How to tell the poseurs from the actual Windows developers

Raymond Chen

Poseurs will call Windows versions by their programmatic version numbers. For example, they will call Windows Vista “NT6” and Windows 7 “NT6.1”. Trust me, nobody on the Windows team calls the products by their programmatic version numbers. Whenever anybody says “NT6” I have to go to Wikipedia and look up what they’re actually talking about. If I even care to bother, and usually I don’t.

Actually, since I work in the client division, I also have to go look up what Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 corespond to. People will ask question about client-related issues on server, and we have to go back and match it up.

It’s like TV insider poseurs who refer to episodes as “Season 3 Episode 9” instead of by their title or just a plot description. If you say to somebody who works on a TV show, “In season 3 episode 9, Anna clearly states that she is an only child, yet in season 5 episode 12, she talks about her older sister,” they will have no clue what episode you’re talking about.

They will also tell you to get a life.

Bonus chatter: The phrase “clearly states” is a pretty good tip-off that you’re dealing with somebody who needs to get out of their parents’ basement more.

0 comments

Discussion is closed.

Feedback usabilla icon