3 ms·
Early on, Microsoft missed the internet revolution but were big enough and good enough to survive that early misstep. Intel is big enough and good enough to sur
by corford 11y ago
Early on, Microsoft missed the internet revolution but were big enough and good enough to survive that early misstep. Intel is big enough and good enough to survive their mobile blunder (though, admittedly, they're taking more time than MS did to get back on the horse).
- twoodfin 11y agoEarly on, Microsoft missed the internet revolution but were big enough and good enough to survive that early misstep. This has become popular myth, but I don't think it's true. Sure, Microsoft wasn't far ahead of the curve on the internet, or they wouldn't have been developing proprietary online services designed to compete with AOL and CompuServe. But the Bill Gates "Tidal Wave" internet memo was sent in May of 1995! Netscape's IPO was still months in the future, Amazon had maybe a few million $ worth of revenue, and essentially every other web-based company still in business today hadn't been founded yet. IMHO, billg's memo should be seen as an example of great prescience, rather than a belated corrective maneuver.
- corford 11y agoI guess I'm looking at it from where I was back then (a spotty young teenager). I remember Windows 3.1 needed Trumpet Winsock, then came IE 1,2,3 and they were awful, when IIS appeared it took about a decade to become any good versus Apache. From my point of view things started changing with IE4 and then Windows 98 getting automatic updates. For me that's when MS turned it around (i.e. ~4 years after Mosaic).