To be honest, creating an Operating System, the ecosystem surrounding it, etc. is technologically much more complicated than a lot of the stuff that web-based c

To be honest, creating an Operating System, the ecosystem surrounding it, etc. is technologically much more complicated than a lot of the stuff that web-based companies are doing nowadays. Besides, Microsoft was definitely a much more technical company that sold a purely technical product, so it is not entirely inconceivable that founders were deeply technical in a way that today's founders aren't. I also imagine that there was much less 'adult supervision' of Microsoft. They probably did not take (any?) VC money, did they? The scene today is very different, so I wonder how such a thing happens in modern-day startups. As an investor, I would be alarmed at such egregious misallocation of valuable founder/C-suite time and brainpower. EDIT: I have read many an anecdote (from Joel Spolsky, for example), wherein Bill Gates was said to have pored over the minutest specification in documents spanning hundreds of pages and understood all the subtlety involved. Once again, how on Earth did Bill find the time?