Steve Ballmer

Everything from the hardware to the software to the operating system, the service, the support, they are the whole market. They're starting to get concerned. And so proactively, they unbundled hardware, software, and services, and they started selling those separately for the first time, which was not a problem at first.

But what it did was it cracked the door for customers to say, oh, I can buy hardware from IBM and software from someone else. And other people were not exploiting this, but it was possible.

But what it did was it cracked the door for customers to say, oh, I can buy hardware from IBM and software from someone else. And other people were not exploiting this, but it was possible.

Yes. But this is where the seeds are sown of what is the exploitable opportunity when Bill Gates is ready to do something.

Yes. But this is where the seeds are sown of what is the exploitable opportunity when Bill Gates is ready to do something.

And in 1968, Seattle, I mean, this is like a provincial little town. I'm standing here right now. It's a major city and a huge economy in the United States. But at the time, kind of a podunk, forgotten, sleepy, faraway place. Totally.

And in 1968, Seattle, I mean, this is like a provincial little town. I'm standing here right now. It's a major city and a huge economy in the United States. But at the time, kind of a podunk, forgotten, sleepy, faraway place. Totally.

And we should say this is the classic low-end disruption playbook. I mean, this is what Clayton Christensen was talking about. Going from mainframe to midi computers, I'm going to make something that's worse for most things, but better for some new things that new customers and new markets are going to care a lot about.

And we should say this is the classic low-end disruption playbook. I mean, this is what Clayton Christensen was talking about. Going from mainframe to midi computers, I'm going to make something that's worse for most things, but better for some new things that new customers and new markets are going to care a lot about.

And IBM's going to look at it and go, that can't do any of the things that are important to our customers. And that's exactly why it works.

And IBM's going to look at it and go, that can't do any of the things that are important to our customers. And that's exactly why it works.

There is a fantastic photo, listeners, that we will tweet of Bill and Paul sitting in the computer room at Lakeside. And Bill, I think he's like 13, 14. He looks like he's about eight. I think on the wall, there's this almost like printed out magazine thing that says The Bug Slayer that they've hung up over the wall. It's amazing.

There is a fantastic photo, listeners, that we will tweet of Bill and Paul sitting in the computer room at Lakeside. And Bill, I think he's like 13, 14. He looks like he's about eight. I think on the wall, there's this almost like printed out magazine thing that says The Bug Slayer that they've hung up over the wall. It's amazing.

Right. There was not this multi-sided network of you've got developers making applications and then you've got users of those applications. No. Everybody who used a computer was a programmer.

Right. There was not this multi-sided network of you've got developers making applications and then you've got users of those applications. No. Everybody who used a computer was a programmer.

Which is reasonably high level in terms of how abstract it is. Like, you're not writing machine language. You don't have to know how to address memory and registers and all that. It reads kind of like English. You know how to add numbers together.

Which is reasonably high level in terms of how abstract it is. Like, you're not writing machine language. You don't have to know how to address memory and registers and all that. It reads kind of like English. You know how to add numbers together.

It's not an elegant language, and it's a very verbose language, but if you sort of look at it with your eyes as a person who speaks English and knows basic math, you're like, I kind of understand what this program does. So there's a meaningful amount of translation done by a basic interpreter that takes you from the basic code you have to write to what is actually running on the machine.

It's not an elegant language, and it's a very verbose language, but if you sort of look at it with your eyes as a person who speaks English and knows basic math, you're like, I kind of understand what this program does. So there's a meaningful amount of translation done by a basic interpreter that takes you from the basic code you have to write to what is actually running on the machine.

It's sort of the Python of its day. I think the way Python is now, where you sort of joke that Python is so flexible, you know, you can like accidentally write a program by writing English and it can kind of forgive a lot of mistakes and it reads kind of like English.