Dave's Garage
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 8 months, 2023–2026
3:10:28 · 1M views · Oct 21, 2023
Dave Plummer interviews Dave Cutler, architect of VMS and Windows NT, in a roughly three-hour conversation about his career and the history of Windows.
Recommended as a long, excellent first-hand interview with a legendary OS designer, though some note it is light on technical detail.
12 comments from Hacker News
Because the userspace, old and baroque it is, is the compatibility layer for the existing apps. Not the kernel. The kernel is a very nice piece of work, but it come from slightly different assumptions, than the reality turned out to need. Btw, the recent Dave Cutler interview ( this video ) is great. Worth the 3 hours it takes.
His series on YouTube, Dave's Garage, has really helped me to conceptualize Operating Systems in the past that I used, but didn't really fully understand. I started with Atari DOS, but moved to the 286 roughly around the time it started to become popular, along with MS-DOS. I'm 45 now, so didn't think about things as deeply back then, as far as constraints and why things may have been built the way they were. I think his series really does a great job at looking into both technology and company politics (especially his time at Microsoft). this video
There’s a fantastic interview on YouTube with Dave Cutler. It’s 3 hours long but there are a few 10 minute highlight clips on the same channel. this video
That's not his channel, its a different Dave. However, there is an excellent 3 hour long interview with Dave Cutler on that channel. this video
judging from how i've read other people describe him, Dave Cutler's personality seems antithecal to memoirs or biographies, from what I've read he seems to be very much like John Carmack in his total lack of sentimentality. Thankfully some enterprising people have managed to get him to sit infront of a camera, but its pretty light on the nitty gritty technical aspects: - Computer history museum interview: [LINK] - David Plummer's interview: this video