Bill Gates

For anyone who's skied up there, there's this great ski lodge restaurant right between the two mountains called the Longhorn Saloon.

For anyone who's skied up there, there's this great ski lodge restaurant right between the two mountains called the Longhorn Saloon.

Well, this was part of the belief behind Longhorn. They wanted to market all the cool stuff they were doing for it through these sort of like developer blogs and fan blogs, even though the product didn't have a ship date yet. And so everyone got really well versed in what was coming in Longhorn. And then everyone was kind of sitting on their hands like, where's Longhorn?

Well, this was part of the belief behind Longhorn. They wanted to market all the cool stuff they were doing for it through these sort of like developer blogs and fan blogs, even though the product didn't have a ship date yet. And so everyone got really well versed in what was coming in Longhorn. And then everyone was kind of sitting on their hands like, where's Longhorn?

They've been really telling us about Longhorn in a way that you would never see today. No one's dripping out the features of something that is potentially still years away from a release. And ultimately then years go by, five years go by.

They've been really telling us about Longhorn in a way that you would never see today. No one's dripping out the features of something that is potentially still years away from a release. And ultimately then years go by, five years go by.

I mean, the funny thing is they actually kind of did that this year with all the AI features. All of those are coming soon over the next year, dot, dot, dot. Which I'm not saying that's a bad strategy in the current environment, but it is a different strategy for Apple. Anyway, Longhorn is teased for five years. All the David Rosenthal's out there are kind of like, What the heck, Microsoft?

I mean, the funny thing is they actually kind of did that this year with all the AI features. All of those are coming soon over the next year, dot, dot, dot. Which I'm not saying that's a bad strategy in the current environment, but it is a different strategy for Apple. Anyway, Longhorn is teased for five years. All the David Rosenthal's out there are kind of like, What the heck, Microsoft?

I've been excited for all this crazy stuff you're showing me. What's going on? Well, what happened behind the scenes? David, what was the initial technical spark that was supposed to be the cornerstone of Longhorn?

I've been excited for all this crazy stuff you're showing me. What's going on? Well, what happened behind the scenes? David, what was the initial technical spark that was supposed to be the cornerstone of Longhorn?

Yeah, that's more or less it. All these code names ended up referring to multiple things because it was emblematic of the organizational disarray inside the Windows development team. But anyway, it sounds great, right? We can render all these really great graphics as a part of the operating system because it's GPU accelerated. Who doesn't want better graphics? Of course, right?

Yeah, that's more or less it. All these code names ended up referring to multiple things because it was emblematic of the organizational disarray inside the Windows development team. But anyway, it sounds great, right? We can render all these really great graphics as a part of the operating system because it's GPU accelerated. Who doesn't want better graphics? Of course, right?

The thing that ultimately happened is the OEMs were all trying to make netbooks. And so they're furious at Microsoft about saying the next new release of Windows, which is five years since Windows XP. They really, really are counting on a new version of Windows to drive PC sales. And the one that they're getting requires pretty good GPUs.

The thing that ultimately happened is the OEMs were all trying to make netbooks. And so they're furious at Microsoft about saying the next new release of Windows, which is five years since Windows XP. They really, really are counting on a new version of Windows to drive PC sales. And the one that they're getting requires pretty good GPUs.

Yeah. So it was like a kind of a total miss with what their OEM partners were looking for. But if you did buy a nice PC and you did eventually end up with a copy of Windows Vista, this is why you got to see the new, what did they call the... Oh, the Aero interface. Aero, that's right. The blue, shiny sort of thing that was like kind of ripping off Mac OS's Aqua. Yeah.

Yeah. So it was like a kind of a total miss with what their OEM partners were looking for. But if you did buy a nice PC and you did eventually end up with a copy of Windows Vista, this is why you got to see the new, what did they call the... Oh, the Aero interface. Aero, that's right. The blue, shiny sort of thing that was like kind of ripping off Mac OS's Aqua. Yeah.

I mean, call a spade a spade over here.

I mean, call a spade a spade over here.

Well, I'm just saying, like, if you run a company where you make all your own hardware and your own software, then it's much easier for you to hardware accelerate all the graphics in the operating system. But when you're counting on OEM partners, you need really good communication there.

Well, I'm just saying, like, if you run a company where you make all your own hardware and your own software, then it's much easier for you to hardware accelerate all the graphics in the operating system. But when you're counting on OEM partners, you need really good communication there.