The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 19 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Ballmer: Microsoft's mistake was forcing Windows into unnatural form factors
“I don't think we stuck with windows too long. I think what we did is we tried to put windows in places that it didn't naturally go, and we tried to be too windowsy, both in the API and the UI in some things.”
Ballmer: Azure started as PaaS to prioritize Windows developers
“We say we're going to build platform as a service because it's a Windows platform. Infrastructure as a service, a little bit if you think about it, you're sort of by nature accepting everybody's infrastructure. It's by nature, multi quote, multi-platform. You …”
Ballmer: Microsoft's first antitrust inquiry came from FTC over IBM collusion
“This was our first antitrust problem. I don't know if you guys know this, is the FTC at the time thought we and IBM were working to divide the market because we had done some positioning. What's windows good for? What's always too good for? We and IBM had done…”
Apple's 1985 intellectual property license covered all future versions of Windows
“Apple does do a deal to license a lot of quote unquote their intellectual property, which of course came from Xerox, to Microsoft. Apple, I think, was under the impression that it was just for Windows one point oh, but the actual terms of the agreement are thi…”
EpicCare was the industry's first Windows GUI EMR application in 1992
“And on the back of that in 1992, they launch Epic Care, which I believe is the first graphical user interface like Windows based EMR application in the entire industry.”
Gilbert: Microsoft gross margin on retail boxed Windows was 29% in the 1990s
“In the nineties, the box software that Microsoft would use to sell Windows Their gross margin on a copy of Windows was 29%.”
Rosenthal: 1994 Microsoft consent decree banned tying but allowed feature integration
“The next year, in July, 1994, Microsoft just settles with them, rather than going to trial. They're like, alright, look, we just wanna be done, we're gonna settle with you DOJ, we're gonna be done with the US federal government here, and in that settlement, th…”
Gilbert: Microsoft achieved 75% gross margins selling Windows via OEM channels
“But when they're selling through an OEM channel, their gross margin was 75%, because you just ship the bits to the OS once, and then the PC manufacturer takes it from there.”
Gilbert: Free ad-supported search makes 3x to 5x more per user than software
“If I could take seven billion people in the world and sell them Windows, or I can take seven billion people in the world and have them use my search engine for free and then make the money from the advertisers, I'm gonna make three to five X more money from th…”
Gilbert: Microsoft killed new products because of Windows-centric DNA
“You look at Courier, you look at Kin in mobile, you look at all these things that they would let them get so far, and then they'd be like, ah, you guys don't get it. Windows is the center of everything, and if it doesn't make Windows look great or it competes …”
Ballmer: US Air Force was Microsoft's first big Windows customer
“Our first big Windows customer, at least as I remember it, was the US Air Force, and they were buying single copies of Windows.”
Rosenthal: Appellate court permitted Microsoft to bundle IE into Windows in 1998
“Microsoft appeals Judge Jackson's order, and in early May, 1998, the appellate court rules that Microsoft can continue shipping Windows with IE bundled into it, and also continue to bundle any other features that they want as part of Windows, as long as it ben…”
Gilbert: Windows and Office franchises generate more revenue today than ever
“Windows and Office have proven to be these ridiculously durable franchises generating more revenue today than ever.”
The early Windows OEM go-to-market team was only about 20 people
“I think the Microsoft OEM team for Windows was like 20 people or something. Before the enterprise, in this era that we're talking about, the group of people responsible for go-to-market for Windows was really small.”
All Windows operating systems released prior to Windows 95 were DOS-based
“Until Windows 95, all of the Windows operating systems were DOS based.”
Windows was merely a graphical shell over DOS until Windows 95
“And actually, it was not until Windows 95 that Windows was its own operating system. It was in Windows one, two, three, three dot one, and Windows for Workgroups, it was a graphical operating environment.”
Microsoft had 75 million Windows users before Windows 95 shipped
“I mean, even before Windows 95 shipped, they had seventy five million Windows users.”
Microsoft announced Windows in 1983 prior to the Mac's launch
“Starting in 1983, they're like, we gotta Do our own graphical operating system, or at least user interface, and this is the origins of the Windows product, and they actually announced it in November of 1983 before the Mac ends up shipping, which their partner …”
Eich: Microsoft was convicted for threatening Compaq over Netscape bundling
“They had the Windows Monopoly, but what they did in tying the browser to it and threatening Compaq with revocation of the Windows license if Compact Shift Netscape as the default browser was illegal, and they got convicted for it.”