One of the things you seldom hear Microsoft officials talk about is how many lines of programming code go into Windows. It’s a reasonable assumption that Microsoft’s operating system has grown in size in its 20-year history, with layer upon layer of new features added while major chunks of legacy code remain intact. By some estimates, Windows is comprised today of some 50 million lines of code. And it looks like Longhorn is shaping up to be the biggest Windows version ever.
I’ve asked Microsoft folks about the projected size of Longhorn repeatedly over the past year or so because, in my mind, it indicates growing complexity and, for a company still trying to get Windows’ security vulnerabilities under control, a potential point of concern. If hackers are able to find holes in 50 million lines of Windows code, doesn’t it stand to reason that they’ll have a bigger target with, say, 75 million?
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