I don’t think there is any kernel code writing experience requirement but the hiring bar is sky-high, you have to demonstrate that you are a programmer.

https://youtu.be/ddHDclRfzxM

Base education, he’s an EE.

Factor that there are limits to what I was willing to share in that story, limits that I’ll certainly not cross here.

Now, if you think that I’m wrong and that Microsoft found an entirely different way of shooting itself in the foot, I’d love to hear your perspective.

At the end, everyone feels better, in particular the customers.

Then imagine your systems are key support systems with deep implications in government and the military, and the path you outline is not acceptable.

Onboarding new customers on a sinking ship is dishonest at best, criminal at worst.

So yes, I maintain that it helps more than it harms.

The thing is in corporate environments people avoid admitting anything is wrong because that would make them look bad and also disavows the bosses who promoted them, so the true best interest of the company takes a back seat.

I think the CTO was very public about that at RustCon and other places where he spoke.

The examples he gave were contrived, though, mostly tiny bits of old GDI code rewritten in Rust as success stories to justify his mandate. Not convincing at all.

Azure node software can be written in Rust, C, or C++ it really does not matter.

What matters is who writes it as it should be seen as “OS-level” code requiring the same focus as actual OS code given the criticality, therefore should probably be made by the Core OS folks themselves.