FORTUNE.COM - Fast Forward - Marc Andreessen on What's Next "A few of his favorite points:
"Linux and Windows are winning--everything else is losing."
"You can replace a $300,000 Unix server with ten $3,000 Dell servers for a ten-times savings right off the bat--and they'll outperform."
Storage hardware has gotten so cheap--close to $1/gigabyte--that fully redundant storage for a big multinational company can now cost only around $300,000.
Bandwidth costs have plunged. Andreessen says that whereas Netscape paid about $1,600/megabit in late 1999, today the price is down to a mere $50."

Microsoft hires an EU insider whom competitors gave key evidence Relentless...

Most Unsecure OS? Yep, It's Linux "According to a new Aberdeen Group report, open-source solution Linux has surpassed Windows as the most vulnerable OS, contrary to the high-profile press Microsoft's security woes receive. Furthermore, the Aberdeen Group reports that more than 50 percent of all security advisories that CERT issued in the first 10 months of 2002 were for Linux and other open-source software solutions."

A Computing Pioneer of the 1970's Joins Hewlett-Packard "Alan Kay, a personal computing innovator who was a leader of Xerox's pioneering Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970's, has joined Hewlett-Packard as a senior researcher. ...
With the PC business in the doldrums, many executives and analysts say they believe that the industry is entering maturity. Dr. Kay disagrees. Personal computing, he insisted, is "ripe for new markets — I don't think the real computing revolution has happened yet."

About Tablet Computing Old and New Useful summary of pen-based computing history by Dan Bricklin.
"Remember what happened with the Internet as developers experimented with HTML after the early browsers came out. Compare what web sites looked like in 1994 and 1996 to today. (For example, compare the early browser-based web site authoring systems to later ones like Trellix's, and you'll see huge improvement.) Now that we have a basis to build upon, that type of advancement, like we saw in tablet and pen computing in the early 1990's, can resume where it left off."

Boston Globe Online / Business / Free software vs. Goliaths "...Even though the free software movement has generated a host of major products - the Linux operating system, the Apache Web server, the Emacs text editing system - Moglen thinks the movement faces a struggle for survival, with scarcely a dime in its war chest. ''We're a small organization running a big revolution,'' said Moglen, ''and we have big adversaries.''
The foundation is based on the idea that software should be entirely open, with users free to study its underlying source code and modify it in any way they wish. Its enemies, in Moglen's view, are the companies that want to turn our computer software and hardware into hermetically sealed black boxes. Commercial software makers, movie makers, and music producers are desperate to prevent us from making perfect - and perfectly illegal - digital copies of their products.
Their arsenal includes software patents to prevent other free software writers from emulating useful new features, laws that forbid free software programmers from bypassing encryption software, and, perhaps someday, a chip that could stop your machine from running free software at all."

The Big Bang (Steve Gillmor) "Lost in this shuffle is OneNote, a powerful idea processor from the Office group. Mark my words: OneNote is the new center of the Office universe, relegating Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to the edges of the architecture in a single leap. Billed as an Office add-on, in reality it's a smart device programmed to transform Office from a suite of applications to a grid of interactive components."

Microsofter "Yet only after fighting the biggest antitrust case in a century has it begun to sink in with Ballmer that in most ways he has already won, and that with victory he might be expected to behave less like a petulant adolescent and more like a statesman, comfortable in his power. Recently, in the span of one week, Microsoft first received the news that a federal judge approved the company's settlement with the Justice Department and rejected the remaining suits by individual states, then came out with a powerful new-product launch, its much hyped Tablet computers. Both of these developments indicate that the company is exiting the fog, legal and otherwise, of the last few years and is entering a period that will largely be shaped by Ballmer. With his schedule rigorously organized, his managerial duties more defined than ever and his personality in a state of self-imposed overhaul, he aims to prove that he can be a different person and that the Microsoft Bill Gates has essentially handed over to him can be a different company."

O'Reilly Network: James Gosling: "J2EE has it all over .NET..." [November 21, 2002] It would be refreshing if Gosling et al. occasionally focused on substantive differences, as, e.g., Anders Hejlsberg does, instead of just going for sound-bites.

Salon.com Technology | Microsoft wants your cellphone "There's now some indication that Symbian's model may be winning early battles in the marketplace. A number of the largest phone makers have already released Symbian-based smart phones, and Nokia says it will sell as many as 10 million of them by year's end. But Symbian's biggest victory came early in November, when Sendo, a British handset maker that was one of the first companies to sign on with Microsoft, abruptly announced that it would no longer build a Microsoft phone. Instead, Sendo said it would now start working on a smart phone using software from Nokia and Symbian, software that Sendo calls "uniquely flexible."" (via Slashdot)

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Nintendo: Price war takes toll on profits Let's see -- MSFT has 3 amazingly profitable business lines with which to subsidize Xbox (and MSN, and...), during the game console expansion and market share acquisition phase; what do Nintendo and Sony have?...

COMDEX Fall 2002: A Show Report "Microsoft OneNote is going to change my life and will be a huge hit with a lot of people. For people who take notes (and lose most of them, as I do), this application will be as popular as Microsoft Outlook. I'll post a detailed write-up about OneNote soon; the product is far more important than it seemed at first blush."

Microsoft SQL Server Turns 10 "Microsoft SQL Server has come a long way from its early beginnings on the Windows NT® platform. In 1993, 2,000 corporate sites were engaged in beta testing of SQL Server 1.0. Today, 40 percent of the relational database management systems on the Windows platform run SQL Server. Since the release of SQL Server 7.0 in 1998, Microsoft has outpaced the industry in integrated database technology, providing innovative features such as self-tuning; self-management; built-in Online Analytical Processing (OLAP); and extract, transform, load (ETL) and data warehousing capabilities. In addition, Microsoft added data mining into SQL Server 2000. These business intelligence (BI) features, included at no extra charge, offer an integrated data management and analysis platform. With the built-in BI features in SQL Server 2000, customers at all levels of an organization, from the mailroom to the boardroom, can increase productivity through the ability to have real-time insight into their data."

The Register: No server Longhorn, but big .NET Server changes due in 2004 "Valentine confirmed that Longhorn would be client only, and said it would be due no sooner than mid- to late 2004. But the new file system for Longhorn will require major server side changes, delivered as a service pack or some kind of add-on pack. According to The Register's eye-witness he said Longhorn used a genuine new store, rather than a "lashup of .NET frame work 'children of OLE-DB' strung together."

The Register: MS exec rattles sabre, suggests Linux could infringe patents "The CEO of Microsoft Israel has played the FUD card against Linux, raising doubts about the provenance of the intellectual property in the software, and advising potential customers to seek indemnification from the supplier in the event of patent infringement."

Java and .Net both a disaster: research: ZDNet Australia: News & Tech: Enterprise "Still trying to decide whether your enterprise development architecture should be based around Sun's Java or Microsoft's .NET? Perhaps you should be more worried about whether either of them is going to work at all."

BYTE Magazine (announcement of paid subscription model effective 11/25/2002) I suspect this signals the end of the road for Byte, sadly, although there's always hope that Pournelle et al. will write for other publications.

O'Reilly Network: What's Wrong With RDF? [November 18, 2002] "Tim Bray responded "I'd go further. I think the current RDF/XML syntax is so B.A.D. (broken as designed) that it has seriously got in the way of people being open-minded about RDF. I'm baffled why the RDF working group has been forbidden to work on replacing that syntax.""

O'Reilly Network: XForms Building Momentum [November 18, 2002] Not unbiased, since the author is also an editor and author of the XForms 1.0 W3C specification, but still an important development

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Gates talks innovation amid tech's hard reality The seven-minute video, "Behind the Technology," was played as an exposé of the personal computer and featured appearances by entertainment and industry celebrities.
It showed Steve Ballmer hawking a $99 computer, and selling Microsoft Bob, a product the company developed that failed in the market, along with mood rings on the Home Shopping Network.
Gates himself says in the video: "It was very clear to me that the Internet was where everybody was going to go. It was especially clear to me after everybody had already gone there."

BEA Systems - 2002 Press Releases: The True Cost of IBM Serviceware Exposed "According to a report commissioned by IBM, for every dollar an IBM customer spends on IBM middleware, more than $11 is spent on services with IBM partners, [Reality Research & Consulting, Jericho, NY; March 2002]. These services dollars exclude any additional services that may be provided by IBM Global Services." Aggressive BEA positioning...

WorldCom Beats Microsoft for Ex-Compaq Chief "While the announcement was expected, Mr. Capellas had been considering a competing offer to become the No. 3 executive at Microsoft until early Thursday, according to people close to the search process. These people said that soon after reports appeared Monday that Mr. Capellas was in the running for the WorldCom job, Microsoft approached him with a lucrative offer to become its president and chief operating officer. In that job, Mr. Capellas, 48, would have reported to Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, and Steve Ballmer, the chief executive."

Wired News: Online Gaming Thinks Inside Xbox "While no winner in the online console gaming war has been declared, there is some evidence that Xbox Live is gaining an early edge. In a poll on ConsoleWars.com, almost 36 percent of respondents said Microsoft offered the best online gaming plan. Sony ranked third behind Nintendo, which has only one title available online.
"(Xbox Live) is a better laid-out plan and offers a smoother experience overall," said gamer Ricky Tucker, who also happens to be the software editor for PlayStation Illustrated.
Matt Forys has also sampled both systems. He said that since becoming an Xbox Live beta tester, "I haven't powered my PS2 on in over a month."

Microsoft reveals bleeding in four divisions "Revealing unprecedented detail about how it is performing, Microsoft Corp. says four of its seven divisions -- led by the group that developed the Xbox -- are losing money."

You Are a Suspect (William Safire, via O'Reilly Network Weblogs) "If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:
Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."
To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you — passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance — and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen."

Dan Bricklin: Tablet PC: First Impressions "Back in the early 1990's, I was heavily involved in the pen computing world. I co-founded Slate Corporation which developed application software for GO's Penpoint as well as Microsoft's Windows for Pen Computing and for the Apple Newton. I was exposed to software and hardware development, both at the OS and application level, and had experience using a wide variety of machines. With the release of the new Tablet PCs based upon Microsoft's new software, I felt it was appropriate for me to comment upon that, given my perspective. You will find here my comments based on my general feelings as well as actual experiences using various equipment. ...
So, one day in, my verdict: I can't see ever buying a portable laptop that isn't a convertible -- the benefits are too great for me. It's a Tablet PC, not a Pen PC, and not a Clamshell PC, and that's a win. While these are clearly still basically a version 1 or 2, they are still very useful. If you read a lot on a PC, and move your laptop around a lot, and have benefited from 802.11, and don't mind using early software that works but is basic (like the original VisiCalc was), and are in the market for a new laptop, take the next step and move up to a tablet. Corporate evaluators must start learning about these systems, because as they improve and the price difference disappears, you'll have to figure out how to configure them, what type of software to insist upon, etc. If you always wanted to do your composing with a pen, and expect handwriting to be as reliable as a keyboard, stick with the keyboard, and wait for "handwriting computing" to happen, if it ever does. It's not that important. Tablet computing is. It will make reading on a computer even more pervasive. I think Microsoft and the hardware manufacturers who were willing to take a chance trying to advance the state of mainstream personal computing are to be commended for what they've done."

Mitch Kapor's Weblog: Chandler's Schedule "Software, like construction projects, is typically late, sometimes very, very late. It typically takes longer and is much harder than any estimates. There are, of course exceptions, like the original version of Lotus 1-2-3, which shipped exactly on time, and there tend to be exceptional reasons why. In the case of 1-2-3, it was implemented almost entirely by one person, Jonathan Sachs, and it was the fifth time Jon had implemented a spreadsheet. Not only did he know what he was doing, but he had enough experience to accurately estimate how long each part of the coding would take. This was one of the keys. The other was that we had a relatively precise idea of the feature set going into the product. In other words, we both knew what work had to be done, and how long each piece would take. It was possible to roll up the schedule from the bottom up."

The Register: W3C publishes XForms 1.0 "Although Sean McGrath, chief technology officer of Irish XML company Propylon, said the specification was long overdue and would make it easier for Web pages to be displayed on different devices, he cautioned that the lack of Microsoft backing for XForms may restrict its wide-spread adoption.
"XForms will need to be bundled directly into the browser if it is to be well supported, but the problem is that Microsoft has developed its own specification, XDocs. Without Microsoft on-board, it will be it difficult for XForms," commented McGrath."

TiVo Rivals Add DVD to the Mix "Yet strangely enough, DVR's like TiVo and its rival, ReplayTV, haven't sold very well. Last week, an Advertising Age magazine headline summed up the problem succinctly, if painfully: "More U.S. Homes Have Outhouses Than TiVos."
Nobody's really sure why the technology hasn't caught on. But one thing is certain: Hard-drive recording is here to stay. This feature is making its way into cable boxes, personal computers - and now, with the introduction of machines from RCA and Panasonic, DVD players. Each of these new set-bottom boxes changes the TiVo recipe, with some interesting results."

The Register: Gates gives $100m to fight HIV, $421m to fight Linux "We do hate to rain on a high-profile corporate love-fest, but we have to point out that in addition to the much trumpeted $100 million Billg has donated to India's fight against HIV, he's funding the Microsoft jihad against Linux to the far more impressive tune of $421 million."

Q&A: Bluetooth Takes a Bite Out of Desktop Cable Clutter "Bluetooth is a low-power and low-cost USB and cable replacement technology that is best for personal devices. Wi-Fi is a high-speed wireless Ethernet replacement that is best for networking devices. We need two wireless standards for the same reasons we have both USB and Ethernet on today’s PCs. Each is very much optimized for its particular application."

New Top-Level Change at AOL Could Foretell Fresher Content "Mr. de Castro was notable for a charged-up, enthusiastic management style. He pumped rock music into the hallways of Creative Center 1, the building on America Online's campus in Dulles, Va., where the service is programmed, and he tought an early morning class on spinning, aerobics on stationary bicycles. He changed the AOL welcome screen, one of the most visited patches of cyberspace, to focus more on gossip and popular culture."

Microsoft: Longhorn on the Desktop, Blackcomb on the Server "Microsoft this week confirmed rumors that its next Windows release, code-named Longhorn, would be a desktop OS only, and not a synchronized release including both desktop and server versions as originally planned. Likewise, the Windows release following Longhorn, code-named Blackcomb, will be server-only. Microsoft did tell me, however, that while the company has not announced an official release date for Longhorn, the time table for its release hasn't changed, contrary to rumors. This means we'll see Longhorn in 2004 or 2005, depending on which Microsoft official you believe."

WSJ.com - Microsoft Targets Consumers With New Portable Display "The new smart displays, formerly code-named "Mira," are essentially thin, flat computer monitors that can be carried around the house. They draw their power from a regular PC via a wireless connection and can be used for tasks such as Web surfing, reading e-mail, sending instant messages or listening to digital music. Microsoft says they will appeal to people who want to read their e-mail while watching TV in the living room, or who want to access the Internet from the kitchen. ...
Microsoft and ViewSonic note that the ViewSonic machines will come with a PC wireless adapter and a free upgrade to Microsoft's Windows XP software, two extras that would together cost about $300 if bought separately. Prices are expected to come down eventually."
Interesting that they decided to bundle XP (Pro) -- that gets around the issue of Home not having support for Terminal Services...

Vinod Khosla And Sun Microsystems 1989 HBS account of the birth of Sun, via Robot Wisdom

Macromedia - Designer & Developer : The Contribute Vision Contribute context: "We believe that Macromedia Contribute starts the next wave of the web—the low-maintenance, read/write web—where each user can participate actively in what's out there, rather than be a passive recipient."

The Register: Next XP rev Longhorn a 2003, client-only product? "... Now, she also says there'll be a major Server release, which will presumably be Blackcomb, to follow .NET Server 2003. So no major server release with Longhorn, but major server release to follow the next server release. Which means Longhorn is earlier, but is client-only. And if it is a 2003 product, then all of the people who said Microsoft was only kidding earlier this year will turn out to have been right."

Macromedia - Contribute Major new product from Macromedia

What Happened to the Magic of Liberty Media and Malone? "Liberty's stock is in the doldrums, having fallen from a high of $29.21 on March 31, 2000, to close last Friday at $8.82. And Mr. Malone's power and mystique are not quite what they once were. Still, there are money managers who say he is too important to ignore.
Mr. Leibowitz, for one, says he likes Liberty's stock because he thinks it gives an investor a basket of media companies at a big discount. "I also believe in Malone," Mr. Leibowitz said. "To me, it is the media equivalent of buying Warren Buffett."

Boston Globe Online / Business / Teething pains "Despite a spate of new Bluetooth devices, the short-range wireless networking technology has yet to live up to its promises...
WirelessUSB devices are supposed to hit the market by the middle of next year. Bluetooth device makers have already had about eight years to tinker with their technology. Maybe given six more months, they'll finally get it right."

Boston Globe Online / Business / Microsoft's home entertainment center of the future "Microsoft's home entertainment center of the future won't clutter up a living room like a wooden behemoth from the 1950s. It won't even take up as much space as a PC. It'll hum unobtrusively in a closet or in the basement, ignored by everybody.
Until the TV image unexpectedly freezes and Dad curses under his breath and runs downstairs to reboot the server. We're talking about Microsoft, after all."

eWEEK - EPeriodicals: Microsoft Takes Aim at PDF "Adobe's PDF document-distribution format may seem entrenched among computing consumers, but that isn't stopping Microsoft from trying to throw its weight behind a competing publishing venture. At its Tablet PC launch here on Thursday, Microsoft provided its first public glimpse of its e-publishing technology, code-named ePeriodicals."

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: Woman gets new position among Microsoft's elite "Microsoft has hired cable-television veteran Maggie Wilderotter as senior vice president of business strategy, a new position that initially will focus on selling products to schools and governments.Wilderotter, 47, becomes one of the highest-ranking women at Microsoft, which has been criticized by investors and others for gender inequity at its executive level. She will be the second woman in one of the company's 16 senior vice president positions."

Microsoft memo: Linux fight backfiring - Tech News - CNET.com "Some of Microsoft's efforts to disparage open-source software such as Linux have backfired, according to a recent memo by the software maker." (It's Halloween document time again.)

Forget the Files and the Folders: Let Your Screen Reflect Life Fascinating that NYT and other publications periodically give David Gelernter free advertising space. I have a great deal of respect for Gelernter and his ideas, books, etc., but I wish he'd spend more time explaining the value of his vision and less time pitching his company.

Tablets Mightier Than the Keyboard? "Pen computing, as this concept is known, has been catnip to investors and inventors for years, but Silicon Valley is strewn with the corpses of famous disasters. Microsoft's own WinPad and Windows CE devices were expensive flops. The GridPad and the Go Corporation's Eo are distant memories. Apple's Newton rests in pieces. As recently as this year, the innovative I.B.M. TransNote and the Sony Vaio Slimtop Pen Tablet slipped quietly into oblivion.
But Microsoft is confident that this time, it has found the formula for pen-computing success. So confident, in fact, that Bill Gates told a recent trade show crowd, "Within five years, I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America.''

It's Official: No Office 11 on Windows 9x Can anyone really be upset about this?

WSJ.com - Mossberg: Can the Tablet PC Hit the Mainstream?"...I've been testing four Tablet PC models and I have mixed feelings about these first examples of the new design. They work well for handwritten notes, which could replace some paper files. They are also far better than a standard laptop for comfortably reading long documents.
But they have a big drawback: Microsoft has done surprisingly little to adapt Windows and Office to the pen-and-ink format. So, using the stylus to do almost anything but take notes -- even basic tasks, such as adjusting speaker volume, saving a file or addressing an e-mail -- can be clumsy and frustrating.
As a result, I don't see these first Tablets as mainstream products. Instead, I see them catching on with gadget freaks, people in business or college who deeply desire to take notes on a PC instead of paper, and those with large amounts of on-screen reading to do on a regular basis."

Lotus Developer Domain: What's cool about the Notes/Domino 6 UI Handy summary.

101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that IE cannot via Camworld

"Bill Gates Views What He's Sown in Libraries Now, he is about $40 billion lighter, on paper, but he shrugs it off. "My value is still so much higher than I ever expected it to be by a factor of about 50," Mr. Gates said. "So the fact that at one point it was say, a factor of 60, well — that wealth is all going back to society anyway."
The charitable group that Mr. Gates started with his wife, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is now giving away $1.2 billion a year. Mr. Gates said he was pleased that its first major philanthropic effort, the library project, had helped to narrow the digital divide. More than 95 percent of public libraries now offer free Internet access, including those here in Whitman County, which mainly serve wheat farmers and received $93,000 from the Gates Foundation."

Silicon Valley's Dream Tablet, From Microsoft "If Microsoft succeeds where others failed, it will probably increase the residue of bitterness here among those who believe that a decade ago the company killed a nascent pen computing industry because it thought it would be a threat to its Windows operating system business."

Antenna System Is Said to Expand Wireless Internet Use "A start-up company plans to announce new antenna technology on Monday that it says can expand the limits of a popular wireless Internet format, providing access to hundreds or even thousands of portable computer users at distances of more than 2,000 feet within buildings and about four miles outdoors."

ZDNet: Story: Triumph of the Bill: Why Microsoft won "...American antitrust laws were designed to protect consumers from obviously predatory business tactics. They weren't designed to protect consumers from a single company. And they weren't designed to protect other businesses or to preserve competition--at least not in the abstract sense of, "What would competition be like today if Microsoft hadn't done X?""
This is a key point: antitrust is about protecting consumers, not competitors.

Gateway: Home Segment: Gateway 300S Value $399 -- no monitor, but 1.8 GHz Celeron, 128 meg RAM, 40 gig hard disk, modem and Ethernet, Windows XP Home -- even a copy of The Sims (limited time offer). Yow. Wal-Mart can keep the "Lindows" boxes, as far as I'm concerned...

Life With Microsoft Still Stifling for Rivals "Now the gloves are off," said Jonathan I. Schwartz, an executive vice president who heads software efforts at Sun Microsystems. "The industries that need to be concerned will include media companies, retailers and financial institutions."...
"The climate today feels exactly reminiscent of the late 1980's," said Jim Breyer, the managing general partner of Accel Partners, one of the Silicon Valley's leading venture capital firms. "From an industry structure standpoint, it's as if you've dialed the clock back 13 years with both I.B.M. and Microsoft being in a better position than at any time in the past decade."

magazine: Microsoft's Weblog Software "The final analysis puts Microsoft on even footing with its much smaller competitors, which is both a tribute to their nimbleness and an indictment of their lack of focus on the business market. Given the resentment against Microsoft's licensing changes, end-users' familiarity with browser-based applications, and the newly resurgent eagerness of businesses to adopt centrally-managed knowledge management applications based on free or low-cost platforms, weblogs are ripe for a shot as the preferred Intranet knowledge management solution. Microsoft has entered this market, albeit with a slight stumble. Now that competitors are aware of their presence, it would behoove them to stake their claims in the market."
(via Dave Winer)

MPAA Blasts Surging XP Media Center Edition
"'We have some real concerns about content that enters an unprotected input into a personal computer, where the rights associated with the content are not being obeyed,' said Brad Hunt, MPAA CTO, who noted that MCE's original version, which didn't allow consumers to share TV recordings, was preferable."...
"Hollywood has a right to be concerned. Microsoft's XP MCE software is available on just one line of PCs from Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the US this holiday season, but those PCs are already selling fast. After being on store shelves for just a few days, the HP Media Center PCs are the best selling computers at CompUSA and HP executives told me at the XP MCE Wednesday that the company doesn't expect the systems to be available for very long. "We believe it will sell out," said David Galvin, Worldwide Product Marketing Manager for HP's Home Products Division. "So if you want one, be sure to go out and get one now.""

PCWorld.com - Microsoft on Custom XPs "After 11 years we finally got to the NT code base for basically everyone. And the benefits of that [include] higher reliability, more stability, security, and the like for consumers. It's obviously better for IHVs [independent hardware vendors] because they only have to write one driver and it will work everywhere. And now we have the flexibility to target specific customer needs very quickly without having a splintering of the code base."...
"We have a lot of analogies we talk about here--that the Tablet is like a cell phone and the Smart Display is like the cordless phone in the house. You can't go outside the house with it very far, versus the Tablet, which you can take totally with you--it's a full-fledged machine."
(It's actually 14 years + 1 day since MSFT started on NT -- Halloween 1988.)

Vista: a prototype for OSAF's Networked Personal Information Manager [Chandler] via Dave Winer