you don't want to have the genes of two smart, anti-social people to mate
So smart == anti-social?
They shouldn't forget the other big IT companies - Google, Facebook, etc.
Since when Facebook is an IT company?
C developer: already a minority in the umbrella of 'programmers' these days
- I write in Java because I have to.
- I write in PHP because I choose to.
- I write in C because I can
(originally was Windows/Mac/Linux)
Unix is not Multics and that is really all you need to know about Multics
There are many interesting aspects about Multics that deserve to be heard about if not studied. To name a few: the second-dimension access system or protection rings via "ring brackets" that allowed a 'r', 'w' or 'x' access to a "segment"/file depending on the caller (user or daemon) own "running ring". Thus, a lower (higher privilege) ring program would extend its r&|x access via brackets to allow a user to enter that program (a "gate"). For instance the continuums (now forums) were usually running in ring 3, while a simple user was in 4 (the core system was in 0). Multics had also convenient and powerful ACL, accesses provided to user/group-project/login-mode. Using long names or short names for a file(segment)... Studying a bit of Multics helps to realize that most of OSes concepts were already invented ~50 years ago...
It still amazes me that you can't just run normal Windows on the ARM-based surface
This is due to a (bad) implementation / development strategy. Take Office for instance. What would most companies do to provide a multi-OS/platform software? They create a bunch of system-dependent libraries per system, and at the same time develop a system-in-dependent software that is linked with the proper OS-dependent library for a given system. Thus, any new feature for a system X is also available for system Y.
But when Microsoft implemented Office for Mac (from 2009), they did a fork! Thus two distinct versions co-existed, Office for Windows and Office for Mac, each of them evolving more or less independently - with the outcome Excel developers in particular know (even at the time Mac Office was made available): some functions exist on one system, not the other, some having different parameters ; lack of consistency etc...
On purpose? Malice or incompetence? Wouldn't be surprised that they meet a similar problem with the Surface due to lack of genericity in Windows.
Aren't we told "never assume malice where incompetence will suffice".
won't even say who its first customer is
A Japanese startup... the first client could likely be Toyota - Toyota is constantly welcoming innovation, and a Japanese startup would prefer to grant such beneficial technological progress to another Japanese company, regardless the amount of money coming from overseas. Japan is known for national preference.
"Ninety percent of baseball is half mental." -- Yogi Berra