A Tour of Microsoft's Mac Lab

I'm Don Giovanni writes "David Weiss of Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) gives a virtual tour of Microsoft's Mac Lab at Redmond, reportedly one of the largest Mac labs outside of Apple (includes 150 Mac minis!)." Great pictures. From the article: "The first area in the Mac Lab is what we call the Sandbox. This is where we keep all significant hardware configurations Apple has released that run our products. We'll use the Plasma display to, watch DVDs and play games, uh er, I mean, do important training presentations. ;-) It's actually very useful because everyone can be in front of a computer and still see the main screen and follow along. Often other groups at Microsoft (the games group, hardware drivers group and even the Windows media group) will come and schedule time in the Mac Lab to test their software on the different hardware configurations."

Does Apple have a Windows lab?

[the_humeister]

Now that iTunes and other apps run in Windows, does Apple have a Windows lab?

Undercover marketing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Between this and the story we heard yesterday from the ex-Unix Microsoft programmer, do you get the feeling that some sort of viral/undercover "come work at Microsoft" marketing is going on?

Re:Does Apple have a Windows lab?

[NitsujTPU]

What would be really nice is if they got a Linux lab, so I could run iTunes natively under Linux.

Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot, Microsoft's cheesy feel-good corporate blogaganda, stuff that makes you cringe.

I think we've had tours of just about everywhere that Microsoft want to show us. Hey guys, they have a linux lab, a Mac lab and they insist they're not evil. I think they doth protest too much, they've been trying to garner sympathy for some time now and I think it's pathetic. ABM!

Microsoft Advocacy

[MrNonchalant]

This seems like it's part of a broader wave of MS advocacy and transparency that has unfolded over the past year or so. Although I still don't like Microsoft terribly much, these glimpses inside have given me some pause. The employees and culture seem actually decent enough.

Re:I feel a disturbance in the force...

[__aaclcg7560]

Been there, done that. What happens is you have five recruiters representing Microsoft saying that you're qualified for the hottest openings that they have, and then they string you along for two months until it becomes obvious that the position has already been filled by an internal candidate. Meanwhile, your unemployment benefits run out. They don't call it the Evil Empire for nothing.

Bug Testing

[xwizbt]

I love the comment:

"Mac Office is one of those "software in the large" projects. There's really no way a team of our size would be able to adequately test all of Office without the use of automated testing. Every day we get a new build of Office from the build machines, we copy it to our Xserve RAID connected to our dual G5 Xserve for access by our 249 automation machines. We then run thousands and thousands of tests on the new build. Typically we get 4 builds of Office each day: English Ship, English Debug, Japanese Ship and Japanese Debug. We run our entire battery of tests against all the builds and then report any failures to testers via email. The testers investigate the failures, log any bugs and then move on to their other duties as testers. This turns out to be very effective, if used properly, and over time it allows testers to focus on things humans do best, while letting computers verify the repetitious and mundane, but necessary, testing. It all started with our Blue and White G3s years ago. At first when testers would upgrade their test machines, instead of recycling the machines, "The Lab" would get them to add them to our automation machine pool. I think we had about 20 machines to begin with."

So how is it when I attempt to view a word document I always manage to hit the error. I'm not being a wiseass - it's not every time. But if this takes place, why do I see so many difficulties when I attempt to view a word-for-windows document?

Re:The last guy who did this got fired.

[donutello]

The Macs he photographed were going to the XBox360 team to use as dev kits. At that time it was not publicly announced that the 360 would be based upon a PowerPC core. My guess is that had something to do with his firing.

Microsoft on Macs and a Google blog?!?

[truthsearch]

A Microsoft employee is reporting on Mac use from a site owned by Google? Hang on, I think I see a pig passing by my 4th story window...

Why is his blog not on an MSN domain or something like that?

Re:Does Apple have a Windows lab?

[Anonymous Coward]

Gotta post anon, but yeah. Despite all the noise about unfairness, we do a fair bit of benchmarking against similar hardware. That and not everything is written for a Mac; we are a hardware company and we do design hardware. Sometimes we can get it to run on a Mac, but sometimes it's better to just buy a few Dell's, throw Linux and Windows on them and give them to the teams. It's the ship date that matters, not whether we eat our own dog food (although we do try to eat it when possible).

PR crap

[metamatic]

Often other groups at Microsoft (the games group, hardware drivers group and even the Windows media group) will come and schedule time in the Mac Lab to test their software on the different hardware configurations.

Yeah, right. The Windows media group have given up on Windows Media Player for the Mac [connectedhomemag.com], so what are they testing?

And since when does the Microsoft games group develop anything for the Mac? Halo was ported by Westlake Interactive and MacSoft [the-junkyard.net], and they dropped the Mac port of Flight Simulator decades ago. So what games are actually written at Microsoft for the Mac?

Drivers? They licensed the code for their Mac mouse drivers from Alessandro Montalcini. Maybe they do a little testing now and again, but most of it is just USB HID anyway. Do Microsoft make any other hardware for the Mac?

Internet Explorer? Oh, sorry, they dropped that too.

The whole thing smells like PR crap designed to make Microsoft look like a major developer of Mac software, when in truth all they really work on these days is Office.

Windows Media group

[theid0]

I'd be interested to know why the Windows Media group is in the Mac lab. They did such a poor job on their Mac port that they are now directing people to 3rd party software.

Re:Linux Lab

[110010001000]

Actually Microsoft has a very large Linux lab. I've seen it myself and there was a story on it on Slashdot about a year ago.

Microsoft's MBU: A perfect example...

[Anonymous Coward]

...of why I think the Mac community would be compromised by using Office X and other products from Microsoft's Mac Business Unit.

As I mentioned in one of my comments about this issue, I do not trust Windows users. They do not think like us. They are not like us. They are as close to "alien life forms" as we can get without having to leave this planet.

Seriously, they do not share our values. They hate that we have good taste. They like to keep their windows maximized. Hell, most of them are perfect little squares in perfectly square holes and if you go to PC strongholds like Staten Island you'll see most of the media they consume is produced by Mac users, as the Windows demographic is incapable of creativity in music, the arts, entertainment, interior design, etc.

They are backwards. They live in the 11th Century. They've contributed nothing meaningful to humanity for hundreds and hundreds of years. While we different thinkers are out writing AppleScripts, making HyperCard stacks, mixing in Logic Pro, editing collaboratively in SubEthaEdit, proofing rainbow banners in Illustrator, creating wealth through a variety of postmodern/postindustrial models, winning Nobels and Pulitzers and Tonys and Pritzkers along the way, the PC users are sitting on their asses downloading the fruits of our labor (how else do you explain so many being able to reference Futurama, bash the New Yorker, etc.?) The only thing they have in their favor is old, fat, whitebread bankrolls accumulated on slavery and imperialism and, personally, I wish their inherited wealth would run dry. Sure, we'd have a hell of a headache funding our next indie production, but so would the whole world, and when faced with true adversity the ingenuity of Mac users truly comes to the fore.

Anyway, back on point. Why don't I trust the Mac Business Unit?

Because to have PC-type people financing our films, our music, in charge of our manifestos and marches, is a disaster waiting to happen.

Whereas we may allow products from other dull, dogma-bound companies into our /Applications, none of them have pledged allegiance to a corporate parent that churns out horrifying simulacra of Mac users' innovations. On top of that, given that they are run by Windows users, how easy would it be for one of them to allow a "friend" to dummy up a Trojan, have another "friend" port it to the Mac, and then allow another "friend" to unleash a remote controlled hell on our AppleTalk private networks? After all, they are "blood", right?

Which leads me to how people in our own community are encouraging PC-type people to switch to Mac.

If you go back and do some checking of stories, you will see that in most cases where lifelong Windows users suddenly buy Macs, or people who are Linux to the core suddenly pirate OS X from the internet, it is almost all done in cahoots with another recent switcher on the "inside" or one that "knows" someone on the inside.

So if we have Linux and Windows types of people facilitating the poseur-ishness of another Linux or Windows user because he has "control" and "power" just how far a stretch is it to say the MBU at Microsoft won't do the same when it comes to our Macs? HMMMMM?!?!?!

Who would have thunk it?

[rice_burners_suck]

Who could have guessed that Microsoft has so many Macs in its Mac lab? But then again, I think there was a story here on /. sometime ago about Microsoft having a Linux lab, too. And something more recently about how Microsoft is going to support Linux in some situation or other.

But on the other hand, I should have guessed, since they do make Mac software, that there should be a bunch of Macs of all models to test the software.

So that begs this question: Apple builds all the Macs. This means that there are basically a finite number of possible configurations for a Mac. It could be 100 or 1000 or 10000, depending on how far back you want to go, which Mac OSes you want to support, etc., but somewhere along the line, there is only so many ways that a Mac might be set up. On the other hand, there is basically an infinite number of possible configurations for a PC. Just think how many motherboard manufacturers there are, how many different versions each has turned out, how many x86 processor clones there are, how many versions of the x86 architecture since, say, the Pentium, how many different video configurations, how many sound cards, how many of each thing, and you'll come to the conclusion that if there are, say, 2 billion PCs in the world in current operation, then there must be about 2 billion and 1 configurations out there. So as I began to say, this Mac lab thing begs the question: How many different configurations of PCs does Microsoft have in its PC lab for testing Windows, Office, and all their other thousand and one apps?

Re:Censored!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not showing the talent is pretty standard operating proceedure.
I don't work at Microsoft, but live nearby in Kirkland where I can walk to both Google and Microsoft's game division.

Google in the Seattle region? yep, and it's all about poaching talented Microsofties....everybody is poaching talent here, and Microsoft is vulnerable because (frankly) they do *not* pay anywhere near well enough.

Microsoft is hiring 12,000 new people in the next few years. The average developer burns out in 7 years from the stress -- so Bill would like to keep as many people as he can.
The job market here isn't quite like 1999 yet, more like 1998....
But don't get too excited -- Apple plans on adding over 4000 over the same amount of time...and having met Balmer I'd rather work with Jobs.

Re:Does Apple have a Windows lab?

[Anonymous Coward]

I visited apple about a month back (more specifically, the audio and video codec folks). Each office typically had three Macs and two Dells, and yes, there was a lab with numerous configurations of "dull, boring PCs" since everything related to Quicktime had to build and run on OS X and Windows. Apparently they do a lot of testing on different PC configurations, which shouldn't suprise anyone with knowledge of software development.

What did surprise me was to learn that specific employees at Apple use Thunderbird on Windows for their day-to-day e-mail.