People need to give Microsoft a little more credit. Does any other company face the burdens of their success like they do?

I have worked on a lot of software in the past 20+ years in the software business but I must say that nothing compares to working on Windows. My friends and associates outside windows often ask what I mean by that, and I have a hard time explaining. It isn't just that Windows is a huge software project with a jillion lines of code and dozens of languages. Windows has really gone beyond software - it is a kind of ecosystem with dozens of different interests, concerns, and agendas all interacting with one another.

Since that probably is a bit too abstract, I thought I would talk about one specific issue that we dealt with after the Beta went out the door. Hopefully you will find this an interesting glimpse into how a day in Windows is not like anything else out there.

Interesting read: The UI design minefield - er... flower field??