4 ms·

Read carefully. I said people who were there (at Microsoft) in 1985 told me about it, and there are striking similarities. I know it is hard to imagine today t

by ddodge 16y ago

Read carefully. I said people who were there (at Microsoft) in 1985 told me about it, and there are striking similarities. I know it is hard to imagine today that Microsoft was once like this...but they were. In a follow up post I might dive into how they lost that feeling. Personally, I think when the business people started outnumbering the engineering people...is when they started losing their way. Don

kqr2 16y ago
But wasn't Microsoft's real success due to its business practices versus its technology? For example, it made key partnerships which they were able to leverage very effectively to gain market share.
- inerte 16y ago
  Chicken and egg. How do you make key partnerships without great tech? Think about OEM customization, i18n/l10n, backwards compability (etc). If MS didn't know how to do these, history would be different.
  - enjo 16y ago
    Wasn't the entire foundation of the company built on a partnership for which literally no tech (owned by Microsoft at least) existed?
  - kqr2 16y ago
    Keep in mind the term "vaporware" was coined by a Microsoft engineer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware Microsoft was infamous for announcing products that they didn't have ready. This often discouraged corporations from buying competing products. In this case, business trumped technology.
bobbyi 16y ago
Isn't having too many "engineering people" and too few "business people" the reason why Google hasn't come up with any compelling new products over the past five years, not couting the ones acquired by their "business people" (Android, Grand Central, Youtube, etc.)? Isn't having good "business people" the reason why every Fortune 500 company pays huge license fees to Microsoft and not to Google?
- nostrademons 16y ago
  Chrome?
fossuser 16y ago
Then the CEO made the change too.

by ddodge 16y ago

kqr2 16y ago

But wasn't Microsoft's real success due to its business practices versus its technology? For example, it made key partnerships which they were able to leverage very effectively to gain market share.

inerte 16y ago
Chicken and egg. How do you make key partnerships without great tech? Think about OEM customization, i18n/l10n, backwards compability (etc). If MS didn't know how to do these, history would be different.
- enjo 16y ago
  Wasn't the entire foundation of the company built on a partnership for which literally no tech (owned by Microsoft at least) existed?
- kqr2 16y ago
  Keep in mind the term "vaporware" was coined by a Microsoft engineer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware Microsoft was infamous for announcing products that they didn't have ready. This often discouraged corporations from buying competing products. In this case, business trumped technology.

bobbyi 16y ago

Isn't having too many "engineering people" and too few "business people" the reason why Google hasn't come up with any compelling new products over the past five years, not couting the ones acquired by their "business people" (Android, Grand Central, Youtube, etc.)? Isn't having good "business people" the reason why every Fortune 500 company pays huge license fees to Microsoft and not to Google?

nostrademons 16y ago
Chrome?

fossuser 16y ago

Then the CEO made the change too.