[tubes @ Aug 20th 2008 6:55AM]

Hey, you managed to put a wise-crack joke about Microsoft and Apple in the same post ;-)

Also, 1,000 folks sounds like a lot, but how many engineers usually work on a new OS? I think this is the first time I've heard any numbers from any major corporation. Is 1,000 more or less than usual?

(And, dang, they must have some ninja communication skills to coordinate between that many teams/people)

[Skyride @ Aug 20th 2008 6:57AM]

"(And, dang, they must have some ninja communication skills to coordinate between that many teams/people)"

Thats exactly the problem. They put people into teams. So teams need to speak.

[meilon @ Aug 20th 2008 7:18AM]

"Hey, you managed to put a wise-crack joke about Microsoft and Apple in the same post ;-)"

I like this, too! So both fanboy parties can have a laugh :D

[thedesolate1 @ Aug 20th 2008 8:34AM]

All you need is 6 code monkeys to make a great Linux OS. So that must say alot. 1000 human engineers and they still might get it wrong. Microsoft should outsource its human programmers. oh... wait a minute they already do that.

[Carbonize @ Aug 20th 2008 8:55AM]

I think you wil find that whilst it may only take 6 people to maintain a Linux OS they mostly just use code other people have written and just alter it to work with their system.

[Jason @ Aug 20th 2008 3:38PM]

As opposed to Windows who take code others have written and alter it to NOT work with their system.

[r3loaded @ Aug 20th 2008 6:54AM]

Thomas Ricker - future stand-up comedian!

He's almost as bad as me! :P

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Aug 21st 2008 3:45AM]

˙pɹɐpuɐʇs ʎɹʇsnpuı uɐ sɐ ssǝuʞɹɐp ǝuıɟǝp ʇsnɾ ʎǝɥʇ ˙ǝuou

[michas_pi @ Aug 20th 2008 7:00AM]

I chortled.

[Rask @ Aug 20th 2008 7:02AM]

A post talking about MS in a positive light and poking fun at Apple at the same time?

I think my head just imploded...

[austin @ Aug 20th 2008 9:44AM]

your head asplod

[Neal @ Aug 20th 2008 9:58AM]

I seriously don't get why this whole "to be released in 2010" thing is still around. Apparently no one in the press can do simple math.

[Jack @ Aug 20th 2008 10:01AM]

I believe you ment that your head iMploded.

[BluesK1d @ Aug 20th 2008 11:07AM]

@ Neal

Maybe because it has a 01/2010 scheduled release?

[buttabean @ Aug 20th 2008 7:10AM]

Dam thats some crazy overhead. Wonder what the average programmer on that project gets.

[Nihility @ Aug 20th 2008 7:47AM]

raped

[ipubs bastard child @ Aug 20th 2008 8:33AM]

.. to live?

[Jason @ Aug 20th 2008 3:41PM]

a lifetime of silent shame.

[Skyride @ Aug 20th 2008 7:03AM]

I dont see why this is such a big deal. 1,000 engineers for windows 7. Its alot of people but its an equally big project. The number of people microsoft employ to code increases with every new windows release.

[Skyride @ Aug 20th 2008 7:04AM]

Mind you, By windows 8 im sure it will be OVER 9,000!

[Mark Anderson @ Aug 20th 2008 7:13AM]

OVER 9000! indeed.

XD

[John @ Aug 20th 2008 8:36AM]

oh, god...

[brickwood @ Aug 20th 2008 8:47AM]

rofl

[Backlin @ Aug 20th 2008 10:42AM]

Nobody should have to worry about unemployment then. Heck, Microsoft should just develop 3 operating systems at one time!

[Jason @ Aug 20th 2008 3:04PM]

@Skyride - yeah, I mean it's got to take at least that many people to make it big enough for you to have to double your RAM and your processors yet again.

[saurabh @ Aug 21st 2008 7:19AM]

I wonder if Apple's entire team strength is 13 with 11 lawyers, 1 engineer and Steve Jobs. After all they just make open source technologies proprietary, like GCC, OpenBSD, Vim etc..