A former president of Microsoft’s Windows Division reminisced about the company’s past focus on speed and efficiency in the 1980s. Every Microsoft engineer was given a stopwatch to manage resource usage, from boot time to compilation speeds. This focus led to significant improvements in software performance during that era. However, it seems this approach has been abandoned, leaving users frustrated with the OS’s poor core performance.
Microsoft has recently pledged to improve Windows performance, but it remains to be seen if this effort will lead to a return of the “stopwatch era.” The company has promised to implement improvements in resource usage and reliability, as well as more thoughtful integration of AI-powered tools like Copilot. But will this newfound efficiency lead to better performance for users? Only time will tell.
Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/every-microsoft-engineer-got-a-stopwatch-says-windows-veteran-reminiscing-about-companys-past-focus-on-speed-asserts-that-everything-was-timed-to-ensure-acceptable-performance-in-the-1980s