Steve Ballmer

That came with the DOJ. This was an FTC case, and they started it in basically 90, just as we were getting, I think 90, maybe 89, as we were getting our divorce. My wife and I were remodeling our house. We were living in a condo. We stopped on a run, used a restroom or something. I pick up the Wall Street Journal, and I read that IBM's divorcing us.

That came with the DOJ. This was an FTC case, and they started it in basically 90, just as we were getting, I think 90, maybe 89, as we were getting our divorce. My wife and I were remodeling our house. We were living in a condo. We stopped on a run, used a restroom or something. I pick up the Wall Street Journal, and I read that IBM's divorcing us.

I pick up the Wall Street Journal and I read that IBM's divorcing us.

I pick up the Wall Street Journal and I read that IBM's divorcing us.

We still had something called the 640K barrier. You couldn't speak to more than 640K of memory. We didn't break the 640K barrier. Until I think Windows 3.1, which I want to say was 91 or 92.

We still had something called the 640K barrier. You couldn't speak to more than 640K of memory. We didn't break the 640K barrier. Until I think Windows 3.1, which I want to say was 91 or 92.

Now IBM, it's still.

Now IBM, it's still.

We're still pipsqueak to IBM. And remember, we have no enterprise presence. And IBM has all dominant enterprise presence.

We're still pipsqueak to IBM. And remember, we have no enterprise presence. And IBM has all dominant enterprise presence.

Interesting. Single copies. Some hobbyists and end users. Somebody who says, hey, I really want to use a spreadsheet. And a lot of users in enterprises. So it wasn't going through IT. You'd have a user that would buy a PC on the expense account, probably for the department, buy a copy of Windows, buy a copy of Excel, like at an Egghead Software. It was a software retailer at the time.

Interesting. Single copies. Some hobbyists and end users. Somebody who says, hey, I really want to use a spreadsheet. And a lot of users in enterprises. So it wasn't going through IT. You'd have a user that would buy a PC on the expense account, probably for the department, buy a copy of Windows, buy a copy of Excel, like at an Egghead Software. It was a software retailer at the time.

And bring them in and use them. And then IT started to get...

And bring them in and use them. And then IT started to get...

nervous about that we knew most of the copies not most but many of the copies were winding up in businesses what the hell ibm's gonna stomp us like a like a bug you just took as a given assumption that if ibm wants to stamp out this happening it's gonna happen so we oh yeah if we want a future we got to play with them yeah that's what that's why we were quote riding the bear the whole time because they'd stomp us out and they divorce us in 90 and then we say oh my god

nervous about that we knew most of the copies not most but many of the copies were winding up in businesses what the hell ibm's gonna stomp us like a like a bug you just took as a given assumption that if ibm wants to stamp out this happening it's gonna happen so we oh yeah if we want a future we got to play with them yeah that's what that's why we were quote riding the bear the whole time because they'd stomp us out and they divorce us in 90 and then we say oh my god

DOS was always sold to- OEM. Yeah, not always. But so much the lion's share, it's worth saying it was only sold because you needed a BIOS. Remember? You needed a BIOS. So you had to have the hardware vendor build the BIOS into the machine, basically. Right. So you've got that, the OEM business, which was already going strong. The OEM business was the biggest part of the business. Yep.

DOS was always sold to- OEM. Yeah, not always. But so much the lion's share, it's worth saying it was only sold because you needed a BIOS. Remember? You needed a BIOS. So you had to have the hardware vendor build the BIOS into the machine, basically. Right. So you've got that, the OEM business, which was already going strong. The OEM business was the biggest part of the business. Yep.

And then we had this retail business, and there was no notion of enterprise licensing.

And then we had this retail business, and there was no notion of enterprise licensing.