Bored with computers
Hi, my name is Peter Spiro. I’m the General Manager in SQL Server responsible for the WinFS team and I’ve been bored with computers and software in general.
Now before I continue with that thread, some background info seems appropriate.
I was at DEC for 9 years working on database systems (Rdb and DBMS) before I joined Microsoft in 1994. I was hired into Microsoft to be a “change agent” in the database space. Microsoft had hired Dave Cutler and a bunch of folks from DEC West to make a big advance in the operating systems space. Afterwards they realized to truly be an enterprise player they also needed a bunch of systems technologies that layered on top of the operating system such as database systems, a tp monitor, language integration, data repository, etc. So in 1994 David Vaskevitch (CTO at Microsoft), enabled a series of senior level hires from other systems companies: IBM, DEC, HP, Tandem, etc. I was part of that wave of senior level systems guys. The interesting thing was at the time Microsoft didn’t really know how to interview/hire/deploy these types of senior engineers (but perhaps that’s a topic for another post). Anyway a bunch of us showed up, adjusted to being at a pure software and PC-focused company, and then got to work on building teams and products. In my case, this culminated in Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and its subsequent releases. In the Spring of 2002, we started incubating the WinFS project within the database organization.
Ok, back to being bored with PCs and computers in general.
So there’s no question we’ve made amazing progress in the last 30-40 years. I started out with Fortran and punch cards in the 1970s. But the experience was so painful I stayed as far away from computers as possible. In the early 1980s I took another look as microcomputers started becoming more mainstream. I also got hooked into minicomputers from DEC. In my view, the 1980s and 1990s were wonderful periods for software advances; fantastic innovation and invention. Operating systems and databases systems stabilized and moved towards commoditization. A whole slew of user and business products such as spreadsheets, word processing software, mail systems, and discussion forums became ubiquitous. The Web happened and we had another boom with online commerce/information for businesses and individuals.
Just think about all the innovation from: IBM/Lotus, Ebay, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Amazon, Google, Adobe……
So what’s the problem?
Well what’s really new and different? We’ve had all these types of products in some shape or form for 5, 10, even 20 years in some instances. Where are the new types of applications we haven’t seen before? The Web did create a bunch of new types of products over the past 10 years but this seems to be stabilizing also. Amazon is over 10 years old now!
Which brings me back to WinFS and an illustrative anecdote:
A few years back Ray Ozzie came to Microsoft to speak at an internal workshop we have called WHiPS (Workshop on High Performance Systems). Ray talked about Groove. It was a pretty cool app trying to be a platform (tough to do for a small company). As we were talking after his presentation he described how he had to first build a platform on top of the operating system, which then enabled him to build the app that he had envisioned. He said he needed storage beyond just a file system; he needed synchronization capabilities to share information between different machines/users, he needed advanced security mechanisms, he needed a way to model his particular schemas in the storage system, he needed to search on the information. So he built a richer storage system that incorporated these types of concepts and then he built the Groove app on top of his platform. His comment to me was that Microsoft should build such a platform and stop selling the same old operating system and storage capabilities that we as an industry have been polishing for 20-30 years. He felt this richer platform would create a new ecosystem that allowed a variety of new apps to be developed.
He was right; and I told him we had already started on it, and that it was called WinFS.
Author: Peter Spiro
Comments
Anonymous
August 29, 2005
Peter, good comments. As another "bored" Microsoft employee I agree that the platform need more ideas that will provide better innovation and new solutions.Anonymous
August 29, 2005
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 29, 2005
Well I am from the other side... :) open source afficionado and I am too bored with the computing landscape in general. I guess it comes a period that one must feel that way. Who knows. I am doing a lot of Java and I am a bit frustrated because it cannot reach deep into the os. It's like a toy to me to this day. I only program with it because I have a job. I would try .Net and C# but I'm too bored to learn it.Anonymous
August 29, 2005
Robert Scoble has uploaded the WinFS video to Channel 9. Haven't seen it myself yet, only just heard!...Anonymous
August 29, 2005
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August 29, 2005
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August 30, 2005
I'm very excited about WinFS. Instead of writing my whole own database server, I can now use profiles as Windows Files, and use WinFS to stitch everything together. This opens a whole floodgate of opportunities.Anonymous
August 30, 2005
Thanks, very good, and WinFS is really amazing, excellent technology.Anonymous
August 30, 2005
I love Rdb/VMS. One of the Best RDBMS.Anonymous
August 31, 2005
I wonder about 2 thing which were not really addressed in the Channel9 video. I am not a MSDN subscriber so I can't answer them myself...
1. You mention about provinding a file storage for 3rd parties app. Does that means that with WinFS I would be able to store my app's data, in a single file with internal database-like access and structure (which I would be able to update with WinFS API)?
2. I have an app now with its own (proprietary) file format. Would I be able to expose content of my file to other application through some WinFS magic?
like, let's say, my app's file contains items with name and type properties (both strings).
Could I extends WinFS in such way that WinFS could look up in my files for an item with a given name and/or property?Anonymous
May 31, 2009
PingBack from http://portablegreenhousesite.info/story.php?id=4316Anonymous
June 16, 2009
PingBack from http://fixmycrediteasily.info/story.php?id=7383