Microsoft uses Solaris servers for Hotmail shock

The Palatinate of Redmondia wants a software development engineer to help it move away from Solaris to Windows 32 servers, based in Mountain View.

This is like the heart-thumping shock we had when we visited Compaq's spanking new call centre in the heart of Glasgow and discovered the whole thing was being run using a Sun box, a few years back.

Or when an ex-Sybase executive here in the UK told us that it ran its accounting system using Microsoft Money some time back.

Or when Bill Gates used to pad around promoting SCO's Xenix, and Microsoft even had a seat on the board of the hoary old thing as well as shares, natch.

Here's a nice Weblog, which keeps track of the jobs at Vole Central.

You may also find this page interesting -- a white paper which discusses converting Unix servers to Windows. It's old, but it's still interesting.

And here's the job description:

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER [Job Code: N05rc-en ]
The Hotmail development team needs a Software Design Engineer to work on the design and development of the next generation of backend servers. The new backend servers are WIN32 replacements for the current Solaris implementation. This is a great opportunity to be involved with the development of a one of the most scalable technologies at Microsoft. You will be a senior member of the development team, responsible for desigining and building a family of secure, reliable, scalable, and maintainable servers. A track record of successfully delivering server products is required. Excellent communications skills are required. Five years experience with C/C++ is required. Experience with OLEDB or ODBC and SQL Server database design is required. Experience with server threading and asynchronization techniques, NT Services, and C# experience is desired. A bachelor's degree in computer science or engineering is desired.

Job Location: Mountain View, California