Steve Ballmer

This might be the weakest.

It's elusive. This is a little bit later in history, but I did always think it was absolutely incredible when I was at Microsoft and we would ship a version of Office every three years. I worked on Office 15, that the entire 6,000-person organization had a process in place where we could release to manufacturing, RTM, on a date that we planned three years in advance and actually hit it.

It's elusive. This is a little bit later in history, but I did always think it was absolutely incredible when I was at Microsoft and we would ship a version of Office every three years. I worked on Office 15, that the entire 6,000-person organization had a process in place where we could release to manufacturing, RTM, on a date that we planned three years in advance and actually hit it.

Like the process of the ads cuts meetings and the zero bug bounce and the testing schedule and the triage when you had things that people wanted to introduce late in the schedule. It was a remarkable product, especially with all these teams that needed all their code to interoperate. I worked on a shared experiences team that would check things in that would...

Like the process of the ads cuts meetings and the zero bug bounce and the testing schedule and the triage when you had things that people wanted to introduce late in the schedule. It was a remarkable product, especially with all these teams that needed all their code to interoperate. I worked on a shared experiences team that would check things in that would...

be a dependency that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, all of them took on the shared code. And we knew our ship date three years in advance and would hit it. It's crazy.

be a dependency that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, all of them took on the shared code. And we knew our ship date three years in advance and would hit it. It's crazy.

It's funny. The process power, I would say, is stronger in Office than Windows. Now my colors are showing. Windows always notoriously miss their ship dates. But I'm actually less sure that process power existed in that early days. I think they were a bunch of smart people, but I'm not sure that they had a unique way of creating software. But I think that got built over time. Yep, agree.

It's funny. The process power, I would say, is stronger in Office than Windows. Now my colors are showing. Windows always notoriously miss their ship dates. But I'm actually less sure that process power existed in that early days. I think they were a bunch of smart people, but I'm not sure that they had a unique way of creating software. But I think that got built over time. Yep, agree.

Well, that's true. Windows 95 built a consumer brand. The idea of a consumer brand of operating systems was, you know, there was Apple, but they were tiny, and that was more around the hardware.

Well, that's true. Windows 95 built a consumer brand. The idea of a consumer brand of operating systems was, you know, there was Apple, but they were tiny, and that was more around the hardware.

But branding is probably the thing that they rely on the least. Interestingly enough, there are other structural reasons that they're entrenched where even if Microsoft had a crappy brand in this era, they probably still would have won. Yep. The magic of getting the whole deal with the IBM PC and then getting to sell licenses to all the other OEMs.

But branding is probably the thing that they rely on the least. Interestingly enough, there are other structural reasons that they're entrenched where even if Microsoft had a crappy brand in this era, they probably still would have won. Yep. The magic of getting the whole deal with the IBM PC and then getting to sell licenses to all the other OEMs.

Yeah. It didn't start as a cornered resource, but as soon as IBM started shipping it on the IBM PCs, it was over. I'll say it again. IBM's distribution created demand for DOS, and then Microsoft just got to capture value from everyone else who wanted it. All right. Well, we would do bear and bull listeners, but we kind of know what happened after this.

Yeah. It didn't start as a cornered resource, but as soon as IBM started shipping it on the IBM PCs, it was over. I'll say it again. IBM's distribution created demand for DOS, and then Microsoft just got to capture value from everyone else who wanted it. All right. Well, we would do bear and bull listeners, but we kind of know what happened after this.

So the bull case is that the party continues and Microsoft continues shipping amazing operating systems after amazing operating systems. And that stays the important thing in the world. And the bear case is something else becomes an important thing in the world. And just having this super locked in operating system is not actually the way to bet your whole company for the future.

So the bull case is that the party continues and Microsoft continues shipping amazing operating systems after amazing operating systems. And that stays the important thing in the world. And the bear case is something else becomes an important thing in the world. And just having this super locked in operating system is not actually the way to bet your whole company for the future.

Right. That's true.

Right. That's true.

The IBM deal. I can't unsee it. Microsoft figured out a way to take someone else's dominance and wholesale transfer that into their dominance for the next generation. The fact that IBM called the project chess is so deeply ironic because Bill Gates was playing chess and they played checkers.