The AcquiredFM podcasts on Microsoft were excellent, I listened to them in this order
- Steve Ballmer Interview – https://pca.st/episode/420e8980-1ca5-41b7-a534-cb558656d680
- Microsoft Volume I – https://pca.st/episode/47924924-840f-453e-bfb0-a57191075f83
- Microsoft Volume II – https://pca.st/episode/0e34570a-8e11-4d51-8668-59e768b4efa6
In 2012 I wrote a quick rebuttal on my thoughts as to why Microsoft is still a major player, I think I was only off by the mobile play here https://ssmusoke.com/2012/05/12/opinion-microsoft-demise-being-overrated-but-they-are-still-a-major-player/
However the areas that I think the podcast may have missed on the tech side:
- While Microsoft battled open source (Linux et al), they were still the largest contributor and supporter by far – their DNA is open source and developer tools
- Developer tools were just touched upon, but they have been a great lever for Microsoft, Visual Basic 6, Crystal Reports, C and C++ tooling, Source safe for version control, ties in with the open source contributions
- Windows 2000 – while the hype is on XP, this was the foundational OS in the move from NT, was loved by professionals and enterprises due to no frills, stability, and ease of use. It is very underrated
- Hotmail, Live, and MSN while not talked about a lot were also truly foundational in the managed services DNA as the battles for email, messenger and news with Yahoo, AOL, and search engines drove leaps in that space before Google dominated all of them
- The hardware space is only looked as Xbox and Surface, but Microsoft made great mice, keyboards which were hot for a while
The Steve Ballmer era was the adulting/maturing age of Microsoft, being boring, nothing to show, tell plus not be seen as the future. However it truly set the stage for the current trajectory of excellence and mindshare today.
A special thank you to Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal for the excellent podcast episodes, they are so well done an illustration of the love and care taken in the research and preparation
