Ask HN: Has anyone here worked on the Windows kernel?
I think I can count the number of kernel changes I've submitted on one hand, but I work on core virtualization that involves a lot of pretending to be hardware and (these days) a lot of poking directly at hardware registers.I would say James Mickens sums things up nicely in "The Night Watch[0]." For example, you mention debugging with logs and metrics -- this snippet came to mind:     “Yeah, that sounds bad. Have you checked the log files for
     errors?” I said, “Indeed, I would do that if I hadn’t broken every
     component that a logging system needs to log data. I have a
     network file system, and I have broken the network, and I have
     broken the file system, and my machines crash when I make
     eye contact with them. I HAVE NO TOOLS BECAUSE I’VE
     DESTROYED MY TOOLS WITH MY TOOLS. My only logging
     option is to hire monks to transcribe the subjective experience
     of watching my machines die as I weep tears of blood.”

Mind you, I absolutely _love_ working on low-level stuff, and I wouldn't trade the time I get to spend actually doing that for anything. That said, the complexity of modern operating systems, CPU architectures, interconnects, and peripherals creates opportunities for frustration and confusion that honor no bounds of reasonability or decency.[0]: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1311_05-08_mickens.pdf