If it takes 1000 Microsoft engineers to code Windows 7, how many are required to change a lightbulb?

[Jeffrey]

All smartass-ery aside, we're pleased to see Microsoft's attempt to more fully engage the development community as it marches towards a 2010 release of Windows 7. The 1,000-strong engineering team is comprised of 25 different feature teams each made up of about 40 persons on average. The whole dry but peculiarly intriguing setup is fully detailed on Microsoft's new E7, corporate transparency blog sitting just beyond the read link.

By the way, how many Apple employees does it take to change a lightbulb? 13, 1 to do the screwing and a dozen lawyer-types to prepare for the recall.

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[jesse]

You've got a new operating system to build, but it appears that shouldn't stop you writing 1900 words telling people how you are going to do it.

In what has to be the first major time Microsoft has sought to really include and nurture a relationship with the development community, the Windows 7 blog has posted its second mammoth post in a week.

Why should you be interested? It's a question of scale. In the post, entitled "The Windows Team" author Steven Sinofsky outlines just how much work and resources goes into building an Operating System.

The answer? The Windows 7 engineering team is made up of about 25 different feature teams with an average of 40 developers per team plus the odd extra here and there.

A quick grab of the calculator gives you a tally of over a 1000 developers. That's a estimated yearly salary budget of £50 million if you say the average developer wage is around £50,000.

Sinofsky outlines some of the main feature teams for Windows 7 include:

* Applets and Gadgets
* Assistance and Support Technologies
* Core User Experience
* Customer Engineering and Telemetry
* Deployment and Component Platform
* Desktop Graphics
* Devices and Media
* Devices and Storage
* Documents and Printing
* Engineering System and Tools
* File System
* Find and Organize
* Fundamentals
* Internet Explorer (including IE 8 down-level)
* International
* Kernel & VM
* Media Center
* Networking - Core
* Networking - Enterprise
* Networking - Wireless
* Security
* User Interface Platform
* Windows App Platform

Whether the OS is deemed good or bad, there is no mistaking that this is one big project.

VIA .pocket-lint