Bill Gates

Which, of course, is apocryphal because he had no means of going to Stanford at the time. He lived in the Midwest. He was going to go to a state school. No one recognized his genius at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which, of course, is apocryphal because he had no means of going to Stanford at the time. He lived in the Midwest. He was going to go to a state school. No one recognized his genius at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I think it was late 93 or early 94, but this was a seminal moment where the AOLs of the world interconnected with the internet. And now you could not just navigate the proprietary services, but also surf the open web.

So I think it was late 93 or early 94, but this was a seminal moment where the AOLs of the world interconnected with the internet. And now you could not just navigate the proprietary services, but also surf the open web.

Well, David, I'm glad you took the bait. I am here to tell you that that is the public narrative. And very close to the truth. But there's some more nuance here.

Well, David, I'm glad you took the bait. I am here to tell you that that is the public narrative. And very close to the truth. But there's some more nuance here.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yes, all of that technically true. It is just not quite as meaningful as you think it is. So as with all of these things, it's not just like Bill Gates and Steven Sanofsky are having a think and the rest of Microsoft is sitting around waiting for the think to finish and then an edict comes down and then they go and do the work.

Yes, all of that technically true. It is just not quite as meaningful as you think it is. So as with all of these things, it's not just like Bill Gates and Steven Sanofsky are having a think and the rest of Microsoft is sitting around waiting for the think to finish and then an edict comes down and then they go and do the work.

There are a lot of people with a lot of ideas working on a lot of stuff in parallel. And that is why Microsoft's history is so delightfully messy is there's a zillion initiatives going on and it's never clear if your thing is going to become the next company strategy or not. So here is a slightly different version of this history with different players.

There are a lot of people with a lot of ideas working on a lot of stuff in parallel. And that is why Microsoft's history is so delightfully messy is there's a zillion initiatives going on and it's never clear if your thing is going to become the next company strategy or not. So here is a slightly different version of this history with different players.

And I want to underscore it for one big reason. It will come up later in antitrust.

And I want to underscore it for one big reason. It will come up later in antitrust.

So, some of the Windows 95 team in late 94, led by Thomas Reardon, is pulled off before it ships to start thinking about what should we do after Windows 95 ships? What would the next marquee investments be for what at the time they're calling Windows 97? Which, of course, there was never a Windows 97. So the group's opinion is all internet all the time.

So, some of the Windows 95 team in late 94, led by Thomas Reardon, is pulled off before it ships to start thinking about what should we do after Windows 95 ships? What would the next marquee investments be for what at the time they're calling Windows 97? Which, of course, there was never a Windows 97. So the group's opinion is all internet all the time.

You know, how could the next iteration of Windows be extremely internet native in a very embedded way? And there's tons of proposals in this little group. There's virtual meeting software, think Zoom type things. There's an email client specifically built for the internet rather than for your company's corporate network, which at the time was novel. Then there's, of course, a browser.

You know, how could the next iteration of Windows be extremely internet native in a very embedded way? And there's tons of proposals in this little group. There's virtual meeting software, think Zoom type things. There's an email client specifically built for the internet rather than for your company's corporate network, which at the time was novel. Then there's, of course, a browser.

But the big vision was, what if the whole Windows shell is a browser. Every visual thing that you interact with in Windows, what if that actually was like an HTML rendered server communicating online thing? And the team technically kind of looked at it this way.

But the big vision was, what if the whole Windows shell is a browser. Every visual thing that you interact with in Windows, what if that actually was like an HTML rendered server communicating online thing? And the team technically kind of looked at it this way.