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On the software end, after reading a couple of books about MSFT in that era (pre-Win 3.0), I think it is clearly manned by people who are smart and determined t
by markus_zhang 10mo ago
On the software end, after reading a couple of books about MSFT in that era (pre-Win 3.0), I think it is clearly manned by people who are smart and determined to be dominant in the business. I think they are more serious than a lot of their competitors.
- Lio 10mo agoI think the key was that Microsoft could see the market was expanding exponentially. I think grasping the effects of exponential change is difficult for the human mind but I think Gates, et al grasped that. Exchanging a smaller short term reward for control of something exponentially growing is obvious in hindsight but a brilliant insight at the time. There other insight was to go for the business and not home market like so many, frankly, better products in the 80s. The difference being that businesses replace their equipment once it’s been written off. The cycle times for home and educational users being much longer.
- markus_zhang 10mo agoAgreed. Now that I think about it, Gates' personality and insecurity also played a hand: https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/019-billg-the-manager https://hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/019-billg-...