Bill Gates

that businesses may want to basically rent capacity from big data centers to just deploy their applications and not worry about the capex of buying the servers and racking them all and maintaining the data center and handling the privacy and blah-de-blah-de-blah.

that businesses may want to basically rent capacity from big data centers to just deploy their applications and not worry about the capex of buying the servers and racking them all and maintaining the data center and handling the privacy and blah-de-blah-de-blah.

All right, so this is Ray in 2005.

All right, so this is Ray in 2005.

Microsoft has a group that produces a product called Windows Server, and that is an operating system that runs on other people's servers. And that group is not the group that produced Azure, the cloud service that runs, at the time, Windows Server.

Microsoft has a group that produces a product called Windows Server, and that is an operating system that runs on other people's servers. And that group is not the group that produced Azure, the cloud service that runs, at the time, Windows Server.

Not to mention these end enterprises in some ways are actually the OEMs customers. Yeah, these Dell servers are running Windows Server, but Dell sold a bunch of servers, probably through Accenture, to the end customer. There's that whole issue of upsetting the apple cart. There's also the internal rewards issue and KPI issue.

Not to mention these end enterprises in some ways are actually the OEMs customers. Yeah, these Dell servers are running Windows Server, but Dell sold a bunch of servers, probably through Accenture, to the end customer. There's that whole issue of upsetting the apple cart. There's also the internal rewards issue and KPI issue.

windows and enterprise land ultimately their kpi is how many copies of windows can we sell to end customers and generate the licensing revenue on windows and this new thing if we actually pursue a cloud strategy is how can we spend a whole ton of money building out a data center buying other people's servers generating zero licensing dollars and hoping people use the servers so we can charge them later

windows and enterprise land ultimately their kpi is how many copies of windows can we sell to end customers and generate the licensing revenue on windows and this new thing if we actually pursue a cloud strategy is how can we spend a whole ton of money building out a data center buying other people's servers generating zero licensing dollars and hoping people use the servers so we can charge them later

Yeah, we're going to build out a gigantic server farm and rent usage to people. That doesn't fit into anyone's current KPI or compensation.

Yeah, we're going to build out a gigantic server farm and rent usage to people. That doesn't fit into anyone's current KPI or compensation.

No one builds hardcore enterprise-ready, close-to-the-metal code than Dave. Dave was the architect on Windows NT.

No one builds hardcore enterprise-ready, close-to-the-metal code than Dave. Dave was the architect on Windows NT.

Well, it's funny. I disagree that it's a bet the company move because of two reasons. One, it's only money that they're spending. Cash is never a resource constraint. The bigger concern is Ray Ozzie and Dave Cutler are working on this. That is why it would be bet the company. Two, in its initial incarnation, Azure did not threaten the Windows-centric approach.

Well, it's funny. I disagree that it's a bet the company move because of two reasons. One, it's only money that they're spending. Cash is never a resource constraint. The bigger concern is Ray Ozzie and Dave Cutler are working on this. That is why it would be bet the company. Two, in its initial incarnation, Azure did not threaten the Windows-centric approach.

And for good reason. I mean, at the end of the day, basically, Microsoft charged for things that open source was giving away for free, from operating systems to programming languages to development environments to servers. I mean, everything about it. It was like, oh, my God, is there a future where everyone just expects all of our value to be free?

And for good reason. I mean, at the end of the day, basically, Microsoft charged for things that open source was giving away for free, from operating systems to programming languages to development environments to servers. I mean, everything about it. It was like, oh, my God, is there a future where everyone just expects all of our value to be free?

And they managed to combat that and build a great business despite that. But they never embraced open source. They never at all embraced wanted to be a part of anything that open source developers were doing until... A couple of years into Azure. Not until 2014, 15.

And they managed to combat that and build a great business despite that. But they never embraced open source. They never at all embraced wanted to be a part of anything that open source developers were doing until... A couple of years into Azure. Not until 2014, 15.