Bill Gates

You know, there's some reason to think that bandwidth is going to be available to homes in the same way it's available to like universities and companies. But still, it just wasn't obvious enough to continue down that path. It was almost like, great, I've made a name for myself doing this toy thing that probably isn't the future.

You know, there's some reason to think that bandwidth is going to be available to homes in the same way it's available to like universities and companies. But still, it just wasn't obvious enough to continue down that path. It was almost like, great, I've made a name for myself doing this toy thing that probably isn't the future.

And so now we'll go do the big boy stuff because that's what all the experts are saying.

And so now we'll go do the big boy stuff because that's what all the experts are saying.

Great. And listeners, you should be paying attention to something David just said there. He said it's the Mosaic Corporation, and then you said it's Mosaic Navigator. Even though it's called Mosaic, because Marc Andreessen wanted to draft off the success of the previous project he had done called Mosaic, this is completely new code. They founded a company. They started writing code from scratch.

Great. And listeners, you should be paying attention to something David just said there. He said it's the Mosaic Corporation, and then you said it's Mosaic Navigator. Even though it's called Mosaic, because Marc Andreessen wanted to draft off the success of the previous project he had done called Mosaic, this is completely new code. They founded a company. They started writing code from scratch.

They had the experience of writing Mosaic, the thing owned by the university and the NCSA before. This is a new thing called Mosaic that does the same thing, architected for commercial use.

They had the experience of writing Mosaic, the thing owned by the university and the NCSA before. This is a new thing called Mosaic that does the same thing, architected for commercial use.

It's a pile of code, millions of users. Mark doesn't work there anymore, but it seems to be working.

It's a pile of code, millions of users. Mark doesn't work there anymore, but it seems to be working.

So the state of play is you've got the old Mosaic, which Spyglass has the right to license for commercial use. You have a new thing that will become Netscape called Mosaic that is totally separate code. And Mosaic, Marc Andreessen's new Mosaic, keeps trying to go do deals, like sell their server software. And every time they'd find a customer, Spyglass, they'd threaten to sue.

So the state of play is you've got the old Mosaic, which Spyglass has the right to license for commercial use. You have a new thing that will become Netscape called Mosaic that is totally separate code. And Mosaic, Marc Andreessen's new Mosaic, keeps trying to go do deals, like sell their server software. And every time they'd find a customer, Spyglass, they'd threaten to sue.

And they basically blow up the deal because they keep calling each customer and saying, yeah, we're going to sue. Yep. Yep. And so this is obviously very frustrating and technically illegal. Mark Andreessen's Mosaic realizes that this is going to be a existential problem for them unless they do something about it. They actually sue Spyglass. You guys got to stop. So there is a settlement.

And they basically blow up the deal because they keep calling each customer and saying, yeah, we're going to sue. Yep. Yep. And so this is obviously very frustrating and technically illegal. Mark Andreessen's Mosaic realizes that this is going to be a existential problem for them unless they do something about it. They actually sue Spyglass. You guys got to stop. So there is a settlement.

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.