DaveNet: Friday, October 10, 1997; by Dave Winer.
James Plamondon Comes Back at Me!
James Plamondon, jamespl@microsoft.com, works at Microsoft.We've met a few times, and we've exchanged email privately many times, sometimes pretty heated stuff. James responded to Money Money Money, released earlier today, with typical James/Microsoft zeal. It's a beautiful story he tells. DW
James Plamondon Comes Back at Me!
Why do all of those smart guys work here, Dave?
Is it for the money? As you've said, Bill is already richer than Croesus, and so are a lot of us here. Thousands of Microsoft's employees are millionaires. Why do we keep working long, hard hours when we could retire very comfortably and play with our kids all day? (Why do you do it, Dave, when your annual income could probably sustain an entire villiage in Africa?)
Is it to build an ever-bigger SimCity -- to grow Microsoft into an ever-bigger entity? As you pointed out, we've mastered that art, too, so what's the point?
The answer is right in front of you, Dave. I'll wager that your interactions with individuals at Microsoft have reinforced this answer every time -- probably including your interactions with BillG. It's just that our competitors and other detractors have so polluted the industry's mindset regarding Microsoft, that our true motivations are brushed aside.
Apple failed because its actual motivation was greed, despite the widespread public perception (perpetuated by its PR staff) that its motivation was to make the world better through better computing. Despite the widespread public opinion (perpetuated by our competitors) that Microsoft's motivation is greed, our actual motivation is to make the world better through better computing. And we are succeeding, because we understand -- as Apple never did -- that we must make money, for ourselves and our partners, because without money Microsoft and its partners will die and thus be unable to influence the future.
Why is Windows so cheap, Dave? Is it a cynical attempt to lock out competition, now that we have such high market share? If so, then why was it so low when we entered the business?
The price of Windows is so low, so that we can grow the market (whereas Apple kept its prices high, and thus the market -- for both itself and its partners -- small). And it's working!
Microcenter is now offering a PC for not just under a thousand bucks, but under $500!! Think of what that price-point is going to do to this industry! With NationalSemi/Cyrix and Toshiba coming out with PC's-on-a-chip next year, PC system prices are going to plummet even further. You'll be able to get a PC for the price of a game console -- and one that plays better games, too! Home market penetration is less than 45% today, and that lack of ubiquity is a significant roadblock to accomplishing the information revolution.
Windows has driven volume, volume, volume at every step, always supporting the widest possible variety of hardware from the widest possble number of sources, fostering the greatest possible competition -- among software apps, too; you know that my full-time job, and that of nearly a hundred other employees in Microsoft's Developer Relations Group, is to help other software development companies compete by adopting our latest systems technology.
Many companies, including many in Silicon Valley, have failed to compete successfully with Microsoft -- and it is always easier for the loser to blame the winner, than to recognize (let alone publicly admit) its own failures. Yet it is interesting to note how many of their smartest employees have come to work for Microsoft.
Do they join us for the money, Dave? Or to build a better SimCity? You know Don Bradford -- there never was, at Apple, a guy more committed to developing the right software, the right way, to empower real-world customers with software that got the heck out of the way and let them do their jobs -- as he showed with ClarisWorks, and as he's shown again with Internet Explorer for the Macintosh. Why does he do it, Dave? Why do I do it? Why does Jim Gray do it? Why does Alvy Ray Smith do it? Why does Butler Lampson do it? Why does Nathan Myhrvold do it? These are guys who could work anywhere, or who could choose to quit working any time they wanted to. Why do we all work our asses off here at Microsoft, when we don't have to?
You've already answered this question youself, Dave, but you're fixated on the money as an end rather than as a means. Microsoft is propelling the world forward just as fast as we can, pushing towards a digital future that will liberate people's creativity more than ever before -- and you know what, Dave? It takes money to do that. Lots of money. And we make this money by buiding and selling software products that people choose to buy, running on whatever hardware people want to use -- including Mac hardware, long after most software vendors quit supporting the Mac.
Microsoft is on a mission to make the world a better place through better computing. We're making it happen, in a Chinese household that has room for everyone. You want to write in Java? Go for it! We've got the best Java tools, VM, class libraries, etc. on the market -- and the most compatible, too. You want to use a Mac? No problem -- we keep putting out more programs for the Mac each year than any other software vendor. You want to buy hardware from any of hundreds of different manufacturers, each competing to deliver the best price, performance, and features? No problem -- we've got you covered. You want to deploy your Win32-based apps on Unix? No problem there, either -- we've ensured that there's a competitive market in implementations of the Win32 API available for the most popular Unix systems (from Bristol and Mainsoft). There has never been a company that made as much room for others, as Microsoft. Never.
In your article you ask, "Why does Gates want more money when he already has so much? I still don't get it. It's a totally foreign thing to me." If a smart guy like you can't figure out the answer to the question, maybe that's the sign that it's the wrong question.
Why is Windows so cheap, Dave?