Under The Hood - Matt Pietrek

More on SoftIce, from one of its parents

Frank Grossman, one of the original authors of SoftIce and owners of NuMega sent this around to some of us old-time NuMega folks. I figured some of my readers might get a kick out of it. It's filled with inside references which I won't try to describe, although some might be guessable.

Subject: RE: R.I.P. SoftICE

And only about 6 months from his 20th birthday. 

But we should remember the good times. 

He was born with a fairly short and energetic labor.  Born back in the simple days of a 386s chip with 512K memory.  He was a very skinny baby, fitting on a 360K floppy, and a little shy always hiding away in the upper part of memory where no one could find him.  Although shy he started to getting around quickly.  Moving from DOS to Win 3.0 then a big date in ‘Chicago’.  His popularity grew to the point that even songs where written about him, ‘The Soft-ICE blues’.  And finally showing up in a ‘New Technology’ where no one thought he could live.  He was fickle at times, dating a lot of different symbol engines along the way and picking up friends wearing strange ‘Underware’.  He became a little confused as he left the nest; trying to be hip, doing the 64bit thing and was even seen cross dressing in a GUI.

But as his parents;

SI = ‘JM’

DI = ‘FG’

We will always be proud of him and what he accomplished for the world, in a time when the OS changed every 2 years and drivers were a combination of science and art. 

We would like to thank all those who helped him along during his life!

In his memory we ask that you always keep CTRL-D unassigned on your keyboard.

            Frank & Jim

Published Tuesday, April 11, 2006 3:48 PM by Matt Pietrek

Comments

 

rich said:

I certainly remember that tool very well. Why have they pulled the plug on it now?
April 11, 2006 4:35 PM
 

Norman Diamond said:

> in a time when the OS changed every 2 years and drivers were a combination of science and art.

Is he talking about year 2006 or year 3006?
April 11, 2006 11:55 PM
 

Russell Osterlund said:

A brilliant eulogy!
April 12, 2006 8:06 AM
 

James Risto said:

... and is the functionality in any other product? MS debuggers?
April 12, 2006 8:25 AM
 

James Austin said:

SoftICE was beyond Compuware's comprehension, surprised it took them this long to retire it. I will miss it.
April 12, 2006 9:07 AM
 

Jay Hilyard said:

They fear what they don't understand (corporate that is...).  

A fond farewell is bid.
April 12, 2006 4:26 PM
 

Rick H. said:

I saw the anouncement on April 1, so I thought... I mean, I couldn't find the news anywhere else.  NOW how do I slip on ring 0?
April 13, 2006 6:41 AM
 

Eugenio C. O. said:

It's really sad that such a tool won't be updated anymore...
Makes me wanna stick with XP forever...
Well, all the good things must come to an end =(
April 14, 2006 7:05 PM
 

PMY Archon said:

SoftICE is a great program...
Hope to see its rebirth in nearest future!
April 18, 2006 7:06 AM
 

LayOfTheSunflower said:

Does anyone know any real coder wich doesn't know programming in assembler?

It's a pitty that Sice will dissapear, but good old programmer and reversers will still find they're ways into ring0 and real knowledge. Reast In Peace Sice and thanks for the great reversing moments spent with you and thanks to all good programmer and reversers which contributed and will continue contributing to an interesting future in programming and reversing.

Who can enjoy programming until 22:00 a damn java or .NET aplication when you have programmed in assembler and reversed with Sice? :)
April 20, 2006 3:51 AM
 

Itai Shaham said:

A sad day for Windows kernel developers.
April 20, 2006 8:43 AM
 

Me said:

That is a SAD day for me. I have been using Soft-Ice since 1991. What a shame. A very sad day indeed.

R.I.P SoftIce.
April 20, 2006 4:27 PM
 

mballano said:

we will miss you :*(
April 20, 2006 9:27 PM
 

Danny Golani said:

Very sad day indeed Itai. What would happen to you and others without being able to access Ctrl-D ?

A tool that has state of the art technology and right on the edge of it. It is a shame to see it goes and such a value is being wasted.

SI will definitely be missed !!
April 24, 2006 3:58 AM
 

Ed Addario said:

Just because big Corp. doesn't want him to live in his house it doesn't mean he should die in the cold.

He can go to the promise land. A place where others like him thrive and live in harmony doing good for the sake of good itself and not because of the profit. A place where software is free and open and where the source gets enriched every day.

I sure will love the opportunity to help him keep growing.

Any chance of that happening?
April 25, 2006 5:16 AM
 

fravia+ said:

our thanks and obligatory RIP salutations go of course to Frank Grossman & Jim Moskun (and Dom & gerald and the others)... but Softice won't die so easily as some here seem to fear, if -as I suppose- those that created it are still masters of themselves :-)

There'are indeed places -for code- beyond the eyes of sight and the ears of sound.

And we may and can and probably will all be there by tomorrow's breeze, hehe.
April 26, 2006 8:59 AM
 

adam said:

is there a way to get it open source ?
May 1, 2006 4:21 PM
 

??????????????? » Yesterday Readings said:

May 10, 2006 10:39 PM
 

Dating said:

Frank Grossman, one of the original authors of SoftIce and owners of NuMega sent this around to some of us old-time NuMega folks. I figured some of my readers might get a kick out of it. It's filled with inside references which I won't try to describe

May 27, 2008 5:01 PM
 

Under The Hood Matt Pietrek More on SoftIce from one of its parents | alternative dating said:

June 17, 2009 3:25 AM
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