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1. Creation of NT, the bedrock for all that followed.
   This book was an amazing read to me as I lived (and worked in IT) through the years described with Microsoft and Windows products. Though I never directly bought or used NT, I learned it was the big “Monster” that lead to all the major releases of Windows that followed to this day. To be able to relive its creation and meet the major players that made it happen was enchanting to me. I had to look up David Cutler and I was happy to see he is doing well. Great book, great story.

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2. Apple, IBM, Microsoft, the story of competiton.
   This book gets better with every reading. even the updated comment by the author was a pleasant surprise. Having grown with the industry, attending lots of computer meetings and computer shows in the early and late 80’s I find Showstopper brings back many very pleasant memories.
   For the newer computer enthusiasts the book should be very interesting and fun.
   Most of all there is a clear illustration of just how brilliant Gates and his people were then, a trend they clearly have maintained inspite of some very determined efforts against them.
   Great read.

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3. What everybody else said and “WOW” to go along with it
   I must say, I just finished this book and it was fantastic. From the consumer side, I have sat and wondered many times what happens during the production of an OS. I remember the drum beat running up to Win ’95 and I guess that will be the next one I hunt down. This book is a HISTORICAL DRAMA. If you didn’t know the outcome you would be held in suspense! At times, I had to remind myself that it DID SHIP!
   The David Cutler part of the story is enthralling. Since he is so reclusive, it is remarkable that he would even be interviewed. In the back of the book it list who was interviewed and it must have been his children and ex-wife(s) in the list. Eventually, a biography of Cutler (whether authorized or not) would be a fantastic gift to the community.
   Congrats to the author on a fantastic read. I fully recommend it. But, it left me with a question that may never be able to be answered: If a project such as this were to be taken on today with modern programming tools (IDE, Internet, ect, ect) how long would it have taken and how much better/worse would the end product have been? If you take Microsoft’s new approach to Visual Studio, the team approach, you might would think they built a product like that because of what they learned in projects such as NT. How many project hit brick walls, like Cairo, or as mentioned in the book “Microsoft’s first in house build from scratch database system.” This is just two projects that fell to the cutting room floor. How many more could there have been that would have “made it” to “ship mode” if modern tools and communications were introduced?

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4. A quick but shallow read, muddled by typos
   This book was originally written in 1994 and reissued in 2008 with a new “Afterward” that provides a bit of the story after NT shipped. That new afterward mostly chides Microsoft for coming late to Internet and mobile software without mentioning the fact that Windows NT went on to become the underpinning of all of Microsoft’s OS projects with Win2k.
   As for the rest of the book, there are shortcomings in both the prose and the production. In terms of the prose– it’s simply hard to sum up a 5 year project in a book of this size, particularly if your goal is to cover the project from the perspective of multiple participants. The book never dives very deep and its characters are mostly reduced to cardboard cutouts who replay their roles chapter after chapter. Having said that, this is one of the very few books about Microsoft that includes significant participation on the part of the actual people involved, so it’s worth a read on that front.
   In terms of the production– the 2008 reissue of this book is rife with blatant typos (one or more per page) and formatting problems. My guess is that the original manuscript was lost and the new book was generated by optical character recognition of a printed copy of the original book. For whatever reason, the new printing itself is problematic– rather than the smooth fonts normally seen on all modern printed pages, the dots making up each of the printed characters is visible, as if this new version were printed on a dot matrix printer from the book’s original era. The printing issues are surprisingly distracting.

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5. For computer nerds
   Great detail on how Windows NT was created. Lots of personal details. Probably more than most readers would want to know. As a computer user of 60 years, I found it interesting.

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6. Absorbing read
   As an enthusiast of Computer History, I really enjoyed this book. It provides some insight into the late 80s/early 90s Microsoft and sheds some light on well-known characters. Its narrative constantly jumps from person to person, thus making it difficult to follow at some point, but I found it quite worthwhile nevertheless.

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7. A Good Book on the History of NT Development
   This book is a 2008 update to the original 1994 release. Unfortunately even that is a bit dated now with references to Nokia being more influential than Microsoft in setting new digital standards especially in the wireless arena. That hat was passed to Apple and Nokia is now owned by Microsoft. In addition, the book mentions that David Cutler went on to work on the Cairo project but no mention is made in the update that the project was canceled in 1996.
   Overall it is an enjoyable read and reminds me a lot of “Soul of a New Machine” by Tracy Kidder. It is interesting to see the personalities at work on the NT project and the various clashes between the various teams. Much like what happened at Data General with the development of what become the MV/8000.

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8. An interesting, though not particularly well written, account
   As a historical account the book is interesting, but if you are looking for ground-breaking management insights you might be disappointed. Also, as other reviewers have pointed out, it’s a bit repetitive and would have benefited from tighter editing. Still, it’s a valuable piece of tech history and while I’m not much of a Windows user, after reading this book my respect for NT has increased enormously.

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9. La storia di Windows NT non ha certo lo stesso fascino di quella di Apple II, Macintosh, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, ma in difetto di una storia di Microsoft, di una storia del PC IBM o di una storia di MS-DOS / Windows, è meglio di niente. La storia è raccontata in modo avvincente come un romanzo, e scorre bene, almeno fino a due terzi, quando si impantana in una noiosa cronaca del debug. Non è la storia tecnica di NT, ma degli uomini che ci hanno lavorato; praticamente di ogni nome citato, l’autore si fa punto d’onore di descrivere il peso, l’altezza, il colore dei capelli e spesso la forma del naso, oltre al curriculum studi. Tecnicamente è invece troppo povero: ci sono più informazioni tecniche su Windows NT sulla pagina wikipedia che in tutto il libro. In più il libro termina bruscamente alla data della pubblicazione di Windows NT (non specifica neppure che il numero di versione era la 3.1), ignorando l’accoglienza sul mercato e l’importanza successiva del sistema come kernel dell’attuale Windows, unico sistema operativo non Unix-like. Insomma, meglio di niente, ma non abbastanza.

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10. An exciting story on the origin of NT
    The author tries not to lose into too technical details, so it is a nice read for a generic reader, too… I doubt a generic reader can find it interesting, though

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11. An interesting read, not divulging in technical details, but concentrating on the people and work relationship between the team members who pulled off the mammoth project. If you are into software development, you will very likely connect to the time and situation they went through. Also the book tells about the initial company culture at Microsoft and how it evolved from being a startup-ish company to an enterprise. Having experienced the company culture first hand, I could relate to a lot of things over there and it was a fun experience.

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12. Es wird die Geschichte Microsofts in einer Zeit unberechenbaren digitalen Wandels erzählt: die Geburtsstunden des Windows NT Kernels – einer Software, die heute Smartphones, Tablets, Spielekonsolen und PCs zugleich steuert. Im Zentrum steht ein Mann, David Neil Cutler, und sein unbezwingbarer Wille, nach seiner bitteren Enttäuschung bei Digital ein Meisterwerk bei Microsoft zu leisten. Mit großem Detail gibt der Autor Einblick in das Geschäftsleben Microsofts und lässt vor allem die Entwickler zu Wort kommen.
    Besonders als Windows Entwickler hat mir dieses Buch angetan. Die harte, aber notwendige, Linie David Cutlers ist ein Beispiel für einen Führungsstil der zwar Menschen erschüttert doch gleichzeitig fasziniert. Echte Softwareentwicklung ist keine leichte Arbeit und Showstopper! ist ein exzellentes Beispiel dafür!
    Selbst 13 Jahre nach seiner Veröffentlichung ist der Windows NT Kernel Treiber von Sillizium in der Welt des Business. Allerdings hat sich dieser Kernel erst heute unter Führung Satya Nadellas und dem “One Windows” Schlagwort so richtig ausgezahlt. Für Interressierte an digitaler Euphorie absolute Kaufempfehlung!

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13. Easily the best book on the history of a software product or any kind of product for that matter.
    A must-read you are interested in agile software development: you’ll find real examples of what did or didn’t work on the NT project.
    Also if you are interested in the history of computing.

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