Microsoft shipped a broken DCOM CD-ROM and no-one noticed

https://ceklog.kindel.com/2020/02/04/work-backwards-from-the-customer/

by cek • 6 years ago

23 5 6 years ago

ceklog.kindel.com

IanDrake• 6 years ago

Fun story. DCOM was so cool back in the day.

glennpratt• 6 years ago

Not to take away from the story, but the thought that only one person noticed is likely wrong. Only one person understood the problem AND made it through the gauntlet of reporting the issue.

Just something that always seems glaring when people discuss things like support volume.

gmiller123456• 6 years ago

Yea, a lot of people are used to large vendors over promising on tech that doesn't work. As soon as they find issues with it, they don't fiddle with it to make it work, they move on to something else that seems more stable.

In 1996 I was weary of anything Microsoft made, let alone something that wouldn't even compile. The fact that they distributed a CD with missing files which made it 100% defective re-affirms why people were weary of their products. They didn't even bother doing ANY testing of how it was distributed.

JohnFen• 6 years ago

This sounds likely. If I were a dev receiving this, as soon as I found out that I couldn't build anything or there were files missing, I'd have just roundfiled the disk and never give it a second thought, unless the tool were mission-critical for something.

HeyLaughingBoy• 6 years ago

On the one hand I feel bad that my first thought upon loading that page was "oooh, an FJ-40 Landcruiser." On the other, it just brought back memories of pulling out my hair getting custom marshalling to work over an authenticated DCOM connection.

Definitely not fun times remembered :-(

Microsoft shipped a broken DCOM CD-ROM and no-one noticed

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