Microsoft exec lays claim to roots of Mac OS X
updated 11:50 am EDT, Thu October 30, 2008
MS exec's work in Mac OS X
The work of a current Microsoft executive is behind the existence of Mac OS X and the iPhone firmware, a report suggests. The head of Microsoft's Research division, Rick Rashid, claims that code of his remains within the Mac OS, and by extension the iPhone OS, even after decades of design and evolution. "If you use a Macintosh or an iPhone, which honestly I would not recommend," says Rashid, "you would be using code that I wrote more than 25 years ago."
Rashid is partly responsible for the Mach kernel used in the FreeBSD variant of Unix. Apple based Mac OS X on FreeBSD, creating its own kernel called Darwin. Users can also run Unix commands from a shell window on a Mac.
The executive does not claim to have foreshadowed modern developments, however. "If you'd asked me 25 years ago if I thought code I was [writing would be] running today on a cellphone, my reaction would have been 'what's a cellphone?'"
uh huh
10/30, 11:55am reply
Toe that company line, dude.
joecab
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Joined: Apr 2004
Open Source
10/30, 12:06pm reply
"Rashid is partly responsible for the Mach kernel used in the FreeBSD variant of Unix"
Dozens if not Hundreds of people could lay claims to that. That's the equivalent of Ogg the caveman laying claims on the automobile because part of his initial design of the wheel is still used today.
Nothing like a Johnny-come-late stating, "I did that. That's my OS. It sucks and I wouldn't use it, but I did that."
jameshays
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Joined: Mar 2003
even money
10/30, 12:11pm reply
that his lines of code are gone -- coded out to remove the bloat.
ggirton
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Re: Open source
10/30, 12:18pm reply
I thought Ogg the caveman laid claim to the Ogg-Vorbis audio format, because his name is Ogg.
testudo
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Microsoft
10/30, 12:19pm (1 reply) reply
He doesn't recommend using code he wrote 25 years ago. Many people don't recommend using code he is writing today.
sgirard
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Inventing the Internet
10/30, 12:23pm (1 reply) reply
Haven't we heard this before or at least something like this before?
Al Gore, circa 2000 during the election, "In my years in the Congress, I took the initiative of inventing the Internet."
Wow, this guy has some nerve.
jhawk95
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Joined: Oct 2006
M$ employees
10/30, 12:23pm reply
Man... It seems a good majority of M$ employees are "GooberNerds" (did I just coin a new mash-up word??).
I'm sure there's some cool employees working there, but I can't name any at the moment. I can, however, list a few of M$'s GooberNerds... Bill Gates, STEVE BALLMER (major GooberNerd), Mr. Rashid here, Lisa Brummel, Ray Ozzie, etc...
Mich Mathews ( http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/mathews/ ) looks pretty sweet though, ;-)
Smurfman
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correct
10/30, 12:26pm reply
He's correct that he's responsible for mach at Carnegie Mellon. He's also correct in that there's 25 year old code in mach and BSD. FreeBSD is not based on mach though but that's CNets fault.
However.. there's probably code left in Widnwos written by Bill Gates about 30 years ago, and the quality of that code is probably a lot worse than the code in the original mach.
Henriok
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oh yeah, hypocricy
10/30, 12:34pm reply
Also Microsoft laying claim to things Apple users are using ... Mr. Pot, is there something you'd like to say to Mr. Kettle?
joecab
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Joined: Apr 2004
lol
10/30, 12:38pm (1 reply) reply
LOL — "If you use a Macintosh or an iPhone, which honestly I would not recommend," says Rashid. How's that Zune working for you, bro?
rdas7
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