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Gates was a relative latecomer to see the 'net as a factor of importance. He wrote a book called 'The Road Ahead' [1] which exists in two forms [2] of which the

Gates was a relative latecomer to see the 'net as a factor of importance. He wrote a book called 'The Road Ahead' [1] which exists in two forms [2] of which the first portrayed the 'net as a precursor to the real network of the future which would be embodied in proprietary networks like Microsoft Network (MSN). It was only a few weeks before the book would hit the shelves that he changes his mind and wrote the above memo, focusing Microsoft on the internet while demoting Microsoft Network - which was launched as a separate dial-up network in the style of Compuserve - to an internet service. [1] https://wikiless.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_%28Gates_book%29 https://wikiless.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_%28Gates_book%29 [2] https://wikiless.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_%28Gates_book%29?lang=en#Content_differences_between_hardback_and_trade_editions https://wikiless.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_%28Gates_book%29?la...

Dracophoenix 4y ago
In a way, Gates was right. Social media sites are basically the AOLs and CompuServes of today with the only difference being the protocol (POTS/PTSN vs HTTP)
- the_third_wave 4y ago
  He was right in the centralisation of certain services but wrong in his assumption that those services would be the gatekeepers to their user's total online experience. No matter how centralised the likes of Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and the rest of them are they can not keep their users from simply going to their competitor's site or app since they're all hanging off the internet instead of behind their own access networks. This is a very important distinction, had Gates' vision succeeded we'd still be paying by the minute and kilobyte and there'd be a price on everything.