How does one move faster with less staff to help carry the burden? In that respect, shouldn't a small independent developer make Windows 8 in weeks where ten thousand of Microsoft's staff took years?
That assessment is a trifle hyperbolic, and a bit off target as well.
Employees of a software publisher may have to get used to layoffs, and hope they're among the elite in their field to maintain a steady income."The quick and the dead", so to speak.
A company like M$, isn't really that different from a game publisher. In either case, you need a great many people to put together a new OS, or game, or whatever, but not so many to maintain it.
So, M$ assumes the risk and the debt of developing a new OS. After its release, they hope the acceptance of it will bring them back to solvency quickly, and a great deal more money made in the way of profit. Initial acceptance will be high, and start to taper off, partially due to computer replacement, and new hardware options becoming available. OS software doesn't put the gleam in the eye of the consumer directly, it needs to tag along in the latest, greatest, shiny new trinket. ("Trinket", is old school terminology for, "device").
However, in the interim, sometimes all that need be done, is to write patches, which requires a lot less workers.
I'm sure some of those released by M$, rightly or wrongly, had thought they found a home, and were working with mediocre abilities.
So, methinks that workers in this field, need be mindful of making themselves indispensable, while getting used to the idea that jobs in their field, have taken on some of the properties of construction work, defense contracting, or even seasonal job opportunities.
Face it, when an entity like M$ screws up like they did with Windows 8, heads are going to roll. Sadly, it won't be the one that caused the screw up.
