Thread by @stevesi

New "Hardcore Software" post - "Trapped" …rdcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/025-trapped?…

Microsoft has a master plan, riding a wave of unprecedented success. We're going to build the roads for the information superhighway.

Then I got trapped in the snow at Cornell. 1/

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2/ We had big plans for how to link up computers and share information. We called that strategy "Information At Your Fingertips" or IAYF.

We were going to build that strategy in the next release of Windows codename Chicago and Windows NT.

We had a fancy vision brochure.

3/ Then I got trapped by a snowstorm at my alma mater, Cornell.

I did what every alum 5 years out does and retraced my years, visiting the computer center I used to work.

The mainframe was replaced with Macs. All connected by a bunch of free GNU software (aka open source).

4/ Students were doing email, connecting to information sources like exam schedules and movie listings, and even finding other students in a directory.

They were using all sorts of crazy software TCP/IP, Gopher, WAIS, and something called WWW.

5/ I met up with my old boss and he showed me a mind-blowing use of multi-point video conferencing using a "hack" over UDP. It was called CU-SeeMe. It was crazy -- tiny little black & white images at 320pixels 4 frames per second but it used "the internet".

6/ I trekked back to the hotel, fired off a breathless mail "Cornell is WIRED!" I was scared--I saw all the things we had a big vision for with IAYF, but they were on Macintosh and using free software. We weren't even using the same network stack. I also wrote a big memo.

7/7 What could Microsoft do? What should Microsoft do? We were so busy with Chicago already and had a bold vision.

I was scared.

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