Microsoft Rust and Copilot
“My goal is to eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030,” Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Galen Hunt writes in a post on LinkedIn. “Our strategy is to combine AI and Algorithms to rewrite Microsoft’s largest codebases. Our North Star is ‘1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code.’ To accomplish this previously unimaginable task, we’ve built a powerful code processing infrastructure. Our algorithmic infrastructure creates a scalable graph over source code at scale. Our AI processing infrastructure then enables us to apply AI agents, guided by algorithms, to make code modifications at scale. The core of this infrastructure is already operating at scale on problems such as code understanding.”
Microsoft told Windows Latest that the company does not plan to rewrite Windows 11 using AI in Rust, which is a programming language that is more secure than C and C++.
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I also screenshotted the LinkedIn post before it was edited out by the top-level Microsoft engineer[…]
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Honestly, most people would not have taken this seriously if it did not come from a top-level Microsoft engineer. When someone with that kind of title and long history at the company talks about eliminating C and C++ and using AI to rewrite large codebases, it sounds less like a random idea and more like something Microsoft is at least exploring.
It bothers me that the clarification was not “sorry I misled you”, but “you folks are dumb by parsing my words the way I wrote them”
Meanwhile, here’s the actual www.office.com site matter-of-factly rebranding Office as Copilot (via Hacker News):
The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) lets you create, share, and collaborate all in one place with your favorite apps now including Copilot.
Previously:
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The office.com page is poorest marketing I’ve ever seen. What a shit company.
Is the level of outrage and vitriol warranted, necessary, and appropriate? Really this is a person we're talking about, who didn't actually kill anyone.
@Sean for people who have to use these Microsoft products daily to try (try being the key word these days) to get work done, it's like slow torture.
It seems all Microsoft wants to do anymore is pop things up in your face to distract you into trying their latest new whatever, when all you want to do is get your job done.
The office.com copilot rebranding is a perfect example. Literally hundreds of thousands of not millions of people just get hit with this marketing campaign when they're trying to log in to the main page of the main software they have to use to do the main thing they do.
So when people hear flippant remarks like this from clearly out of touch developers, which actually do seem to reflect company culture, people get upset that they are chasing marketing speak pie in the sky ideas like this and not, you know, focusing on the software people are forced to use.
So maybe outrage and vitriol aren't warranted, but Microsoft is certainly not making anyone's life easier on purpose.
It's so miserable using Microsoft's products these days, more so than normal even, but it's also really funny that for all the shrugging a lot of people do over OpenAI, Gemini and the rest of the slop crop, even people indifferent to or even slightly bullish on AI seem to hate Copilot. Microsoft truly has lost the plot in every single way, and it's mesmerizing to watch them keep soldiering on in the wrong direction.
Thank you all for the thoughtful responses. I don’t like Microsoft at all but I think highly of Galen Hunt, including his work with Rust. See also Dan Wallach and DARPA TRACTOR. Throw the vitriol at Microsoft but i don’t feel Galen deserves it.
Sean, as a DE, Galen should have known better than to make a sensational LinkedIn post that that could be easily misread as presenting company policy. Then, when it was clear that that had happened, he should have been more forthright in admitting his mistake and clarifying his attention.
Perhaps there's no such thing as bad publicity, but I wonder if it was actually a net benefit for either his recruiting effort. Presumably it wasn't great for his relationship with his peers at Microsoft.
Hopefully the lessons are learned.
Well, you see, Copilot the Copilot, but only if Copilot Copilot Copilot. It’s so nice now that I don’t have to be confused by a bunch of different product names!
Like most consumers, who aren’t expert Microsoft engineers, I find words to be confusing. So this is a great change. Maybe next, Microsoft can do more things to simplify my life, like automatically replacing my web browser.
I'm one of those people who relies on Excel for his daily work heavily, as of now there is simply no alternative - I do hope MS keeps it intact at least somewhat
Rebranding office as copilot is insane. They have such a powerful brand with office. Some of the strongest brand recognition in history
Copilot has almost no brand recognition and certainly not positive recognition since so many people feel it’s being shoved in their faces
It’s like rebranding office as clippy
I think the outrage and vitriol odd fully warranted when Microsoft makes people’s jobs harder or less pleasant
In a healthy system, Microsoft‘a goal would be to make people’s jobs easier and more pleasant, and money would be the reward for that
In our system, companies have decided to do the opposite of that in the pursuit of money
