Happy 30th Birthday to Windows Task Manager. Thanks to Dave Plummer for this little program. Please no one call the man.
Posted by MrFrode@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 47 comments
BlueGoliath@reddit
Did you know Dave Plummer made Task Manager?
ReallySuperName@reddit
Dave Plumber Facts:
He wrote Task Manager and Pinball, didn't you know?
He once claimed the Linux kernel ships with a special binary blob put there specifically by Linus himself and no one has the source to it: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/rb2xzk/dave_plummer_aka_daves_garage_former_microsoft/
Was once sued for tricking users into installing fake software/malware with scary fake warnings: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/rb2xzk/dave_plummer_aka_daves_garage_former_microsoft/hnmggno/ (there is also a YouTube video on the topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GeF9AjlqP8)
Has tried to falsely copyright strike the above video multiple times and in this process someone found another scam company he setup following the previous one being sued (https://x.com/miklos_akos/status/1817329524054335641) that has the same scam software
Has made numerous bogus claims about involvement in the FAT and NTFS file systems and the Format Disk dialog: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39812561
Each of those links leads to a dozen more if someone wants to rabbit hole.
gcampos@reddit
He sounds like a boomer version of PirateSoftware
Blood-PawWerewolf@reddit
He is! He claimed once that he wrote a lot of code in WIndows NT 4.0 that “we use everyday”, which i knew was BS since that code was most likely changed when they went from NT4 to NT6!
loiveli@reddit
I think you forgot to mention he wrote Task Manager.
chucker23n@reddit
Heh, this one was new to me.
That post mentions the Zip integration in Explorer, and I'm curious what actually happened there:
Perhaps there are versions of Windows whose Zip integration uses VisualZip instead of Info-Zip? (And perhaps VisualZip itself actually just wraps Info-Zip, of course.)
reallokiscarlet@reddit
Good reminder for why I have a meme of him saying he's been trying to reach you about your car's warranty. Completely forgot why I made that. Thanks for the reminder.
ReallySuperName@reddit
Can you share it?
reallokiscarlet@reddit
https://mastodon.sdf.org/system/media_attachments/files/112/846/320/095/835/339/original/f2d513888e7d801e.png
Since I just realized I can't attach images here... I went and dug the image up, on the only place I made it public. And surely enough, it came with a rant about him being a scammer.
tigole@reddit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Tilt!_Pinball
dream_metrics@reddit
You’re doing the lords work. Fuck this grifter
MrFrode@reddit (OP)
Actually I didn't know any of this. This has gone from Plummer to bummer.
CareerHour4671@reddit
What? Why the fuck doesnt he mention it? It's a massive deal. A task manager. Holy shit.
hobbykitjr@reddit
Buuuut what about David Bradley???
theschizopost@reddit
Wow he should really advertise that, it makes his content sound appealing
reallokiscarlet@reddit
Used to love that channel. But now all he talks about is how he wrote Task Manager.
Like, that's nice dude, but you literally wrote the worst task killer on the planet.
Blood-PawWerewolf@reddit
He’s gone the PirateSoftware route in the last year
Specific-Goose4285@reddit
I've enjoyed the Dave Cutler interview. I also love his PDP and Vax NetBSD videos.
DVXC@reddit
He's also an absolute piece of shit person as well, as evidenced by his social media replies.
Full of hatred and holier-than-thou-ism, it's genuinely sad.
vincentofearth@reddit
What do you mean?
ClassicPart@reddit
Unlike you. You seem like a delightful individual and not at all full of hate and holier-than-thou-ism.
reallokiscarlet@reddit
Iunno, not much to go on. They do hide their comment activity but not everyone who does that is a problem.
reallokiscarlet@reddit
Bro's got more than the tism. He got dementia or narcissism.
CareerHour4671@reddit
Did this guy create the Task Manager? Wow
netherlandsftw@reddit
He also scammed people by saying their computer was infected and asking money to fix it but he doesn't like to talk about that
CareerHour4671@reddit
Yeah but Task Master though right? That's like the moon landings?
andynzor@reddit
Listening to his stories, I can only wonder how much one person did so much when the company had 20k to 30k employees in late nineties.
BlueGoliath@reddit
There seems to be a trend at companies where a small amount of super star developers do a lot of heavy lifting and the rest just kinda do nothing.
KontoOficjalneMR@reddit
No, rest made sure small thing ego-maniacs didn't want to work on-worked.
vincentofearth@reddit
Or more likely this guy just talks a lot about what he did and happens to have a large audience.
caleeky@reddit
That's true in a way, but it's not the same lifer employee just totally delivering the entire time.
There can be some of those but usually it's that some people get the right opportunity to really put their head into a project but often those are fleeting opportunities. Lots of circumstances change to make it hard to repeat both on the side of the person and the business.
danielv123@reddit
Not to mention that out of those 30k people only a few handle designing the system UI stuff.
jaynoj@reddit
From my working life, I would agree with the sentiment that 90% of the work is done by 10% of the people.
SeeTigerLearn@reddit
Over a decade ago I had this bizarre dream where Task Manager had become this virtual 3D interaction—themed like Qbert. Processed were dancing & bouncing to their time slice. I think there was a bowling alley when threads were stripped. And new threads would drop onto the quirky angled steps from the ceiling. If you needed to interact with a process you would get face-to-face. And somehow there were aisles that clustered same job categories together.
The details are fading with age and time. But I do remember when it happened there were weeks, maybe even months, when I would wish we actually did have a Qbert Task Manager.
bajosiqq@reddit
who is this guy
ReallySuperName@reddit
He is Task Manager himself. Also Mr Pinball.
bajosiqq@reddit
what did he do
todo_code@reddit
He was an MS employee who wrote parts of task manager and pinball. I found his video on why Windows sucks to be great, except a few parts, but having read more he seems pretty awful amd overstated his achievements
__konrad@reddit
After a recent Windows 11 update you have to use Task Manager to close Task Manager:
OffbeatDrizzle@reddit
You were supposed to destroy the tasks... not join them!
steviefrench@reddit
Dave is the best. I call him my tech dad.
Hot-Employ-3399@reddit
In his recent comment he lied(what an unexpected action from scammer!) he was fined for nagging rather than scamming despite what settlement says.
Let's just say I take words from him with a truck of salt.
ReallySuperName@reddit
Excellent link especially where he claims he never lied/didn't admit, but then the lawsuit does in fact say he admitted to it. I posted a bunch more if you're interested here https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1otvcos/happy_30th_birthday_to_windows_task_manager/no9cdv4/.
reddit_user13@reddit
But does it really manage tasks?
BlueGoliath@reddit
We may need a task manager of task managers to figure out.
deadlyrepost@reddit
So that's why it launched 30 copies whenever you tried to shut it down recently
TwerpOco@reddit
Dave's Garage is my favorite watch-while-you-snack YT channel. What a legend.