Steve Ballmer

And with 3.1, it got really good. There was a small offsite of the executives, and Bill and Steve basically decided that it was time to bet on Windows. That was the new strategy. Windows had always been plan B, and now suddenly it was plan A. And when I say plan B, I don't mean like... thought they had a prayer of being plan A. I mean, it was 65 people that shipped Windows 3.1.

These were like the misfits. It was not prestigious. I mean, the prestigious thing to work on at Microsoft was OS2 and eventually Windows NT. But the Windows team in the Windows 3 era, it's almost like the Mac team over at Apple. They were sort of flying the rebel flag. They valued creativity over bureaucracy, even if it meant they weren't working on the prestigious thing.

These were like the misfits. It was not prestigious. I mean, the prestigious thing to work on at Microsoft was OS2 and eventually Windows NT. But the Windows team in the Windows 3 era, it's almost like the Mac team over at Apple. They were sort of flying the rebel flag. They valued creativity over bureaucracy, even if it meant they weren't working on the prestigious thing.

And so suddenly there's this huge strategic opportunity to become the standard independent of IBM if the platform is good enough. And then boom, the early reception to Windows is so good. It gives this glimmer of that may seem really ambitious, but that opportunity is actually ours if we want to go seize it. So everyone took a big gulp and said, the GUI is the next big thing. Users love this.

And so suddenly there's this huge strategic opportunity to become the standard independent of IBM if the platform is good enough. And then boom, the early reception to Windows is so good. It gives this glimmer of that may seem really ambitious, but that opportunity is actually ours if we want to go seize it. So everyone took a big gulp and said, the GUI is the next big thing. Users love this.

Let's take the ragtag group and promote them.

Let's take the ragtag group and promote them.

And the press is making a big deal out of Bill Gates. You know, boy wonder, he's the youngest ever billionaire at age 31. And by the way, when Bill Gates became a billionaire, there were not lots of billionaires. There were like 50 billionaires. All this lore around the company, it's like they can do no wrong. But inside the company, I think they're like, we don't know the future of technology.

And the press is making a big deal out of Bill Gates. You know, boy wonder, he's the youngest ever billionaire at age 31. And by the way, when Bill Gates became a billionaire, there were not lots of billionaires. There were like 50 billionaires. All this lore around the company, it's like they can do no wrong. But inside the company, I think they're like, we don't know the future of technology.

Any wave could break against us at any moment. And this is all tenuous. I think that chasm kept getting wider and wider and wider of internally feeling like they're screwed and externally it's seeming like this is the next great thing.

Any wave could break against us at any moment. And this is all tenuous. I think that chasm kept getting wider and wider and wider of internally feeling like they're screwed and externally it's seeming like this is the next great thing.

Which, by the way, the way that they won that, a judge basically looked at the paper and said, Apple, you totally said in all the future versions of Windows, they can use your UI paradigms. And so for most of the counts, they're covered. And for these other things that you're trying to ask them about, those are not actually defensible.

Which, by the way, the way that they won that, a judge basically looked at the paper and said, Apple, you totally said in all the future versions of Windows, they can use your UI paradigms. And so for most of the counts, they're covered. And for these other things that you're trying to ask them about, those are not actually defensible.

It's just widely accepted that these are UI paradigms now, and you can't enforce any ownership over those. So it basically got thrown out. Apple tried to appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court, who said no.

It's just widely accepted that these are UI paradigms now, and you can't enforce any ownership over those. So it basically got thrown out. Apple tried to appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court, who said no.

Wow. Listeners, there's some unauthorized biographies that we tried to corroborate as many of the facts as we can, but the ones where David's saying he doesn't know a source, it's sort of these unauthorized ones.

Wow. Listeners, there's some unauthorized biographies that we tried to corroborate as many of the facts as we can, but the ones where David's saying he doesn't know a source, it's sort of these unauthorized ones.

It's nuts. And so suddenly Microsoft feels the full weight of everything that you have to do to build a platform and be a steward of an ecosystem. So suddenly this huge effort began to try and make developers successful. That's how Windows would be successful if it was a great platform for application developers to thrive on.

It's nuts. And so suddenly Microsoft feels the full weight of everything that you have to do to build a platform and be a steward of an ecosystem. So suddenly this huge effort began to try and make developers successful. That's how Windows would be successful if it was a great platform for application developers to thrive on.

So Cameron Myhrvold led the developer relations group basically to try and figure out what do people want out of a platform and how do we provide the APIs for them and the support and everything in order to do that. All the documentation, all the help, everything.