Renegades of the Empire: A Tale of Success, Failure, and Other Dark Deeds Inside Fortress Microsoft [1 ed.] 0609807455, 9780609807453

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R "to get down and dirty you have to go behind the palace walls. and that's what journalist mlchael drummond does in renegades of the empire."

—San Francisco Chronicle

A

TALE OF

SUCCESS, FAILURE, AND OTHER DARK DEEDS INSIDE

FORTRESS Ml

€

9LJC)

RENE

ES

OF THE

MP a

I

New Foreword from the Au H A E L D R U M M

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2012

http://archive.org/details/renegadesofempirOOmich

RENEGADES OF TH1 EMPIRE

THE

OF

EMPIRE A Tale of Success,

Failure,

and

Other Dark Deeds Inside Fortress Microsoft

MICHAEL

£Ll-fty

S^—"^

T

H

[\

DRUMMOND

E E

l\

N E

I

V

V

E

f\

5

YOU

P

l\

E 5

5

Copyright

©

Drummond

1999, 2000 by Michael

All rights reserved.

No

book may be reproduced or transmitted

part of this

in

any form or by

any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage

and

retrieval system,

Published by Three Rivers Press,

Random House,

Inc.

New York,

without permission in writing from the publisher.

New York, New York. Member of the Crown

Publishing Group.

Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland

www.randomhouse.com

THREE RIVERS PRESS trademark of

is

a registered trademark

Random House,

Originally published in hardcover by

Printed

in

and the Three Rivers Press colophon

is

a

Inc.

Crown

Publishers in 1999.

the United States of America

Design by Leonard Henderson

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Drummond,

Michael, 1964-

Renegades of the empire Microsoft / Michael

:

a tale of success, failure,

and other dark deeds

inside fortress

Drummond.

Originally published:

New York Crown :

Publishers, 1999.

Includes index. 1.

4.

St.

John, Alex, 1967-

Businessmen

States.

I.

.

2.

Eisler, Craig.

— United States— Biography.

5.

3.

Engstrom,

Computer

Eric,

1965-

software industry

— United

Title.

HD9696.63.U62 D78

2000

338.7'610053092273—dc21 [B]

00-061565

ISBN 0-609-80745-5

765 432

109

8

First

Paperback Edition

1

For the ones

who make me whole

—Alison, Harper Rose, and

Eli

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments Preface: Let

There Be

ix

xiii

Bill

Foreword

xvii

1

Alex in Wonderland

2.

The Unholy Troika

17

3.

Flight of the Evangelists

28

4.

Internal Warfare

38

5.

The

Beastie Boys

56

6.

Beyond Ground Zero

78

7.

Chrome, the New Excalibur

8.

St.

9.

Invite to a "Revolution"

1

104 124

John's Waterloo

137

v

i

i

CONTENTS 10.

Mercenaries of the Empire

11.

Big

12.

This

13.

Squeeze Plays

14.

Bill vs.

Is

150

Big Brother

161

Not Your Mother's Browser

180

199

"The Operating System the Government Doesn't

WantYoutoHave"

213

15.

Sisyphus on a Roll

229

16.

The White-Paper

245

17.

Phone

18.

god.com

19.

Once More

Call in

Epilogue: All

Trail

Orlando

251

260 into the Breach

268

My Beloved Enemies

281

Index

291

v

I

I

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

After dinner and drinks one night, Banks and

Alistair

across Lake

home

front

I

were going

Washington

in

former Microsoft evangelist

to

board

his

boat and speed

an amphibious assault on the beach-

of Eric Engstrom, one of the main characters in

this

book. Banks wanted to confront Engstrom about some of the versions of events chronicled in these pages. in the is

middle of the night, by water no

and the

English,

Storming a man's property

seemed

less,

Brits possess a fine tradition

risky.

But Banks

of naval engagement.

Unfortunately for history, Banks's boat had engine troubles, and we

never launched our attack. Life

is

Sometimes our experi-

like that.

ences are forever shaped, our destinations inexorably altered by

something

as simple as, say, a faulty spark plug. Likewise, the genesis

of this book

came about by

dents that led to

a seemingly unconnected series of inci-

me from my native San Diego,

to the Pacific Northwest,

Dayton, Ohio, and then back to the Northwest

— home

Microsoft, the petri dish that germinated the characters, events,

substance of the following narrative. Without further ado,

down work

to

thanking those

who

either influenced

let

me

me and/or made

of

and get this

possible.

Marilyn "Mother Goose" Johnson was

my

spiritual

mentor and

her surrogate son for more than a decade. She taught

cosmos

is

much more

than the

sum of

its

parts.

She

me

I

that the

left this

world

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS before this book went to print, but her invisible loving

me

hand guided

through the course of the project.

All things

have an origin

—

was fired from a harmless record show that

book

this

pick a date of conception, I'd pin little

it

on

is

no exception.

daily in a

you

free.

Daily

eventually

News

taught

me

fell

me

Among

Washington.

to I

And

the

my

1,500 miles north,

into the orbit of Dell Burner,

in Longview,

had

when

thank the former mayor and

I

former publisher for inadvertently catapulting I

I

San Diego suburb. Let the

was terminated for reporting the truth.

I

truth, as they say, shall set

where

If

that day in June 1992

my editor at

the

other things, Dell

added benefit of being

that a great story should have the

true.

chance encounter

Later, a

me

Tennessee, put

winning editor

Had

it

He

Dayton Daily News. family feel

recruited

welcome

not been for Erickson 's faith in me,

the opportunity to

tech-head

meet one Paul Scholz,

who asked

if I

pound lemon

Make no

my

at

doorstep, as

it

It

never would have had

I

in writing a

was he

were. All

he and

in a foreign land.

and

I

book about

who plopped had

to

skilled

the 400-

do was juice

it.

mistake, without Scholz's initial entreaties with the Micro-

soft Beastie Boys, this story least in this

so

probably never would have been told

it is

that they

make my thank-you

list.

times suffered through hours of interviews

My friends considerably ing their

—

at

format and certainly not by me.

been doing something

insisting

Pulitzer prize-

me and

a warm-hearted

would be interested

a then-classified project at Microsoft.

And

conference in Nashville,

John Erickson, a

in contact with

at the

made me and my

his family

at a journalism

home

when

sat

and some-

they could have

else with their time.

Chris and Sally Norred less

They

made my many forays to Seattle more hospitable by open-

expensive and certainly

to

me. They offered comfort and companionship,

on nothing

in return.

I

wish them and their

new baby, Louie,

happiness. Likewise, I'm deeply indebted to

allowed

me and my family to use

my mom,

her beautiful

Betty Kenworthy, who home as a staging area

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS during the writing of ways

—

this

beyond the

far

book. She has been supportive in so

call

grandparents, Marjorie and Larry Fitzpatrick, for their

and Teresa

Torres, the household's

Along the way from people

I

I

many

of motherhood. Special thanks go to

matron

my

many prayers,

saint.

had plenty of behind-the-scenes support, some

never met face-to-face. These were the online voices,

people represented

as lines of text.

They include Diana Gruber and

Mike Kelleghan. Thanks for making sense of the strange world of

computer gaming.

My agent, James Levine, helped salvage my initial proposal and has tireless advocate, promptly responding to my need for gratu-

been a

no matter where he happened

itous positive feedback

world. Bruce Buehner, who's

me

regards

known me

to

be in the

and

for decades

yet

still

(and he mine), also receives a nod for

as his best friend

moral support.

My

first

editor at Crown, the

important early supporting delivered Last,

on

his

role.

promise to give

and by no means

Jacques,

charming Ayesha Pande, played an

least,

And

this

a loving tribute goes to

who supported me through

during the creation of

this

clean-up editor

book, as he put

book.

We

the lean

Bob Mecoy legs.

it,

my wife, Alison

and very mean times

walked into the dark valley of

credit-card debt, crashed vehicles, family tragedy

and other assorted

horrors over the past eighteen months, and emerged, largely intact,

on the other ing sure

My the

side.

Alison also was

my copy was

my insightful first line

readable before

I

daughter, Harper Rose, gets her

name

of

this

book's

first

chapter.

uncle Rick also earn a thanks

sent

it

mak-

to editors in New York.

own thank-you

Her younger

—just because.

editor,

for inventing

brother,

Eli,

and

PREFACE LET THERE BE BILL

residents weren't prepared for the invasion of 1986,

Redmond when

Bill

Gates and Microsoft stormed Seattle's oldest suburb,

plowing aside horse farms, covering

clear-cuts,

alas,

to mega-subdivisions

and yuppie warehouses

— upscale

and condominium complexes with names such Carrillon Heights

and uprooting

were not forever. Ranch houses gave way

strawberry fields that,

and Sonoma

as

apartment

Cambrian and

Villero.

Within fourteen years, Gates's

initial

occupying force of one thou-

sand programmers, product managers, and public-relations people swelled to about twenty thousand.

clogged the

European

city's

cars

paid cash for

more than

narrow

and the

homes

A legion

streets

of Microsoft millionaires

and aging freeways with dark

latest sport utility vehicles.

that

had more than doubled

And

they gladly

in price in

little

a decade. Microsoft wasn't the region's only highflier.

Other high-tech companies mushroomed pelling the Pacific Northwest

in the giant's shadow, pro-

economy into

the stratosphere. Quite a

turnaround from the bleak 1970s, when recession and unemploy-

ment had

triggered a massive exodus

Seattle billboard,

"The Last Person

and spawned the famous

to Leave, Please

Turn Out the

Lights."

During

its

growth spurt in the 1990s, Microsoft exploded from a

six-building cluster

on

aptly

named One

Microsoft

Way

to a fifty-unit

PREFACE

business-park scattered over

some three hundred

acres of hilly sub-

urban woodland. The construction uncovered secret "booze tunof liquor-smuggling Prohibition days, and at the same

nels," legacies

time provided the infrastructure for what would

become Ameri-

corporation. Microsoft would be forced to deploy the

ca's wealthiest

second-largest fleet of shuttles in the state to transport workers

around the

far-flung

campus, where ribbons of asphalt run past the

company's groomed soccer

fields.

As the various high-tech companies spawned, the

locals joked that

Redmond skyline official bird. Some of

the white construction cranes that stabbed the

should have been designated the Microsoft's

the

city's

moves weren't so amusing. So rapid was

company

its

expansion that

often started construction without the requisite build-

ing permits.

Conforming reflecting the

sometimes was an afterthought,

political authority that

would

later

haunt

— say —which started with Gates and bled through the organism he

the company.

hubris

to local ordinances

contempt for It

also reflected Microsoft's boldness

some would

had conceived with longtime friend Paul Allen. During the company's first

two decades, a take-no-prisoners corporate mentality had allowed

Microsoft to ignite a computer revolution, displace giant

IBM, and emerge

To build

his

as the world's mightiest software

rivals

such

as

company.

empire, Gates recruited the most able warriors.

He

used to say that he would rather hire a physicist over a programmer

who could master theoretical physics would find coding somewhat trivial. Of course, Microsoft didn't limit its hiring to Ph.D.'s and Harvard grads. The company employed a to write code,

because anybody

high-IQ cross-section of politicians, blue-haired

Who

cared

if

society,

punk

including bikers, boozers, former

rockers,

and even a few

transsexuals.

she was really a he, as long as he/she could code?

Contrary to industry myth, Microsoft didn't necessarily hire clones of Gates (although there were plenty on the corporate campus) so

much traits

as recruit those

who shared some

of Gates's

more notable

— arrogance, aggressiveness, and high intelligence. x

i

v

PREFACE

One

of the keys to Microsoft's success was

its

ability to retain these

techno-soldiers. Certainly lucrative stock options helped

But

the truly brilliant also

combat veteran knows, nothing motivates quite Gates

is

worse, "random," just to see

how he

as

any

as "stupid,"

or

or she defends a position. This

hostile managerial technique invariably spread

created a culture of conflict.

about Microsoft's cutthroat business

talent.

like fear.

infamous for ridiculing someone's idea

command and

keep

needed professional motivation, and

tactics,

through the chain of

Much

has been written

such as requiring clients

to use Microsoft technology to the exclusion of others, or allegations

that

it

courts partnerships with smaller firms only to

getting a peek at their software. Yet

it is

where some of the most brutal fighting

often plundered

by a

rival

and

and hoarded

leaves

Nature

it

and

prestige.

A

to find his turf raided

command or canceled Some might call this cruel.

put under a different

was seen

calls this survival

after

where resources are

for power, wealth,

on vacation might return

his project

altogether because

them

in the high-tech industry

occurs. Microsoft nurtures a Darwinian order

manager who

jilt

inside the walls of Microsoft

as a threat.

of the

fittest.

Against this backdrop of phenomenal business success and internecine warfare, three of Microsoft's most controversial, but heretofore largely unknown, warriors

met and conspired

to create

groundbreaking software. Like the company itself, which constructed buildings without permission, these renegades built their software

and asked questions

The

Beastie Boys, as they were

known,

ran over and around the backs of supervisors. They upstaged

rivals at

first

later.

industry trade shows with technical demonstrations linked to themes

of horror, orgies, and alien abduction. Their crowning achievement

was DirectX, which allowed Windows to run computer games and revolutionized an industry. But

when

the expected riches

failed to materialize, the three targeted a

the Internet

— Gates's holy battleground.

x v

new

and glory

type of technology for

FOREWORD

few months after

A

finished writing Renegades of the Empire,

I

on the phone with characters.

Eric Engstrom,

He had

I

was

one of the book's central

recently left Microsoft, ending a near-

decade-long career as a maverick inside the company.

We

were

talk-

ing about his future plans and about the federal judge's ruling that Microsoft was not only a monopoly, but that stranglehold to expand kets. Eric "I

its

also

used

its

Windows

was perplexed.

don't understand

how having

makes you a monopolist," he Spoken have

it

power into the Internet and other mar-

a ninety percent market share

said.

like a true believer. In his

commanded nothing

mind, a

real

monopolist would

than a 100 percent market share.

less

It

was an all-or-nothing proposition for him, a binary perspective shared by a

many in Redmond.

I

mere acquaintance, although

antitrust case

like Eric less

and consider him more than

than a friend. But his view on the

—having himself been called

to the witness stand

—

is,

of

course, skewed.

He and of

Bill

others inside the firm

Gates to

new

wrong with openly

had taken the Machiavellian

lessons

extremes. Eric and his cohorts found nothing

ridiculing ideas of colleagues; of conspiring to

torpedo competing internal projects; or of concealing information

from managers when convenient.

Results, not

XVII

manners, are what

FOREWORD mattered for

many

Department's hot

why

how

that mindset that in the U.S. Justice

and an atmosphere of confronta-

infighting

company's running roughshod over

tion contributed to the

the guy

is

in the high-tech realm. If you have

down

the hall,

it

book shows

Founded

rivals

no problem bullying

you should have no problem

follows that

manhandling competitors from Northern this

it

seat.

Renegades shows

and partners

the

and

company landed

inside Microsoft,

explains in large part

California. In this sense,

that the antitrust case was inevitable.

in the mid-1970s, Microsoft

came

into

prime from

its

1992 to 1999. Unlike Silicon Valley contemporaries such

as Silicon

Graphics, Oracle, and Netscape (now part of America Online), the

Redmond

giant reached greatness without playing the political lob-

game

bying

in

Washington, D.C. Again, the action you'll see here in

Renegades shows

how

this political naivete

may

also have contributed

to Microsoft's legal woes.

During the seven-year span between 1992 and 1999, the company

came

to

games

— the domain of Eric Engstrom and

dominate business and personal software, not

John and Craig

St.

see that

it's

Eisler.

This

is

as the "Beastie Boys."

computer games

The

seriously. After battling

came

to

I

Alex

believe that you'll

trio

who were

three pushed the

and befuddlement, the company technology, which

and

that the glory years of Microsoft

roughly coincided with the tenure of the

know

mention

his fellow renegades,

their story,

no small coincidence

to

finally

be known

collectively

company

management

to take

intransigence

embraced the Beastie Boys'

as DirectX.

Shortly after leaving Microsoft, Eric flew to India to recruit soft-

ware engineers for a start-up company he was launching. Eisler couple months

company. set

St.

later, setting his sights

John,

who had been

about building a 3-D

Web

on building a

fired in

left

a

wireless Internet

1997 for insubordination,

business.

Yet their legacy lives on. DirectX, once a skunk works project, has

slipped into the mainstream

and

is

used in scores of game

XVIII

titles.

So

FOREWORD successful was the technology,

make games called the

for

which made

Windows, that Microsoft

is

it

easier

and cheaper

to

making a game console

Xbox.

With any

luck, Bill Gates

least settle for a

can establish another monopoly

90 percent market share.

x

i

x

—or

at

1

ALEX

WONDERLAND

IN

romp through

five-year

Gates's

Bill

Camelot was

over.

HisMicrosoft security would be walking in any moment to clean out his rials

desk and scan his computer's hard drive.

could leave the building. Alex

bootsteps. kisses

He knew what

from a

to do.

No

sensitive

mate-

John could almost hear the

He grabbed

a handful of Hershey's

and dumped them on

friend's office

— note "Help yourself!" St.

St.

his

desk with a

John, one of Microsoft's fabled "evangelists," was fired that

He and

two colleagues had built DirectX, revolutionary computer-

game technology

that

world's most popular controversial

Project

day.

Web

had turned Windows-based PCs

game

platform.

The

technology, a "browser

three were

on

steroids"

now

into the

building

code-named

Chrome.

While he had helped feed hundreds of millions of dollars into Gates's software Empire, the fact

remained that

St.

John was

a rogue

who didn't understand how to follow orders and had never much attention to the chain of command. Management had any number of reasons to terminate him. Once, after Gates had just soldier

paid

inked a major deal with three Sega executives, visitors into his

customized, purple

company's manicured lawns Microsoft officers.

St.

John had

Humvee and

— in front of several

piled the

torn across the horrified senior

RENEGADES Like the

THE EMPIRE

OF

man who

buys a pit bull for

him

Microsoft had

animal attack

later,

Before the Empire called,

St.

its

ferocity only to have the

coming.

it

John was happily self-employed

computer consultant on the other side of the country. Then began pinging on the radar screens of Microsoft

John had

cultivated a reputation in the industry as

programmer

charismatic

— an

articulate

talent scouts. St.

an innovative and

nerd who could charm even

had snapped

better than he could code. True, he

as a

name

his

at previous bosses

over what he thought were impractical business decisions. But Microsoft wanted an evangelist, a breed that's sometimes hard to handle.

The Empire began

calling in

1992.

fall

work

company, which would

for any

it

be?

John was working

St.

home when an independent recruiter phoned St.

to ask

him,

John was

if

at

he could

reluctant to

answer because he wasn't interested in working for a boss again and

doubted any company could pay him own. The headhunter stroked

his

ing

him of his

St.

talents

John was

Computer

He

and how those

as

talents

could pay handsomely.

Corp.'s elegant operating system, a system he thought

Windows kluges Microsoft was pushing

John

at the

conceded that he would once have considered working for

Apple, "but they're dead," he told the recruiter. said

he was making on

voluminous ego, remind-

a Macintosh programmer, impressed with Apple

superior to the early time.

much

as

St. John's

he might be interested

in

When

Adobe Systems

pressed,

Inc. and,

St.

maybe,

Microsoft Corp. Maybe. After

some

with a local

Adobe rep

cajoling, the recruiter set

Adobe

representative.

up an interview

The

said he'd refer St. John to the

quarters. But

Adobe never

called back

session

went

called. St.

John

says

and

St.

he kept

kept calling and he finally agreed to meet a

"They said they were looking recalls.

"This was very surreal.

exactly they

wanted

me

to do."

at

me

well,

St.

John

and the

company's California head-

John

follow-up inquiries. Just about the time he had put

mind, Microsoft

for

for a

didn't

stalling,

but Microsoft

company rep

number

make any

Adobe out of his in Boston.

of positions," he

They never explained what

it

was

ALEX

John had been

St.

vered

IBM

WONDERLAND

IN

a fan of Microsoft since Bill Gates

in the operating-system

monopoly. Think of a computer system

is

realm and usurped Big Blue's

as a sports stadium.

the playing field or platform

OS

computers need an

All

outmaneu-

on which

The operating

the programs run.

all

or platform to run word processors,

spreadsheets, databases, whatever. Without operating systems, com-

puters are empty stadiums without playing fields.

timated Gates and allowed him

IBM had

underes-

DOS,

the Disk

the rights to license

Operating System that would become a standard on the

St.

first

genera-

computers before Windows.

tion of personal

John grew more nervous the closer he drew to the at a downtown Boston hotel.

interview,

scheduled to take place "I

didn't realize what

was very naive," I

St.

John

my resume must says. "I

could be working for a company

He met with Lee all

have looked

never thought in

like to

them.

I

my wildest dreams

like that."

Cole, a Microsoft recruiter.

The

interview lasted

often minutes. Cole didn't seem interested in his work history and

was unfazed when he told her he had no formal education. Yet she

was aggressive, in-your-face, and wanted to know why to

work "I

St.

John wanted

for Microsoft.

don't want to work for Microsoft," he recalls saying.

Then she asked

the crucial question: "What do you like about

Microsoft?" "Bill kicks ass," St.

John

said. "I like

kicking

enjoy the feeling

ass. I

of killing competitors and dominating markets."

Good

answer. Cole suggested that

St.

John

fly

out to Microsoft

headquarters in Redmond, Washington, for a Friday interview and a

weekend

stay, all

expenses paid. Just a

walked out of the interview more curious than After discussing

it

No

visit, really.

with his wife, Kelley,

pressure.

He

ever. St.

John

flew to the

Northwest in mid-December 1992 to see what the storied campus was all

about. By the early nineties, Gates was already legendary.

the visionary Harvard dropout

puter revolution and whose the most revered

who had spawned

company was destined

and feared

in history.

He

was

the personal comto

become one of

RENEGADES The morning

THE EMPIRE

OF

after St. John arrived, a grueling, eleven-hour

of interviews began. This was not the "no pressure"

had been promised. Interviewer

weekend

after interviewer grilled

round he

stay

him

— one

even leveled questions while cleaning his fingernails with a menacing

bowie knife. better

An

interviewer

wondered how

remote control. Another asked,

and ten white

balls,

boxes, so that a blind

how would he man reaching

best chance of grabbing a red ball?

know why manhole

St.

John would design

John had

if St.

a

ten red balls

them between two

distribute

one of the boxes had the

into

And,

one even wanted

yes,

covers are round, a question that has

to

become

part of the Microsoft cliche.

Manhole covers is

designed to

answer

— although

Microsoft

is

are

round so they won't

test for

in this instance, a correct

also big

through.

fall

The question

thought process, not necessarily for a correct answer

almost a must.

is

on asking applicants how they would improve the

design of gadgets be they bicycles or remote controls. Microsoft wants applicants to demonstrate their problem-solving

how

well they have

company "If

also scours

memorized pat answers.

same

In that

fly,

not

vein, the

resumes for any hint of padding.

you put the word

a target

on the

skills

on your back,"

expert

says

on your resume,

that was like painting

one former Microsoft

executive. 'You say

expert, you better be one."

And an visor

interview at Microsoft

is

not a brief sit-down with a super-

and maybe the human resources

director. Applicants for key

positions face a platoon of interviewers, which include

would-be peers. Like cops peering through one-way ers talk

about the candidate behind a wall of E-mail.

While the gin

managers and

glass, interview-

St.

John gave answers, previous

interrogators

would E-mail

now doing the questioning.

"Ask him what interrupt would he hook from

DOS if he wanted

to

get a real-time clock."

"See a

if

he knows the difference between an Adobe

TrueType St.

font,"

another asked.

John was put through the IQmeat

grinder.

type-1 font

and

ALEX Later,

he would turn the

IN

WONDERLAND

on

tables

his masters at Microsoft.

He

would become a management nightmare, tolerated only because of his Svengali-like ability to

sway software developers to the Microsoft

cause and his capacity to generate piles of money. But he also

company cash on

excelled at blowing mountains of

end,

stunts. In the

St.

wild marketing

John's reckless behavior and disregard for

authority exhausted the company's capacity for tolerance. By the

time his reign of creativity and terror at Microsoft ended, six-foot

frame had ballooned

to well over three

he had grown a Unabomber beard, some

when

his

hundred pounds and

at Microsoft

were con-

vinced he was raised by wolves.

Not

He

quite.

was raised in the Alaskan wilderness, in tiny villages where his

parents had gone to teach under a grant from the Ford Foundation.

Bush teachers, he

calls

them. As

St.

John

tells

their assignment to

it,

the Last Frontier was part exile for protesting the

Vietnam War while

teaching at Berkeley and part atonement for ancestral white

John was to

sins. St.

told that in the eighteenth century Russian fur traders used

maroon Aleut natives on barren

the traders would return with

islands to

hunt

enough food and

Aleuts over until the next season.

A

seals.

After a while

supplies to hold the

kinder cultural plundering

occurred when the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in the nineteenth century. Missionaries reached the frontier to

show the

natives about the loving ways of Christ. Later, educators arrived to

teach indigenous people about vowels, consonants, and things like the Pythagorean theorem. St.

John's parents were

among

those educators. Born February

3,

1967, in Berkeley, California, he was the eldest of four children.

Despite the Alaskan isolation, his was not a tight family. "In

many ways I was an

only child," he

says.

His father has doctorate degrees in physics and linguistics, speaks seven languages, and at one time enjoyed experimenting with explosives.

He once

across the yard.

built

an acetylene cannon to

fire

rubber chickens

RENEGADES "He was

sort of a

mad

THE EMPIRE

OF

scientist," St.

John

says.

His mother was an elementary and high school teacher. St. John's earliest

memories are of flying

to

remote

Some

where

villages,

of his

parents would teach Athabascan Indians to read and write, or sailing

how

to islands to teach Aleuts

home

He

schooled.

to solve

never knew what

math problems.

it

was

like to

John was

St.

run with a pack.

His sense of isolation was amplified by living in a land that surrenders to six

months of winter darkness.

During summer months beginning when he was eleven, ents

would leave him

at the University

"My family's idea of day care was versity all day, while It

was here

system,

St.

and he

leaving

me at the library at the uni-

dad worked on one of his Ph.D.

John discovered

started playing

A

chess. Mostly Star Trek.

his par-

of Alaska in Fairbanks.

theses,"

the school's Honeywell

he

says.

computer

computer games. Hangman. Some

couple of benevolent nerds would some-

times take time to explain the complexities of computers to him.

John's digital seduction had begun.

Little

St.

did he realize that com-

puter games would one day launch him into the front ranks of the world's largest software maker, where he prestige,

When

win adulation, and lose a

he was thirteen,

20 personal computer. epiphanies, this was

his.

would make a fortune, gain

family.

his parents

bought him

If thirteen-year-old

a

Commodore VIC-

boys are capable of

While some of his peers were playing war or

snickering at the forbidden pages of Playboy,

St.

John was teaching

himself the early programming language BASIC (Beginner's All-

purpose Svmbolic Instruction Code) and writing Fearful that he might not be smart

enough

his first

program.

to survive in the real

world, he typed in four thousand vocabulary words and created a

computerized flash-card system. "I

was a geek from then on," he

He continued math and grown

his

home

says. "I

wanted

to

be the geek lord."

schooling. In his spare time he studied

physics books. Yet by the time he was seventeen he

distant

from

his parents.

His

mom was busy with

had

his two-year-

old brother. His dad was often busy studying or drinking.

St.

John

ALEX

applied

the

for

IN

University

WONDERLAND of

School

Alaska's

of

Electrical

Engineering, but he had no transcripts and no general equivalency degree. "I

The school

rejected his application.

was always very insecure that

much

missed so versity's

reaction was that

what was

first

He had SAT, ACT,

to

I

couldn't measure up, that

by not attending high school," he

reflected at

I

must be

me and

I

terribly

I

had

"The uni-

recalls.

uneducated. This was

was incredibly paranoid."

wade through an alphabet soup of entrance exams

GED — before the university would even consider his appli-

cation. His insecurity

and obsessive desire

age drove him to study as

many as

to

measure up

to others his

twenty hours a day. Even as a teen,

he developed the work ethos that would one day make him

attractive

to Microsoft recruiters. "I

was so obsessed with doing well on those

myself to ensure

Indeed, as well

on

St.

his

I

would do well on them," he

John earned ACT. The

a perfect 1600

He

on

I

nearly killed

says.

his

SAT and

did nearly

university admitted him, but required

take prerequisites before allowing

Engineering.

tests that

him

him

to

into the School of Electrical

signed up for the advanced classes anyway, again

demonstrating the sort of moxie that would be a blessing and a curse at Microsoft.

did well and showed the results to a guidance coun-

who promptly waived

selor,

Still, St.

John remained

from peers during

lated

"Am

He

I

smart enough?"

It

the prerequisites.

insecure, perhaps a legacy of his time iso-

his formative years.

was

this

The question burned:

walked into a soup kitchen in Fairbanks one day and met the

he would

love, marry,

and abandon. He claims he walked

unteer. Kelley Farrell, the

who woman

person, an unaware genius,

woman who became

Kelley

St.

in to vol-

John, has a

different take. "I

think he was there to get something to eat," she says from her

home

in Bangor,

Maine.

Kelley was doing Methodist missionary

soup kitchen. She

is

Her life was devoted

work

a foot shorter than he to

and

as a volunteer at the is

six years his senior.

humanity, not machines. She didn't

know any-

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

thing about computers. Theirs was a case of opposites attracting.

They married within

a year of meeting.

"Terribly eccentric

and dangerous" were her

first

impressions

of him. Kelley says she

mores.

When

was locked. its

St.

fell

for Alex because of his disregard for social

they arrived at the chapel to get married, the church

John and

his best

man broke

by taking the door off

in

hinges before the minister showed up. Later,

grandmother, the elderly

Kelley's

"He

said, 'Well,

woman

told "

you have a big nose,'

when introduced

St.

John he was

Kelley recalls.

unconcerned about what people thought of him.

I

was

to

fat.

"He was

totally

con-

He always looked missomething. And usually he was. It

cerned about what people thought of me. chievous, like he was always

took St.

me

a while to realize

John excelled

up

to

this."

through

in his studies, breezing

classes while his

peers struggled. In two years he had completed two-thirds of his

undergraduate work. at the

He would

have graduated, but Kelley's mission

soup kitchen was over and she wanted

Maine.

St.

to return to

her native

John quit the University of Alaska and looked forward to

applying to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yet

when

they arrived on the East Coast,

money nor

didn't have the

did he

fit

John discovered they

St.

the student-loan profile to gain

entrance into MIT.

"That was incredibly frustrating for me," His dream of attending

MIT

of Maine outside of Bangor. University of Alaska was

St.

John

John

says.

The disappointment only mounted. The

renowned

for

math and science depart-

its

ments. Students there tended to be older,

enon

St.

dashed, he enrolled at the University

more

serious

— a phenom-

ascribes to the remoteness of the campus.

University of Maine lectures to be remedial ture drunkards.

During

this time, St.

and

his peers to

He found be imma-

John demonstrated the

type of

unpredictable behavior that would be his hallmark at Microsoft.

and Kelley were

in Portland,

He

Maine, where he was catching a bus to

see his parents in Boston. Kelley drove back to her apartment in

ALEX

Bangor and found,

to

IN

WONDERLAND at the door.

He

didn't have two pennies to rub together

and

her shock,

St.

John waiting

never got on the bus.

man who

"This was a

he took a cab

all

the way back to Bangor, which

two hours,"

like

is

Kelley recalls.

The bus was

too crowded with smokers,

St.

John

says.

Shortly afterward, Kelley crashed their only car. Unable to afford

another,

St.

John

Boston area.

He

quit the University of Maine to search for

work

quickly got a job at Hell Graphics Systems, a

company, and the

St.

Johns moved

to

in the

German

Woburn, Massachusetts.

By now he had learned fourteen computer languages, and Hell put him to work helping the company's resident PostScript expert. PostScript

is

Adobe's technology that allows a printer to

spit

out text

and graphics exactly as they appear on a computer screen. His assigned mentor asked take the

him

to study PostScript,

young upstart a few months

years. St.

John returned

—

after

all, it

expecting

the next day professing to

nology. His supervisor, shrugging

him

off as

he was stumped by a PostScript problem.

would

it

had taken him two

know

an arrogant

the tech-

kid, told

him

John looked over

his

mentor's shoulder and suggested what he thought was an obvious

fix.

It

worked. Soon, "It

was

gling.

all

solving his mentor's problems regularly.

John was

very surreal," he recalls. "After two years he was

He had

PostScript he this guy.

St.

St.

all this

power and authority based on

had amassed.

I

discovered

And he was supposed

to

know

I

this

still

strug-

ignorance of

knew PostScript better than

it

better than

anyone

in the

company." St.

John

realized that his fears of inadequacy were

He calls it the epiphany from Hell. He went on to design PostScript products tasks. St.

mere phantoms.

that simplified printing

John's acumen, intelligence, and innovation did not go

unnoticed.

Nor did

his personality quirks.

stepped around the office to

mock

his

He sometimes

German

In the late 1980s, Linotype bought Hell and the to relocate

product development and

St.

John

goose-

coworkers.

company wanted

to Kiel,

Germany. But

RENEGADES bv

now he was having

THE EMPIRE

OF

run-ins with his

German

masters over business

He

declined the promotion with an unam-

Kelley

had of spending more time with her

husband ended when he was

offered and took a job at Harlequin

and technology

decisions.

biguous "Fuck no!"

He Ltd.,

quit.

Any hopes

He

based in Cambridge, England.

relocated to Harlequin

come

headquarters, leaving his wife in Maine. She would jugal

visits," as

measured

he puts was

in time,

it.

for "con-

But the distance between them, before

now

also

measured by some four thousand

nautical miles.

She continued work

computer

industry.

as a

camp counselor while he ascended

He went supernova

was run, in his words, by research developing

artificial intelligence

Harlequin.

at

in the

The company

"jerk-offs" primarily interested in

programs. But as

it

turned out, one

of the company's engineers had written his graduate thesis about a PostScript interpreter, this scholarly

work

St.

John

to help

into a marketable PostScript product.

he discovered that the

make products

and Harlequin hired

British are "brilliant

St.

develop

John

says

and have no idea how

to

for consumers." Nonetheless, at the age of twenty-

one, he and a chap by the

name

of Jeremy Kenyon built the

Harlequin PostScript Interpreter or RIP. The technology turned the publishing industry on

its

ear because

it

was two to three times faster

than anything Adobe had for low-end PCs.

St.

John

also

helped

Harlequin develop what's called throughput technology that freed

up networked Macintosh computers during

Mac would

freeze until a printing job was finished, creating delays of

minutes or hours, depending on the

many other Macs had work queued was a hot

name

printing. Before, the

seller

started

size

of the

document and how

to the printer. St.

John's product

and gave competitor Adobe Systems

showing up

in trade journals

fits. St.

and on the

target

John's lists

of

computer-industry headhunters.

During her second conjugal

visit,

She made a couple of round-trip

Kelley realized she was pregnant.

forays, including

one

pregnancy. But she returned to Maine to have the baby.

late in

her

ALEX "I

had

want

to fly back," she says. "I didn't

England. in

WONDERLAND

IN

wanted

I

England,

Rhomni

I

to

be with

would have

St.

it

my

family.

have the baby in

to

knew

I

had the baby

if I

alone. Alex was working long hours."

John was born May

1992, the

4,

first

of two

girls

the

couple would have. Shortly after his daughter was born, Harlequin

opened

a field office in Salem,

the States

Soon

and

after,

New Hampshire.

St.

John returned

to

to his family.

Harlequin decided

it

wanted

to start

making hard-

ware accelerators because Adobe had announced plans to make them.

An

accelerator, as

mance.

St.

arguing

it

its

name

John fought with

implies, speeds

Anglo bosses over that

his

was best to focus on

moneymaker

its

preters, the software that takes what's on-screen to

put

it

on paper.

tives in

in Boston.

it

strategy,

— PostScript and

tells

inter-

a printer

John's idea to base the American

St.

But shortly

England thought

office located in

in

had been

where taxes were cheaper and

office in Salem,

mare than

It

computer perfor-

after the

would be

Cambridge, a twin

traffic less

thrilling to

to the

a night-

move, company execuhave their

field

Harlequin headquarters

Cambridge, England. This was the beginning of the "ego wars"

as Kelley calls "I

them.

was not going to move to Boston, where

my

taxes

would be

eleven percent higher without additional compensation, for such a delusional idea,"

St.

John

says.

After two years at Harlequin, he quit.

wanted

to find

landing a job.

whose

work

St.

camp

Camps were

first priorities

Meanwhile,

as a

skittish

would be

John worked

He was just twenty-five.

to

about hiring a young mother, her baby, not camp business.

as a freelance

computer consultant and

was on pace to make a quarter of a million dollars a St.

Kelley

but was having problems

director,

John enjoyed the freedom of being

his

own

year.

boss.

He

was

inter-

viewed by and wrote pieces for computer trade publications such as Seybold

and

Color Publishing magazines.

"The press adulation was fun," he But

as intoxicating as seeing his

says.

name

in print was,

nothing would

RENEGADES compare

THE EMPIRE

OF

to the rush of being courted by the mightiest software

com-

pany on the planet.

During that ration

day in Redmond,

first

and intimidation.

John

St.

recalls a

mix of exhila-

Microsoft's inquisitors challenged

him more

than anyone else ever had. "What interrupt would you hook to get an 18.2 millisecond clock tick

hook

on the PC?" "How could you chain the

so as not to disrupt the whole system?"

He

how he

was unsure

was doing and thought he stumbled when asked

if

he was a "people

person."

"No,

He told

I

think most people are idiots,"

didn't really

him

good

know for what

St.

for the Visual Basic team, but

evangelist.

Now

John

replied.

Some he might make a

position he was interviewing.

most

said

there was a curious term.

under the rubric of Developer

Evangelist teams were created

Relations Group, the brainchild of Steve Ballmer, Gates's Harvard

buddy who had become second-in-command idea,

borrowed from Apple, was

at Microsoft. Ballmer's

marshal a force of

to

brilliant engi-

neers with aggressive personalities. Nerds with charisma. Microsoft

would deploy these

strike

teams into the

encour-

field, ostensibly to

age software developers to use Microsoft products. Neither customer

support nor marketers, per with technical expertise

se,

and a

they were evangelists and

showmen

hypnotist's gift for persuasion. Their

job was to meet face-to-face with developers and informationtechnology buyers at corporations in an effort to control "mindshare," to get customers to develop software for

very least, get

them

Michael Winser

who

to

—a

frame their thinking tall,

Windows

or, at

the

in terms of Microsoft.

skinny, blond-haired Microsoft evangelist

loved Ultimate Frisbee games and wore Day-Glo suits

good example of the breed.

St.

—was a

John recounts how Winser could con-

vince software developers that he

knew what he was

talking about,

even on those rare occasions when he didn't have a clue.

If faced

with

a question he couldn't bluff his way through or otherwise dismiss,

he'd whip out a notebook and scribble lines of gibberish to look as

if

ture was

he were taking meaningful notes. The subtext of

"I'll

get back to you." In reality

I

2

it

was a diversion.

make

it

this ges-

ALEX

IN

WONDERLAND

At one time, Microsoft evangelists were also usually chartered with

up

disrupting competitors by showing

at their conferences, securing

on and then tangling standards committees, and

positions

trying to

influence the media. In short, evangelists did whatever

took to win

it

—

to

advance

Microsoft's interests.

John was

St.

told the

job entailed

cool Microsoft technology first

is."

But

"and you

travel

it

tell

how

people

wasn't until he had lunch that

day with former master Microsoft evangelist Ken Fowles that the

meaning of the job description became more "We're the group petitors," St.

John

Fowles spoke to

understood

John

St.

One

is

to fuck Microsoft's

com-

Fowles saying. "He was very frank." in

men

war metaphor, a language both

mission of Developer Relations

was to bolster smaller

gelists tors,

well.

Microsoft whose job

at

recalls

clear.

allies.

Group

evan-

By supporting smaller competi-

Microsoft could help fragment market share and weaken the

position of principal

such as Apple, Borland International, and

rivals,

St. John how Developer Relations Group more than encourage other companies to use

Oracle Corp. Fowles told evangelists did

Microsoft technology. Evangelists were also in the business of

mind

control.

"You'd insert your hand into their brains and adjust them,"

John

says.

make

St.

"You'd put the world in terms of Microsoft for them. To

them on a

that a thought for

daily basis. If they loved

you

or hated you, that didn't matter, so long as they were thinking

about you." St.

John saw Fowles

"I

knew I wanted

him," Fowles

people

recalls. "I've

at Microsoft,

Fowles

is

who

and earned

comes

to

soul.

Fowles feels the same way.

him within the

come

but nobody

minutes of talking to

across interesting

and obnoxious

— a cerebral wild man. He's an accomSymphony

at the

age of

music scholarship to the University of

a

computing.

first

like Alex."

played in the Seattle

Washington when he was it

kindred

a study in contrasts

plished violinist twelve

as a

to hire

sixteen. Fowles sees over the horizon

He was

the one arguing that

"

3

when

Windows should

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

have had the capability to understand different languages such as

Spanish and German, rather than shipping thirty different versions of the operating system in thirty different languages. Only later did

He

Microsoft seize on that idea.

would roar

how many

it

through Microsoft's underground parking

car alarms he could trigger.

known

black ponytail and has been

when camped on road annual

also rides a Harley-Davidson

He

lots to see

wears his hair in a long

to guzzle

vodka from a bottle

South Dakota,

trips to Sturgis,

site

Fowles told

St.

John

that Microsoft didn't hire evangelists,

So began

St.

and baby daughter.

his wife

wanted him.

On

John

before had

be worth millions in a few

prestigious center of the felt old.

hair. In

John

Redmond,

his age.

the sylvan

Henrich

he'd interviewed the day

He

John

St.

to breakfast.

of

offered

St.

John a

salary of

didn't fully appreciate the

would

years.

He

St.

John

felt flat-

was impressed with the caliber of

campus

itself,

which he thought of as the

On the East Coast, every-

computer industry.

Even many of his computer colleagues there had gray the glass-and-brick buildings looked new, set

against stands of Douglas

be

not

But Microsoft

relatively paltry, the stock options

tered, but didn't tip his hand.

to

St.

breakfast was cordial, but noncommittal.

smarts at Microsoft and the

thing

that bad.

all

whom

hiring him.

$58,000 and 2,880 stock options.

—while the salary was

if

was able to spend time with

Life wasn't

that everyone with

recommended

He

made

Doug Henrich, second-in-command

Saturday,

Developer Relations Group, invited told St.

it

elite.

John's indoctrination. Yet he was comfortable,

professionally challenged, in Maine.

The

of the

Harley riders gathering.

them. Like members of the Special Forces, evangelists were

offer

and

fir,

hemlock, and spruce. Everyone seemed

People walked the

campus weren't bad

halls in

either

bare

feet!

The amenities of

—free drinks, quality food, most

every office had a view. After breakfast,

St.

John

told

Henrich he'd

think about the offer and returned to his hotel room. Meanwhile,

Henrich called Fowles and told him

wanted

St.

John.

14

to turn

up the heat

— Microsoft

ALEX

Ten minutes

WONDERLAND

IN

Fowles called

later

St.

John and

him

invited

had rented out the

Microsoft's Christmas party. Gates

Seattle

to

Center

The

and was flying in thousands of employees from

all

over the globe.

party was for employees only, but Fowles told

St.

John he'd arrange

something.

St.

John accepted the invitation, and that night Fowles

arrived in his black Jaguar with his wife

Slipping

St.

John

Fowles's position.

badge for his

St.

St.

John

to

and

son.

was a problem, even for a

in legitimately

wear during the

party.

if he were retrieving a badge from

again.

The

sleight of

Once

inside, Fowles set St.

eclipsed the rubber-chicken

for his family,

St. John, only to flash his

St.

John and

unwittingly

John was smuggled

free to take

in.

it all

in.

This party far

most

office

and children

at the

ice-sculpture affairs of

bashes. Microsoft employees checked their coats

door.

In line at the Seattle

and those

hand worked. The guard

scanned the same badge twice and

a

Fowles had photocopied

own and used colored felt pens to fill in detail.

turned as

in

John was not an employee. So Fowles forged

Center, Fowles flashed the guard his badge

own badge

man

Each parent got a beeper and each kid got a corresponding

wrist tag.

The

kids

were escorted off

to a separate party so the adults

could enjoy the main event. Civilized bacchanalia

filled

Seattle Center, a giant hall usually dedicated to boat

ventions.

A

the entire

shows and con-

two-story castle of helium balloons floated a few feet off

the ground. Halls were partitioned into various

theme rooms. There

was the Roaring '20s speakeasy room. Another room had a Halloween theme, with ghouls walking around to the song "The Monster Mash."

There were jazz

round

twirled.

halls,

western

halls,

Clowns walked around yukking

women up

in

carnival halls.

it

up among men

evening gowns. This being a Microsoft

in jeans

cocktails

and

Sword swallowers slipped blades down

and

poured

T-shirts. freely.

Food flowed from

A

merry-go-

their throats.

in tuxedos

party,

and

many showed

Wine, beer, and

tables.

Alex had entered Wonderland.

Fowles had said earlier that

St.

John would have

purpose to see what Microsoft evangelism was

to

all

change

about.

have to be willing to completely retool any plans he had

'

5

his life's

He would

made about

RENEGADES his future. It

St.

John.

pany that could party

in

THE EMPIRE

was an intriguing challenge. But the Christmas soiree

was what seduced

that

OF

like

He knew he wanted to be part this. He returned home to tell

he had seen. She agreed

to

move, provided they return

of a comKelley to

all

Maine

two years. "I

had

to see

evangelized."

what was on the other

side," St.

John

says. "I

was

THE UNHOLY TROIKA

emerge from of the most innovative technologies ever Some Microsoft were born inside a weight room amid the grunts of to

men and

clank of iron.

Inside the Pro Club near the company's

Redmond campus,

three

of Gates's evangelists would gather to build bulk, argue technology,

and

battle for physical

recruited Alex

and

intellectual supremacy.

St. John, just twenty-five years old,

young Canadian code monkey named Craig backwoods genius named Eric Engstrom

The newly

would team with a

Eisler

and a resourceful

—forming an alliance that

would change the entire computer-gaming

industry.

Each came from

a different corner of the Northern Hemisphere, brought together by

chance or

fate or

whatever serendipitous force

pulls those of notoriety into

ate technology that

Windows

it

orbit.

possible for

The

rival

would soon

run on

Apple Computer Corp.

and rammed

it

from

their

through with ruthless determination and

indifference to internal political decorum. ket terrain

to

cre-

had the added benefit

built their technology without initial approval

superiors

sometimes

that

it is

trio

computer games

95, a seminal technological feat that

of frustrating

They

made

mutual

They captured new mar-

and generated untold millions of dollars

pany. But their victory earned

them a long

"7

for Gates's

line of

com-

enemies inside

— RENEGADES Microsoft.

The

THE EMPIRE

OF

had expected fame and recognition

three

form

in the

of generous stock-option bonuses and meteoric career advancement.

When much

of that failed to immediately materialize, the

spired to seize Gates's

The

new ground again

most important

—

this

trio

con-

time on the Internet,

Bill

battlefield.

new mission

three called their

Chrome, an attempt

Project

to

bring motion-picture-quality 3-D graphics and high-fidelity sound to the

World Wide Web. Think of the movie

and you had an idea of Chrome's at

Microsoft were concerned, they

their

hoped

gaming technology had come up

Chrome would do

for the

meeting the Web And as far as their careers

Toy Story

potential.

would succeed where

it

short.

Web what

color did for television

improve the user experience, generate mass sons for consumers to spend

Chrome would make how

demanding

to do. Creating 3-D graphics like the

must be solved

give rea-

computers.

Web

task that relatively few

computer games requires a Poindexter's math lations

and

faster

easy for almost anyone to build 3-D

it

pages, heretofore a technically

people knew

interest,

more money on

skills.

ones used in

Complex

to achieve the illusion of light

calcu-

shading and

depth. Most Web pages used two-dimensional graphics that were simple drawings or photographs of real-world objects. But a 3-D object,

when put in

inside a

Web

page, could be moved, scaled, and animated

dynamic ways not possible with 2-D images. Instead of just show-

ing a car

car, say,

a 3-D

Web

page could allow users

and check out the roomy

Moreover,

Chrome would send

this richer

sonal computers in a fraction of the time of

Web

And

to climb inside the

interior.

content to people's perit

took conventional

sta-

would do so using

existing dial-up

phone connections with standard-speed modems,

the devices that

tic

pages to load.

connect PCs the television

to the Internet.

it

The world would not have

and giant telecommunications companies

expensive broadband cable

to roll

out

modem sendee or high-speed digital sub-

scriber lines to households. Best of

Chrome,

to wait for

as initially conceived,

all

from Microsoft's perspective,

would not be

free.

Unlike the com-

THE UNHOLY TROIKA

— the software that allows computer the Web — new "browser on steroids"

pany's Internet Explorer browser users to view pages

would come

this

to

Windows 98 and Windows

Gates would have a

Finally,

That

away.

on

an option

as

is,

if

Web

browser he didn't have to give

the U.S. government's antitrust

mies inside Microsoft

itself

didn't torpedo

hounds or even ene-

Chrome

first.

Less than a year after he started with Microsoft,

looned

to

NT 5.0.

more than 340 pounds. His

wife, Kelley,

St.

John had

bal-

was pregnant with

second daughter. By mid-1993 he was working fourteen-hour

their

days at his office or

technology

on the road, evangelizing

— technology he knew

to

Microsoft's printing

be inferior to Apple's. Familial

neglect and playing pitchman for what he called a "pitiful" line of printing technology compelled easy thing to

are

do

at Microsoft,

St.

John

around almost every corner and the

fast-food St.

and semifine

and rather than spend

his family, the

cafeterias cater a

less

"But

lived

time at the office and

avowed workaholic decided he needed

He had lost a spotter when he and

and he

an

gamut of

cuisine.

John had been a dedicated weight lifter when he

Coast,

gym.

to swallow a lot of stress,

where free sodas and vending machines

his family

on the East

more time with

to get

back to the

moved from Maine,

tried desperately to find a lifting partner at Microsoft. I

was in the land of scrawny nerds," he

says.

when he met Craig Eisler, a short, stocky Canadian who had done some competitive power-lifting while a high school student in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In June 1993, His luck changed

Eisler was hired as

eight-year-old

an evangelist, an unlikely

man who many

computer keyboard than student,

felt

was more

in front of people.

fit

at

home behind

But

game

Pudgy

as a

built

on

a

a

Eisler, a stellar

had been a coding demon since he sold

puter

for a twenty-

borrowed Commodore PET

his first at

com-

age sixteen.

youth and forced to proselytize door-to-door with his

mother, a devout Jehovah's Witness, Eisler hadn't had an easy time

growing up. "I

was the kid that everyone liked to beat up," he

says.

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

That was one reason he took up power-lifting while a student

He earned

puting.

at

He also mastered the power of com-

Fort William Collegiate Institute.

his credentials as a

maverick genius while

University of Waterloo, near Toronto, a school

renowned

at the

for

its

mathematics and computer science departments. Once, while work-

Bank of Montreal under the

ing for the

he hacked

his

university's co-op

way into the bank's master were suddenly

Billions of dollars

at his

list

program,

of customer passwords.

young

fingertips.

Of

course,

he didn't disappear with the money. Nonetheless, the experience was an epiphany of potential.

inherent

He

fragility

puter crash. security

he came

sorts as

later

when he

When

program

to realize technology's

inadvertently triggered a nationwide com-

he and others

after

he'd

at the

made

bank

run a routine

failed to

changes, the result was like push-

ing over a row of digital dominoes.

went

awesome

learned the corollary lesson about technology's

One

by one computer terminals

black.

"No

anywhere had a computer working for an hour," he

teller

recalls. "All

of Canada was out for a

little

while. At the time

it

was

like

the coolest thing I'd ever done."

But one of

Eisler's greatest

achievements

tured the interest of Microsoft

—was developing the

tender for Windows 3.0 while a programmer Corp., later to

Windows Windows

become Sybase

3.0, a vast

— and the one that capat

first

Watcom

Inc., his first job

improvement on the

out of college. original version of

released in 1985, was a 16-bit operating system.

16-bit refers to

32-bit ex-

International

The term

how much code the software and hardware can The largest contiguous chunk of memory

process at any one time.

the older operating systems would allow an application to use was

64 kilobytes, expressed as 64K. To write an application that used

more than 64K, developers had this limitation via 32-bit

32-bit extenders for

was

much more

manually accommodate for Many companies had written Windows predecessor. But Windows to

extenders.

DOS,

the

difficult to

extend.

Still,

Microsoft had told him was impossible

2

O

Eisler did

— he was the

what some first to

at

write

— THE UNHOLY TROIKA

software

extended Windows 3.0

that

to

accommodate

32-bit

programs. "Microsoft didn't want Crigger, like

one of the

people doing

But

Eisler,

that couldn't

someone upstaging them,"

original founders of the old

an incredibly

Watcom. "They don't

fast

code

writer,

had a way of doing things

— or shouldn't—be done.

after Eisler.

"Sometimes

The

the volume was amazing.

and the ego grew with

it

who joined

wasn't the most elegant code, but

technical

competence was amazing

that."

Indeed, Eisler believes that intelligence in the universe ingly rare

Fred

that."

"His output was prodigious," recalls Greg Bentz,

Watcom

recalls

and

that

afraid of saying so

he

is

exceed-

smarter than those around him. He's not

is

and doesn't suffer fools

Watcom management cringed when

Crigger recalls that

lightly.

Eisler

handled

calls

from

cus-

tomers.

"He was

like

two people," says Crigger. "Nice and helpful with cus-

tomers, but he'd curse their stupidity after they Eisler's gruff attitude

hung

up."

earned him rebukes from managers, who

suggested he learn to work better with others,

the while boosting

all

his pay. In

response to one admonishment, Eisler customized his

PC desktop

with the large-typeface words "Happy Thoughts!" drip-

ping blood.

Some to

at

Watcom were

become an

astonished

when

Eisler said

he was leaving

evangelist at Microsoft, a job that entailed smiling a lot

and pressing the

flesh.

They shouldn't have been

surprised. Microsoft

was where the money was. "Part of his motivation to leave for Microsoft was for financial gain," says Bentz.

to

"He had

materialistic goals.

Still, it

was

be an evangelist? The way you are with people?' Moreover, by hiring

ing for

someone

else,

Eisler,

Microsoft prevented

a hiring rationale that has

like,

'You're going

"

him from

innovat-

become one of

the

keys to the company's success. St.

John knew the minute he saw

2

I

Eisler that

he had done some

RENEGADES weight

lifting.

In fact, although Eisler stood but five foot six inches,

much

he was pound for pound

stronger than

"had the personality of a surly

Eisler

him

THE EMPIRE

OF

into

coming

to the

Pro Club with him. The

predictably badly. Each

had

mechanics of lifting heavy

"The

first

troll," St.

own ways and

his

St.

John. Although

John first

says

he cajoled

few sessions went

theories

on the proper

objects.

few times we didn't get along,"

St.

John

says.

"He was

my point of view and we argued constantly. But much need of a lifting partner as I was, and over time

completely anal from

he was it

in just as

developed into a friendship."

As close something

as Eisler

and

St.

John were becoming, there was

still

— or rather someone — missing. That someone was Eric

Engstrom. Engstrom, a self-taught programmer and corn-fed boy from the wilds of Oroville in eastern Washington, evangelist.

contact with Eisler at Watcom.

people in general

I

have with the cows you

eat."

The two shared

have as

much

And

been a Microsoft

company.

a mutual loathing of

And

his

in

telling

common

one unfortu-

with you as you

yet

you couldn't paint Engstrom

He

savored conversation with the

simply as an arrogant misanthrope.

real hoot"

also

— Engstrom was once heard

nate soul, "Understand,

right

had

Engstrom's evangelical wanderings had thrown him into

Viking laugh and use of the phrase "That's a

bespoke an undeniable homespun charm.

As a boy growing up in

tiny Oroville,

kering with electronic gadgets.

Engstrom was constantly

The kitchen

tin-

table was so cluttered

with radio gear and other electro-flotsam that his parents would serve guests meals

Like

many

on

TV

trays.

four-year-old boys in 1969,

Neil Armstrong's Apollo step for later

man" moon

1 1

Engstrom was captivated by

lunar landing and the classic "one small

walk. Swain Porter, a childhood friend

work with Engstrom

at Microsoft, recalls their

who would

sandbox

days:

"The other kids would be playing and he would be by himself counting backwards from a hundred, get to zero, and

He

already was thinking of going to the moon."

2 2

yell, 'Blastoff!'

THE UNHOLY TROIKA

That captivation became an obsession. Engstrom was determined to travel into space.

When

he was eleven, he and a friend

Netronics Elf computer from a

computer

in Oroville

homemade

robot.

kit

— by

all

accounts the

—which Engstrom planned

The

to

built a

first

mount

home

inside his

would help guide Engstrom 's

robot, of course,

spaceship.

"At about twelve years of age

working on

start

says. "I

this project if

it

became

it

were

was a very serious young man.

clear to

me I had

really to succeed,"

I still

to really

Engstrom

intend to finish that one

of these days."

Even when Engstrom ascended the steel carcass of his robot

still

to the

rested in a scattered

foyer of his million-dollar waterfront

Engstrom had written started his

his

own

upper ranks

home

in Kirkland,

at Microsoft,

heap

in the

Washington.

business software as a teen and even

own company, Concentric Software

Design, which built

accounting packages for apple growers in eastern Washington. folded the

company and

which proved

to

tried attending

Washington

be a mind-numbing experience.

He

State University,

He

quit school

and

sought fortune as a contract software programmer, embellishing his

resume and

successfully bluffing his

when one company he worked and returned

for

way through job went

belly-up,

interviews.

But

he grew dejected

to live with his parents.

Joy and George Engstrom conceived Eric when they were middle-

aged

—she was in her

forties,

he

a youth, Eric spent a lot of time

had in

largely retired

downtown

in his

fifties.

bonding with

The upside was his father,

by then

from running the GRJ Western and Variety Store

Oroville.

The downside was

that by the time

turned thirty-one, old age had claimed his mother's stolen his father's short-term

life

Engstrom

and had

memory.

Engstrom was twenty-three and operating the

when an

who

that as

Little Oasis car

wash

old friend from Oroville, Stan Gazaway, called from Seattle.

Gazaway had been doing some consulting work for Microsoft, knew that to

Engstrom was spinning

come

to the

Emerald

his

wheels in Oroville, and implored him

City.

23

RENEGADES "I

THE EMPIRE

OF

spent hours on the phone, convincing him he could get

Gazaway

at Microsoft,"

met

ninety percent of the people I've

The

this job

him, 'You're smarter than

recalls. "I told

here.'

"

position was a contract job for the company's product-

support services, answering questions via phone and mail about pro-

grams written

in

Engstrom knew

C and

Fortran, a

computer language about which

litde.

Engstrom showed up for

Empire

his first interview at the

in full

Oroville regalia. "I

he

bought the best plaid

says.

"Washed them up

shirt

could find and brand-new jeans,"

I

just spiffy.

looked

I

utter idiot, in retrospect. But an idiot in clean

like a

complete and

and newly purchased

clothing."

Because the job was for a contract position, the interview was tively easy

become

— not one

rela-

of the intellectual brain grinders that have

part of Microsoft lore. Engstrom got the job

and

started the

next day. Fortunately, most Fortran programmers needing assistance

were used

to dealing with

punch

cards, the antiquated

way of feed-

ing information into a computer. Those programmers' proclivity was to

submit questions via mail, giving Engstrom a

little

extra time to for-

mulate answers.

Within

his first

week on the job, Engstrom eyed Ann McCurdy, an

intern at Microsoft,

and asked her

out.

She demurred. But two days

before his monthlong contract at the

company was

relented and agreed to go out with him.

more than

three years

and

set a

wedding

to end, she

They would romance

for

date.

At the end of his contract, Engstrom found himself courted by two

companies

— Microsoft

Engstrom $2,000

less a

and nearby Data

I-O.

Microsoft offered

year than Data I-O, but threw in 1,600 stock

options and an annual 15 percent salary bonus. Companies issue stock options as up-front signing

the theory that

do a

if

and performance inducements on

you own shares of the company, chances are

you'll

better job. Stock options are issued at the existing market price.

The options have

a date

when

you're allowed to buy the stock at the

24

THE UNHOLY TROIKA

optioned price. later,

the exercise price

meaning you into

When you

some

is

years

usually lower than the current share price,

and

usually get the stock at a substantial discount

step

serious money.

Engstrom, for

computer

all his

"Stock options," he muses. they pull

on those options

exercise or cash in

on people

"I

savvy, failed to

grasp this concept.

said to myself that's

one of those things

in plaid shirts.

They

give stock options to trick

people out of the real money."

Engstrom took the job with Data jokingly says cost

him about $20

He bounced around

to

again in the

fall

finally quit

maker Symantec Corp. Engstrom, now

's

fiancee, was

Bob Taniguchi, one of if

calling

of 1991.

Ann McCurdy, Engstrom Microsoft.

half-

be swallowed by Cupertino,

found himself unemployed when Microsoft came

twenty-six,

asked her

he only

couple of companies and

to a

when one of his employers was about California-based software

I-O, a decision

million.

now working

full-time at

Microsoft's original evangelists,

Engstrom would be offended

if

he offered him a job. She

didn't reveal that her husband-to-be was out of work, but indicated that

he might be open

to

an

offer.

"Microsoft needs coders with strong people

Engstrom,

who thought

What Engstrom

skills,"

Taniguchi told

the pitch ironic.

did have was strong rhetorical

skills.

Never one

to

shrink from an argument, Engstrom once successfully debated with a hobbyist astronomer that Venus, not Polaris, was indeed the North Star.

A good evangelist need not be burdened with facts. He aced his

second interview gelist in the

at Microsoft

job

as technical-tools evan-

company's Developer Relations Group.

But the honeymoon didn't his

and got the job

last long.

Engstrom was

six

months

as a technical evangelist at the still-rising software

when, three days before he was moniously

dumped him

to

be married,

his fiancee uncere-

for another Microsoft employee.

The

crushed him. "I

didn't

do much of anything

for two years,"

2 5

into

company

Engstrom

says.

jilt

RENEGADES

EMPIRE

THE

OF

Every day for months Engstrom arrived at Microsoft and did what

few at the company ever got away with

—

sat in a chair

and stared

the ceiling. After his marriage plans collapsed, Engstrom fle

into

work and spend hours gazing from

one with the words

across campus, the

would

his office at the

at

shuf-

window

"Just Married!" happily spray-

painted on the pane.

As miserable with Eisler. 32-bit

as

he was, Engstrom

Engstrom had met him

Windows extender

at

still

enjoyed getting together

after the

Watcom and

Canadian developed the

the two nurtured a friend-

ship initially out of self-interest. Eisler looked to

Engstrom

as

an

entree into Microsoft. Engstrom, on the other hand, claimed the

Canadian Eisler

as

one of

his evangelical success stories, despite the fact

was working on the Windows extender before Engstrom had

started paying visits to

"He was the

Watcom.

tools evangelist

[Windows] platform," Eisler

and needed

says. "I

to get results for the

was the only independent

soft-

ware developer that would do anvthing for him."

During

this time, Eisler

only half-jokingly said he wanted Eng-

strom 's job. "I

told

Eisler

An

him he could have

it,"

says

Engstrom. "And

I

was serious."

soon had Engstrom's evangelist position.

emotionally devastated Engstrom went to hide inside the com-

pany's newly created

Advanced Consumer Technologv

division.

ACT

was formed under the direction of chief technologv officer Nathan Myhrvold, the

iiber

genius

who once worked

for astrophysicist

Stephen Hawking. The unit was a subset of Myhrvold's Advanced

Technology group, the pure-research domain

to

explore natural-

speech recognition, pen-based computing, and other technologies. Despite

its title

as a

"consumer technologv" group, however,

duced few consumer products get.

even

relative to

its

own

hair with a Wahl-brand shaver

sphere of Advanced Consumer Technology didn't miserv.

26

pro-

— he — the lab-coat atmo-

For Engstrom, a hands-on guy who demands clips his

it

multimillion-dollar budfast results

fit,

reinforcing his

THE UNHOLY TROIKA

Engstrom was on the verge of walking away from Microsoft gether when Eisler and

needed

to

until

John came

do something about

worked and Engstrom sions. St.

St.

started

initially,

be good

and mentally. Not only would offer an opportunity for

—

his flabby biceps.

coming

to the

Eisler

and

And an unholy

St.

it

for

own

he was

inim-

soft

and

The harassment

morning workout

the two were just casual acquaintances.

imen would, at least

mals

that

John had known Engstrom when he was an

now

would

to the rescue in their

They teased the depressed Engstrom

itable way.

alto-

The

ses-

evangelist, but

daily

Engstrom both

gym

reg-

physically

be a place to vent some steam,

Engstrom

John.

troika was born.

27

to

bond with other like

it

ani-

FLIGHT OF THE EVANGELISTS

1991, Bill Gates was battling a multifront war. Competitors

were accusing Microsoft of stealing

ideas.

By

The government was

probing whether Microsoft was violating antitrust

mights'

IBM vowed revenge

project to build an alternative operating system to

Gates needed warriors to

the world

sell

the notion that Microsoft was

evil.

grew from fewer than a dozen St.

The

And

to

embarked on

so Microsoft

more than

to dispel

number

a

of evangelists

forty. Eisler,

Engstrom,

John eventually were among the chosen. evangelical hiring rush

Microsoft and ersatz heir

IBM had

owed

its

origins to an ill-fated deal

struck in 1986 to jointly develop OS/2, the

apparent to DOS.

It

was a confusing time in personal com-

puting's brief history. Apple

had introduced

Macintosh

had

Windows

OS/2

And

DOS.

on Windows and

recruiting frenzy in 1991, a year in which the

and

laws.

after Gates officially pulled out of a joint

in

1984. Microsoft

late in

rolled out

its its

revolutionary

first

version of

1985 and then turned around and started boosting

Amid uncertainty over which operating system would displace DOS, many software developers hesitated to embrace either Windows or OS/2. in 1986.

Microsoft had told ComputerWorld magazine in 1989,

ward

to a time

and people

when major

will say,

'Aha,

applications [for

now I understand

28

"We look

OS/2] begin

for-

to ship,

[the benefits of OS/2].'

"

FLIGHT OF THE EVANGELISTS

The plan Windows

originally

to give

way

announced was

to

OS/2

at

some

consumer version of

for the point.

network version of the operating system

A more

sophisticated

—Windows NT—was being

created to service corporate users. But the release of Windows 3.0 in the spring of 1990 changed Microsoft's tune. Sales of the

upgrade unexpectedly shot through the

Windows

roof, largely because the

operating system used a mouse, had a point-and-click graphical user interface like the Macintosh,

and could run

DOS

programs. More

than 2 million copies of Windows 3.0 were sold within the

months of its

release. Microsoft

to build a successor to

about OS/2,

DOS, and

could not turn

it

soon found

it

didn't

two

first

need a partner

despite previous pledges to

IBM

back on consumer demand. At the

its

urging of Senior Vice President Paul Maritz, Gates decided to walk

away from the joint project. While the decision

on IBM,

it

to

OS/2 was tantamount

also triggered internal

Windows and tially

to abort

those toiling

to declaring

war

combat between those working on

on Windows NT, the operating system

ini-

targeting the corporate high end. Eventually, Microsoft planned

—bloated,

inefficient,

in favor of

OS/2 and Windows NT. But

phase out Windows

ran on top of DOS dental success of

—

and unstable software

Windows forced Microsoft

to

support

dynamics in profound and enduring ways. inside Microsoft

Now

the acci-

this

designed operating system, a move that altered internal

that

poorly

political

two major groups

were fighting for control of resources, stock options,

and head count. This internecine

conflict put

Windows

NT

Senior

Vice President Jim Allchin on a violent collision course with Brad Silverberg, the

VP in

charge of Windows and a

profound influence on

Eisler

man who would

have a

and Engstrom. This megabattle would

shape countless internal power struggles throughout the company and gready influence a series of jarring reorganizations in the mid-1990s.

By snubbing IBM, Gates earned the admiration and scorn of many

He was the young executive who had delivered a left pompous chin of Big Blue. It was one reason why St. John admired him and, in a way, figured into his decision to join the com-

in the industry.

hook

to the

pany. Likewise,

Engstrom

also

looked up to

29

his boss as the

guy who

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

"liked to kick ass." Yet the ass-kicking mentality that left

OS/2 also left many in the computer Some software developers, at the urging

with

money and OS/2, only

IBM

alone

industry furious.

of Microsoft, had invested

valuable time into developing software programs for

have Microsoft pull

support for the fledgling

plat-

form. In the face of this outrage, Microsoft recruited evangelists,

who

to

were deployed

to clean

up

the mess

tell

to

all

Windows.

their time

software vendors for OS/2," recalls Fowles,

who hired St. John.

the Harley-riding evangelist their job to

and move the masses

group of evangelists spent

"Microsoft's original

pumping independent

its

"All the

sudden

it

was

ISYs [independent software vendors] not to build for

OS/2. You can imagine how pissed these companies were. Talk about

some tough meetings." Neither programmers nor salesmen, evangelists nonetheless possessed the powers of both.

They

much

didn't push product as

as cap-

ture "mindshare." Microsoft evangelists were prized for their powers

of persuasion, their ability to think quickly on their

feet,

firm grasp of technology. Technical evangelists were frontline storm troopers,

of

rival

and

who marched

friendly software

cause. This was a job to be

E-mails

announcing training

ject headings "Evangelism

would come away with less

is

their

Bill Gates's

the Microsoft flag into offices

companies

to

champion the Redmond

conducted with militarv sessions

and

zeal. In fact,

sometimes contained the sub-

WAR!" and promised

a sense of "godlike

attendees that they

empowerment" and

"relent-

aggression."

Apple invented evangelism

in

1984

to boost the sales of

new Macintosh computers. The Mac was launched million marketing

memorable

campaign

that kicked off with

television ads in history.

its

then-

with a $15-

one of the most

The ad showed rows and rows

of catatonic workers dressed in prison-camp gray staring at a Big

Brother figure on a large screen droning on about the marvels of the computer.

an

aisle

Then

a glistening, toned

and hurled

Everything went black.

a

woman

in

red shorts ran up

sledgehammer, smashing the screen.

A message

appeared: "On January 24, Apple

30

FLIGHT OF THE EVANGELISTS

Computer be

introduce Macintosh.

will

like 1984." It

computers that had come tinue to

do

And

why 1984 won't

you'll see

was Apple's not-so-veiled smite at the

"clone"

dominate the PC market. (And con-

to

IBM introduced

so.)

IBM

the

personal computer in

first

1981, but Microsoft retained licensing rights to the operating

system

— the single biggest factor that led to Microsoft's astronomi-

cal success.

The Redmond company

DOS

licensed

puter makers, which emulated and improved upon

to other

com-

IBM machines.

The Computer Age was launched. Apple's Macintosh, however, used prietary operating system

cofounder Steve Jobs

TV ads.

orable

said.

needed

It

—a

to

lie.

own

program

mem-

for than

its

predecessor, the

Without software, there would be no reason for consumers

chief evangelist,

Guy Kawasaki, and

Rossmann, paid

cold-call visits to

in

and pro-

rest of us," as

But the Mac needed more than just

buy the Mac, dooming the sleek machine

Macs

sleek hardware

third-party developers to write software for

the Mac, which was harder to

Apple

its

"computer for the

hand, to

sell

to a slow death. Apple's

lieutenants

Mike Boich and Alain

independent software developers,

companies on Apple technology.

It's

what

Kawasaki called hitting the beach. After storming ashore, Apple's strategy "was to

occupy the

territory

and make things more

Kawasaki told InfoWorld magazine in 1985. "Apple

depending on

its

efficient,"

lives

or dies

third-party relations."

Kawasaki, Boich, and ing the ISVs to bring

Rossmann were responsible

more than

six

for encourag-

hundred Macintosh programs

to

market.

Apple invented evangelism. Microsoft improved upon Steve

Ballmer,

Microsoft's

head cheerleader and second-in-

command, introduced evangelism years after Apple launched

its

it.

to Gates's

Empire

in 1987, three

evangelist team. But evangelism at

Microsoft really took off under the direction of

Cameron Myhrvold,

brother of Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's celebrated chief technology officer.

Cameron germinated

the company's evangelist team under

the auspices of the Developer Relations Group. If one Kawasaki

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

could help bring hundreds of programs to the Mac, just think what a team of Kawasakis could

do

Windows, the successor

for

to

DOS,

which already enjoyed dominant market share. Microsoft's original six evangelists

were

Kevin Egan, Viktor Gabner,

Alistair Banks,

Henrich, Bob Taniguchi, and

Adam

Doug

Waalkes, a corps of charismatic

coders deployed to convince software developers and the technical staffs

of companies big and small to use Microsoft technology and

write

programs for Windows.

"They would read negative press about Microsoft and converge on

whoever was quoted and pound on them view," says Fowles, St.

who

has since

Microsoft to start his

left

own business.

John, who would become one of Microsoft's most notorious

evangelists, recalls that to

to see Microsoft's point of

Cameron taught

advance the Microsoft cause, but also

"He

told us, 'Your job

"A competitor

will

to fuck

is

up

that evangelism was not just to

torpedo the competition. " St.

a competitor,'

John

never willingly adopt your technology.

says.

It's

like

cocaine. They're not going to willingly get addicted. You have to push

cocaine on them."

One

of Microsoft's evangelist

tricks,

according to

St.

John, was to

nurture smaller companies around the ankles of a larger, established competitor. This would dilute market share and

Microsoft to

move

in.

He

make

it

easier for

Borland International, the database

cites

company. 'You find

all

of Borland's nearest competitors and wanna-bes and

you help them with joint press

releases,

using Microsoft technologies," five

St.

or six real competitors. Now,

marketing

John

all

dollars,

support for

explains. "Borland

now

has

the sudden they have a problem."

Like their Apple counterparts, Microsoft evangelists were authorized to travel virtually

anywhere

in the

world

at a

moment's notice

knock on doors, gain audience with partners and competitors

and

sell

to

alike,

the Microsoft story. But in the early nineties, Microsoft's story

was a tough

sell.

In addition to the

Commission had launched an Microsoft had abused

its

OS/2

fiasco, the

Federal Trade

investigation into allegations that

operating system monopoly by charging orig-

32

FLIGHT OF THE EVANGELISTS

inal

equipment manufacturers (OEMs) lump-sum licensing

practice effectively forced

OEMs

to

fees.

The

pay for Microsoft's operating

sys-

tems whether or not they installed them in new computers. In a market

where price often determined the consumer's buying decision,

this

discouraged manufacturers from installing any non-Microsoft

operating system, such as OS/2.

The government

also was

probing allegations that Microsoft

courted potential software partners only to peek at their codes and steal ideas.

For

all

the stormy accusations, however, the

short of taking punitive action after Justice

it

Department inquiry ensued, resulting

being signed in 1995, ironically by U.S. Penfield Jackson, the same judge sive antitrust case against

FTC

stopped

deadlocked 2-2 in 1993. in a

district

who would

consent decree's

Thomas

court judge

new mas-

preside over a

Microsoft three years

later.

A

The 1995 decree

forced Microsoft to charge computer makers a per-processor fee, instead of the

lump-sum

Cameron Myhrvold expand the tigation.

evangelist

"We

really

told

PCWeek

in 1991 that the decision to

group had nothing

want

was quoted. "That's

fee.

to

really

push Windows

to to

what has dictated

do with the FTC

inves-

market dominance," he it."

Moreover, Myhrvold had a potentially bigger problem on his hands.

Many independent software vendors, known

as ISVs,

saw Microsoft as a

competitor with an unfair advantage. Not only did the company the operating system,

ing system. tions

better

it

made programs

They accused

that

make

would run on the operat-

Microsoft's operating-systems

and

applica-

teams of collaborating to enable Microsoft's programs to run

on Windows,

at the

same time sabotaging competing

software.

Microsoft deployed evangelists to appease independent software ven-

dors and convince them that there was a "Chinese wall" between the

company's applications and operating-systems groups. ("Chinese wall"

may have been a poor metaphor.

History records that unhappy Chinese

troops garrisoned at the frontier often let

Mongol armies through

on the Great Wall of China would the gates to raid the homeland.)

Myhrvold and the company understood

33

that, like

Apple,

it

needed

RENEGADES

independent software developers for operating systems without

out

trains.

Microsoft

program on the

is

planet.

THE EMPIRE

OF

to write applications for

programs are

huge, but

it's

Windows,

like railroad tracks with-

not big enough to make every

Myhrvold told PCWeek that

it

was Developer

Relations Group's job to be "the champions of ISVs at Microsoft. it

my job

as

I

see

to see there's a level playing field."

In other words, Microsoft would help competitors

compete against

Microsoft.

"We used

to fly the pirate flag," says Steve Banfield, a

former

Microsoft evangelist. "We saw ourselves as one of the true champions

company be damned." many independent software vendors

of what developers wanted, the rest of the

Despite Myhrvold's spin,

didn't see the field as very level,

evidence to support that

fear.

and they had what they considered

Andrew Schulman,

a

programmer

from Cambridge, Massachusetts, had written books about hidden

DOS

coding inside tion

programming

ating system to

and Windows. These pieces of coding interfaces

how to respond

known to

as

APIs or

programs.

"calls"

When

—

— applica-

tell

the oper-

a user clicks an icon

launch a word-processing application, for example, an API makes

the

call to

the operating system to get things going.

If

competing

soft-

ware companies don't know about certain APIs in the operating tem, then their programs

admitted that

its

undocumented APIs were more or

less

may not run

Excel spreadsheet and in

sys-

as well. Microsoft later

Word

applications used

Windows, but that these undocumented APIs

temporary. There was no guarantee they would be

compatible with future iterations of the operating system, and other companies used them, Microsoft argued,

on future

software useless

Given

all this

versions of Windows or

controversy,

it's

for an extraordinary breed for

such as

St.

John,

nary. Yet Eisler

Eisler,

it

easy to see its

if

could render their

DOS.

why Microsoft was looking

stable of evangelists.

and Engstrom were nothing

if

And

warriors

not extraordi-

soon discovered what Engstrom already knew: short of

cleaning the campus urinals, a software tools evangelist was one of the

most unenviable jobs ever created

34

at Microsoft. Eisler says software

FLIGHT OF THE EVANGELISTS

companies accused him and other Microsoft evangelists of withholding information about Windows coding. Taking pages from

Schulman's books, Undocumented Windows and Undocumented DOS, the

independent software vendors told

Windows

ing secrets about certain coding tricks inside

own word-processing,

he was keep-

Eisler they believed

so Microsoft's

spreadsheet, database, and other programs

would work better than software made by the competition. Some threatened to complain about Eisler to Brad Silverberg, Microsoft's senior vice president of Applications and Client Group.

"They were constantly wanting more information,"

"The big companies

especially, like

recalls Eisler.

Borland and Symantec, were hard

on me." enemy, an evangelist wearing Satan's robe.

Eisler felt like the Eisler's

account does not show he was part of some orchestrated

scheme

to

have Microsoft software work better on Windows or

than the competition's software. In getting information

fact,

he

says

from inside Microsoft, a

DOS

even he had trouble

reflection of the long-

standing schism between the company's marketing staff and legions of programmers, they're higher

on the

who

"Our developers didn't want 'cause they didn't

want

better things to do.

I

live

intellectual

to give

its

secure in the knowledge that

food chain. be bothered," Eisler

to

up

the information;

it

recalls.

"Not

was they had

was just some random marketing guy

as far as

they were concerned." St.

John

says

it

was often a chore to get Microsoft programmers to

heed the pleas of

evangelists,

who were out

in the field listening to

the desires of software makers. His fantasy was to have Microsoft pro-

grammers work jointly with targeted software vendors, a project was finished, the targets

would be

fully

so that

when

and organically

evangelized.

"Instead we'd get

handed some

foolish crap

someone

and development or whomever had been cooking up for several years

John

and get

told that

we had

says.

35

to

at research

in isolation

make people

use

it," St.

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

At the same time Microsoft needed developers to make software for

Windows and convince them

tion

— that there were

— in the face of contrary informa-

no hidden APIs, the company

consumers and businesses

to

buy

its

spreadsheets, etc. This, too, was a tough in the early 1990s privately

sell.

Even Microsoft

conceded what many

in the

industry were saying: Microsoft applications weren't "I

all

"I

officials

computer

that good.

company had

can't think of a single product in 1990 that the

that was the best," says Fowles.

wanted

also

word processors, databases,

could almost say that today.

"Microsoft was not the leader in anything [other than operating systems]," he adds. "Office didn't exist.

word processing, not even joke. All

down

We

in spreadsheets.

were not the leader in

Multimedia was just a

the line. Even Intel had better software than us."

— Piper Jaffray & Hopwood, Dataquest, and — estimated that based on 1990 shipments for per-

Indeed, three analysts

Ragen MacKenzie

sonal computers, WordPerfect, Lotus Development (now part of

IBM), and Ashton-Tate owned the majority market share for wordprocessing, spreadsheets, tively.

and database software applications

respec-

Microsoft was either a distant second, or in the case of

databases and desktop publishing, not even evangelists,

into these

armed with an almost

on the

limitless arsenal

and other markets. Within

lists.

Microsoft

of cash, charged

a few short years, Microsoft's

word-processing, spreadsheets, and computer-network operating

tems emerged It

was in

this

charged atmosphere of government investigation,

industry hostility, St.

sys-

market leaders.

as

John entered

and

brutal competition that Eisler, Engstrom,

Fortress Microsoft

and the unholy

and

troika fused.

Their mutual love/hate relationship with evangelism acted to bond them.

Had

they not been evangelists, they would never have

perhaps computing history would have played out

The Pro Club proved

to

met and

differently.

be a valuable incubator, where the three

nurtured a growing friendship, relieved ing ways to build their

own

ware built by others

at the

stress,

and began conceiv-

technology, rather than proselytize soft-

company. The workout arguments

36

FLIGHT OF THE EVANGELISTS

became more

intense.

The

three hotly debated current issues and

sometimes broke the monotony of ingly nonsensical intellectual drills

how

suasion," mental tests to see

heavy objects with seem-

lifting

— "evangelism exercises

credible they could

make

in per-

the most

absurd argument sound. "Quick, Craig, defend the proposition that black as white!"

went one

"What is white?"

dom

frequencies

the

is

same color

typical challenge.

Eisler

would respond. "A bunch of photons

— the fewer you have, the

less

at ran-

white you have until

your eye can't see them anymore and you perceive black. They're on the

same continuum. Black

Still

you

is

just a subset of white."

another: Suppose you need to solve a calculus problem and

lived in a universe with rats. That's all

you get

is rats.

What do

you do? 'You could teach a rat to push a button on food cues," says.

"That's a transistor.

puter. So, St. is

With a

we may have found

John likened Microsoft

hire the smartest rats Eisler,

Engstrom, and

rat transistor

computer:

John were smart

rats.

That question would be answered

Now

can do

that the three

their ambitious

as Microsoft

launch Windows 95, the most hyped software in

37

"All Bill

his only hope."

had found one another, what would they put to?

John

a way to have a rat solve calculus."

to a giant rat

he can. That's St.

St.

you can build a com-

minds

geared up to

history.

INTERNAL WARFARE

John opened

his E-mail

one morning

in

1993 and discovered

St.that one of America's richest men was furious at him. had had the temerity

to tell InfoWorld

Windows

PostScript printer drivers for

acknowledged that the company was doing Apple.

A driver is a small chunk of code

sort of device or

hardware

John

magazine that Microsoft's

were "not up

3.1

St.

that

its

to snuff"

best to catch

tells

the computer what

being used. PostScript drivers would

is

and

up with

tell

the printer what kind of font or graphic the computer had been instructed to produce.

Gates had been led to believe Microsoft's technology was superior

and wanted tion

to

know where

St.

and why he was spewing

Gates upbraided architecture was

St.

John

it

John was in public.

for revealing that Microsoft's printing

weak and demanded

using the company's

getting his "false" informa-

PR apparatus,

to

know why

St.

John wasn't

noting that "There's a reason we

pay those people." St.

John was devastated by the rebuke. He

Redmond campus for about an were numbered. He had been ing technology, not trash

it.

hired to evangelize Microsoft's print-

Yet the

more he thought about

dent, the angrier he became. His boss

and

told

him

shuffled around the

hour, certain that his days at Microsoft

to talk to the InfoWorld writer. Didn't

38

the inci-

had handed him the phone everyone know

INTERNAL WARFARE Microsoft's printing technology lagged

behind Apple's? Even Doug

Henrich, Microsoft's group manager for Developer Relations, was

quoted

would

same

in the

it

article saying basically the

have done to

morphed

lie? St.

same

thing.

What good

John's dread of perhaps losing his job

to rage.

He stomped back to his office and shot off his own irate E-mail to Gates, saying, "How do you expect me to have any credibility with this community by denying

that

we have problems?"

Gates quickly responded, saying that Microsoft's printing technol-

ogy was "ten times" better than Apple's. St.

John, stunned by the ignorance of Gates's position, volleyed,

giving detailed reasons

why Apple's support

for PostScript technol-

ogy surpassed Microsoft's. The Mac was more reliable and

Mac generated

faster.

The

PostScript images in binary format, in the ones

and

zeros that computers talk in, allowing faster.

Windows shoved

it

to process

more information

PostScript code out in raw ASCII text, mak-

ing print jobs, particularly ones with graphics, slow to a relative crawl. St.

John reminded Gates

opinion on

this subject

cal explanation. St. John's first

Now

that as a printing-architecture expert, Alex's

was golden. Gates grasped

he wanted answers from

real

pounced with

heavyweights.

its full

him

at

odds with some of the

The company's upper hierarchy

weight.

Brad Silverberg, then senior vice president personally wrote

John's techni-

internal political skirmish at Microsoft skipped right

over the midlevel managers and put

company's

St.

his senior advisers.

St. John,

telling

him

to stop

in charge of Windows,

whining

to Gates. Silver-

berg, perhaps loyal to a fault, believed what his people were saying: that Microsoft's print drivers

John had no St.

were completely acceptable and that

St.

clue.

John pushed back,

telling Silverberg exactly

explained to Gates. Silverberg had heard enough.

what he had

St.

John

either

refused to read the political subtext or was too naive to get the message that

more feedback on

been getting

this issue

his information

was unwelcome. Silverberg had

from Dennis Adler, then group pro-

gram manager of the Windows 95 design team.

39

St.

John's position

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

clashed with Adler's, forcing Adler to orchestrate an "end around" to salvage his credibility,

St.

John

says.

Adler sprayed E-mail to Silverberg and other senior executives,

say-

ing that he was way in front of the issue and had already negotiated a

Adobe

partnership with

had talked

to

redo the flawed PostScript

John about such

to St.

because the company wanted

According

to St.

a partnership

type fonts to

its

drivers.

Adobe

months before,

work better on Windows.

John, Adler and others had spurned the offer

time, only to backtrack

and

take

Adobe up on

at the

the deal only after Gates

learned that his company's PostScript drivers were inferior. "I

thought

I

saw mirrors moving on the

Adobe

"Microsoft didn't like

at all

walls," St.

technology. Adler did a great job of covering his

With the Adobe deal

While he may have

easily.

says.

own

ass."

John's position was muted.

hastily sealed, St.

lost that political battle, St.

gained credibility and a reputation as an

company

John

and the two were warring over font

John nonetheless

ass-kicker.

Others in the

realized that this evangelist was not going to be silenced

Moreover, in

ally correct,

this

and subsequent battles

which only enhanced

were usu-

his opinions

his credibility. Microsoft

pany that admires those who can argue

well.

Although

St.

is

a

com-

John had

angered higher-ups, he had also gained their respect. "Microsoft tends to believe in people St.

John

says.

"The people who stuck by

who

their

believe in themselves,"

guns were the ones who

shaped the company's direction. This was true

all

the way to

Bill,

who

would aggressively challenge people on everything and only respected people St.

John

tells

who answered

the story of a

fast

and

concisely."

man who was

pontificating

on some

sub-

ject with Gates. "Bill

leaned forward and

say about

made

"This Bill lets

the guy

him hang

kidding.

said, 'Really. That's

not what

my

people

it.'

I

wanted

all

flustered

and

start to

to see if

you

really

and

hedge

his statements.

says, 'Actually

I'm just

knew what you were

talking

for a while, then smiles

about." St.

John had emerged from

his initial

40

entanglement stronger and

INTERNAL WARFARE

became

bolder, brasher,

and more obnoxious

ings with his Microsoft colleagues. credibility of others

who had

He

meet-

in face-to-face

delighted in dismantling the

positioned themselves as experts with-

out the expertise to back up their statements. Shortly after the confrontation with Gates, sit

invited to

NT program managers who were dis-

on a meeting of Windows

in

John was

St.

cussing that platform's printing support.

NT

"The recalls.

PostScript driver was broken

and

primitive," St.

John

"But they were absolutely convinced that they were making

the best printer driver ever." St.

John began

translation,

David Snipp, the manager making the

to challenge

presentation, peppering

him with questions about data compression,

and other technical

and managers

in the

matters.

About eight other developers

room watched as Snipp and St. John traded shots.

"Do you even know what you're

talking about?"

St.

John

finally

demanded, and pulled out a 1985 book on PostScript technology. Snipp fought back and told

Windows the

NT

into his

book and heaved

"Here,"

read

St.

John

that, yes,

printing architecture was based

John reached

St.

St.

John

this version.

it

he had read the book.

on

it.

bag and pulled out a revised edition of

across the table at Snipp.

said as the

book whizzed by Snipp.

You're reading from a book that's

Snipp resigned a few weeks

later. St.

"I

suggest you

six years old!"

John was asked

to help inter-

view candidates for the vacancy.

By 1994,

who was media

St.

John's exploits had caught the attention of Rick Segal,

looking for an evangelist to champion the company's multi-

capabilities.

Trouble was, multimedia capabilities

at Microsoft

was an oxymoron. Sound, graphics, animation, and video did not

work

well

on any version of Windows

to date. Microsoft

incremental progress, but needed a bold marketer to pany's multimedia story to the

computer world. In

found the evangelist he needed. Unwittingly, set in

motion a

series of events that

computer-gaming

was making

retell the St.

com-

John, Segal

his decision

would

would change the course of the

industry.

Segal was a former Aetna Insurance

Company programmer who,

— RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

like

many combative

new

technological terrain. Segal arrived at Microsoft in 1991 as an

engineers, had

come

to Microsoft to

eagerly courted evangelist assigned to advance struggle against

OS/2. Segal

tired of that battle

Windows

when

Microsoft had won, and he turned his sights to

it

conquer

new

in the

became

become

clear

the com-

pany's director of multimedia evangelism in Developer Relations

Group. For years Microsoft had been chasing Apple's lead in multimedia, specifically

and

QuickTime, the software that allows users

edit small movies

of others at the

to play, record,

on a computer. By 1994, Segal and

Redmond company were embarrassed

a handful

by Microsoft's

multimedia development. The advent of CD-ROMs, which could contain

an entire encyclopedia complete with audio, movie

animation, and the maturation of computers and software had

multimedia de rigueur. Microsoft's Windows 95 release in the

summer

of 1994 but arriving

would look embarrassingly anachronistic poorly as

its

made

— scheduled

more than

if it

and

clips,

for

a year later

handled multimedia

as

predecessors. Despite this clear business imperative,

Microsoft was slow in moving to

fix this

glaring deficiency, which con-

tributed in part to the delayed launch of history's most anticipated software.

"Everybody was arguing over what to do," Segal Microsoft "didn't have

its

He says that

recalls.

heart into developing multimedia tools," in

part because the company's senior executives didn't believe that's

where the gold was buried. Microsoft launched

although ilar to

it

its

first

version of

Windows

Apple's Macintosh,

user interface, or the area of a

it

wasn't built for multimedia.

GUI (pronounced

"gooey"),

computer screen where you

is

the

and

clickable pictures called icons or pull-down

grams or open

files.

Windows was designed

well as long as

it

A graphical

name

given to

interact or interface with

your computer. Instead of arcane text commands, a

worked

1985,

in

boasted the point-and-click graphical user interface sim-

menus

GUI to

uses

little

launch pro-

for business software

and

was dealing with text or lines for bar graphs.

42

INTERNAL WARFARE

But when it

it

came

to

rendering sound, video, animation, and the

like,

was an abomination. Unlike DOS, which allowed direct access to a

computer's video cards, sound cards, and other hardware, Windows got in the way and slowed things down.

Windows simply prevented good

is

The

fast

Few developers

overlaying structure of

playback of multimedia.

a slow, jerky shoot-'em-up result:

The

And what

game?

in the industry

were writing games and

multimedia applications for Windows. With scant multimedia

ware coming to market, a sort of

Microsoft's multimedia developers. In

media really

many ways

move forward or stand

tions,

Microsoft's multi-

strategy was like time locked inside a black hole still. It

simply didn't

Microsoft's treasures were operating systems

not multimedia. Given such low

—

left

it

didn't

exist.

and business

priority, the

mary multimedia development team was

soft-

defeatism gripped

self-fulfilling

applica-

company's

pri-

to the rudderless

direction of formal naval officer Paul Osborne. His stern, slightly distant

demeanor reminded some of

Star Trek: The Next Generations

Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Unlike the fictional captain, however,

Osborne was almost

universally looked

upon

as ineffectual

and

incompetent.

"He was one of the few guys I ever met at Microsoft who was and

vest

mode,'

who

are

more

"

in 'rest

Segal says, using the derisive term for clock sitters

interested in watching their stock options mature

than making leading-edge technology. "You just can't do that at Microsoft," Segal adds. "People figure out you're not doing any

work." After surveying the company's multimedia situation, Segal thought

he had a way

to kill off Apple, the

and innovator. He paid no ing

less

acknowledged multimedia leader

than three

visits to Bill

more money, more personnel, and more

Gates, request-

authority to grab ani-

mation and graphics technologies from the company's consumer side. Segal also

oversaw development of Surround Video, which

turned photos into navigable 3-D scenes. Segal's stated goal in pitching these requests to Gates was to attack QuickTime and bury Apple.

43

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

Gates eagerly agreed. Apple's superior QuickTime technology gave the software titan

fits.

and triumphed over Microsoft's Video

for

Windows, Apple

almost perished. Although Apple proved to be

and

in the late 1980s

done

He

early 1990s, Segal

hell-bent to

kill

— the

last

itself

own worst enemy

and others

at Microsoft

those guys at Apple," Segal

notes that by the late nineties

the prowl

its

Cupertino company to

their level best to bring the

"We were

QuickTime survived

History records that while

its

had

knees.

says.

—with the Justice Department on

thing Microsoft wanted to be caught doing was

strangling a vanquished foe. "But

I

didn't have that constraint back

then," Segal adds.

By marshaling resources and promoting selected products, Segal helped Microsoft's multimedia

momentum.

efforts gain a little

Indeed, Segal's attempt to corral the company's various multimedia initiatives

approach the

marked the to

first

time Microsoft had tried to unify

multimedia on the desktop. The company would hype

new multimedia technologies and would

would be among the key features ating system,

media the

its

in the

code-named Chicago. Yet even

strategy

began

company was

the world they

tell

upcoming Windows 95 operas Microsoft's multi-

to coalesce in 1994, Segal

and others

leaving untapped a $5-billion gold

realized

mine

— com-

puter games.

Before the launch of Windows 95, almost written for the old slowly

on Windows

DOS 3.1.

all

Because games were

main reasons consumers bought computers,

Windows 95 could run

made

— and are — among the it

made

sense to ensure

the hottest-selling games. Moreover,

it

also

sense to Segal that Microsoft should be the one to develop

game technology

He

games for the PC were

operating system because games ran too

told Gates

for the

new operating

and others

that

if

a

system.

company such

titles

make games work

on Windows and

well

multimedia engine, Microsoft would have

tem conform

to

someone

as id Software,

Quake and Doom, could

makers of the popular

establish to

make

else's specifications.

kk

find a

way

to

its

own standard

its

operating

sys-

Segal knew what but-

INTERNAL WARFARE

Any

tons to push.

threat to

Windows received

the full attention of

Gates and his executives. to get

games support from senior management was

say we're going to lose

our [application programming interface]

"All

I

had

to

do

franchise," Segal says.

"They threw money

at us."

management

Yet even as Segal persuaded senior

to get

behind a

unified multimedia strategy, that message was often diffused along the way. Segal

would eventually

multimedia

capability,

the company's multimedia efforts,

opment

Windows

in the

on

deliver

his

promise to give Windows

but he never succeeded in consolidating

some of which were under

NT group and others inside

the

all

of

devel-

Windows 95

camp. Segal and others say "random" managers and executives would take

upon themselves

it

to build

multimedia projects, often never

ishing them, never targeting a market, or never deploying tively.

Among

much

Consumer Technology group;

division;

computers

to

fin-

effec-

the various initiatives were Talisman, a proposed

talked about 3-D hardware chip from Microsoft's

device application

sumer

them

and

Advanced

Raptor, the misguided input or joystick-

programming

interface

from the company's con-

and OpenGL, an API

that

enabled personal

run animated 3-D multimedia graphics, a technology

some on the Windows

NT group were

tinkering with.

These and other multimedia projects competed for the same pool of resources inside Microsoft, meaning some of the technologies

may not have

more promising

received the fortification they deserved.

Moreover, the uncoordinated projects often doubled the workload of evangelists,

who sometimes maneuvered

ware vendors Microsoft's

— key

Microsoft

more unappetizing

keep independent

to

customers

— away

entrees.

"There would be random pockets of people with authority cating multimedia foolishness, tion to

QuickTime

for him,"

St.

soft-

from some of

and

telling Bill that they

John

says. "I

long enough to have seen what happened

had

had already been

when

fabri-

his solu-

in

DRG

Microsoft pushed a

technology on developers and then didn't follow through. The devel-

opment community became immune

45

to evangelism,

DRG

got

hung

RENEGADES with cleaning

up

THE EMPIRE

OF

the mess long after the internal group

banded, while the perpetrators Clearly, Segal faced

moved on

run games better than

While Windows problems. To

DOS

to other exciting projects."

team

to get

at

running games,

DOS

to invest large

ing device drivers that would control

didn't

well

work

to

had

all

its

run on

chunks of time and money

writ-

the different combinations

of video, graphics, and sound cards in the marketplace.

worked

also

make games fast and visually realistic enough

DOS, developers had

Windows

could.

was awful

3.1

dis-

not only technical challenges, but serious

internal political challenges in trying to create a to

had

Games

that

on one brand of PC and one type of hardware often well

on another. Users sometimes had

spend hours

to

configuring their games just so their computers could run them. Technical support was a nightmare. High-end

UNIX

machines

— big

mainframe computers used by many of the world's large corporations

— had solved

problem with a system

this

Open

called

Graphics

Language or OpenGL, a 3-D graphics language developed by

Silicon

Graphics Inc. WTiile programmers at Microsoft and elsewhere were

working on bringing puters,

nobody had

OpenGL game

support

down

to

desktop com-

yet succeeded.

There were no standards. Personal-computer game development was in a kind of anarchy.

Moving games games

for the PC,

ating system, ever,

and

off

DOS

and onto Windows could standardize

hook more developers on in turn,

was Microsoft

still

the way of Windows

little

they? Write

games to

for

multimedia

titles to

"The game guys wouldn't

Never going

newer oper-

hook more consumers. The problem, how-

had

game

Microsoft's

credibility

little

in

demo.

talk to us," recalls Segal.

Windows

and

3.1?

Not

in

"Why would

your wildest dreams.

happen."

Even Microsoft acknowledged

in a

handbook

under Windows made slug racing look

to

46

"game graphics

exciting."

who was working on WinG potentially boost game perfor-

Segal soon discovered Chris Hecker,

(pronounced "win-gee"), a way

that

INTERNAL WARFARE

mance on Windows

3.1.

Hecker was coding his creation

Advanced Consumer Technology research Eric

Engstrom was hiding

may

potentially have

Windows, but he

also

same place

had dumped him. Segal

after his fiancee

found an answer

at Microsoft's

division, the

game performance on

to

found that Hecker had a robust disrespect for

authority.

"He pany,

absolutely, positively didn't care

up

to

and including

"He was writing is

my

I'll

back mail saying, 'Who

to

give a shit

what anybody

when

ship [WinG]

is

be a

this

sell.

him

guy? Send

in the

were

St.

to

charm

school.'

"He just

WinG would

not be

Segal realized he needed one of Microsoft's best warrior

and minds of game programmers,

computer industry

dence, and hostility toward the list

says, this

brilliant one."

evangelists to battle for the hearts

known

com-

say we'll ship.'

I

as a total asshole," Segal adds.

Given Microsoft's track record in multimedia,

an easy

in the

and Systems Group Vice President Paul] Maritz sends

"Hecker was just perceived

happened

what anybody

Gates, thought about him," Segal says.

T don't

this mail,

fucking code and

[Applications

me

Bill

John and Craig

for the job. In the end,

it

for their irreverence, indepen-

Redmond company. On

Eisler,

both of

Segal's short

whom competed

was an easy choice

fiercely

— the best beast for

this

assignment was "the Saint." In one unkind regard, Segal's timing could not have been better. St. John's

wife retreated to

Maine with

their two children shortly after

Alex's twenty-seventh birthday in February St.

and

John was no longer a family man. He was Kelley

St.

John had grown

literally

ill

from

by that time had become consumed with

"On

later filed for divorce.

company man.

living with St. John,

money and

kids

would be playing on the floor and he'd

go somewhere

else?'

that

sit

say,

in a chair

'Can't they

"

Before, he had never given

Now

who

his job.

Saturdays he was home," Kelley recalls. "He'd

and the

sions.

a

much thought

to

money

or posses-

he was making big money and was exposed

to con-

spicuous consumption, he coveted them. Eisler and Engstrom once

47

RENEGADES laughed

at the

clipped the

EMPIRE

THE

OF

puniness of his television. The next dav.

TV

pronounced the

cord,

set's electrical

John

St.

"broken," and

bought the biggest model on the market.

The

severing

moment

John bought

St.

his

when

of the marriage, however, occurred

Redmond

a house in

second daughter. Amelia,

three weeks after the birth of

November

in

He

was tired of liv-

make

Kellev happier.

1993.

ing below noisy neighbors and wanted to trv to

So he insisted on buying the house. That he and Kellev had agreed they would be moving back to Maine within two vears didn't enter into the equation.

To compound the

tension,

When

estranged familv over for Christmas.

his

St.

John had

invited

his relatives arrived,

he barely saw them because he was working so much. Kellev had

been abandoned with two babies and a new house

full

of in-laws over

the holidavs.

after she his

new

and the

340 pounds.

grow

kids

evangelist

to

St.

left. It

was during

was so

months

six

time that Segal acquired

this

— a wounded animal who now weighed more than

John,

an auburn

who had once trimmed regimen

thicket. His

and Engstrom was surpassed bv

Eisler

He

didn't see the breakup coming.

John claims he

St.

stunned, he refused to speak with his estranged wife for

vending machines

at

his beard,

at the

now

let

it

weight room with

his visits to the

ubiquitous

Microsoft, as well as the companv's well-

provisioned cafeterias.

Rather than a polished salesman, such slick

marketing rice president,

off."

Segal says, something gamers, at

Gamers may have didn't. icallv

known

Hecker dismissed

as

as

Brad Chase, Microsoft's

John "looked least,

St.

John

as a

a particular

like a

bomb

going

found appealing.

liked him. but Hecker, the

enough, thought Hecker was

argued over

WinG programmer,

marketing wonk;

recklesslv arrogant.

way games ran on

DOS

St. John,

iron-

The two once

using a process

page flipping. Manv DOS-based games used a computer's

video card

memorv and

to give the effect of

says

St.

cycled through screen shots frame by frame

animation,

Hecker didn't believe

much

like a child's flip

book.

St.

that technique was used for quality

48

John

games

INTERNAL WARFARE

such as Doom.

had pried

St.

John

Hecker

told

code of

into the assembly

indeed, used page flipping.

St.

own game group

that Microsoft's

John

Doom and also

determined that

warned Hecker not

anybody about Microsoft's exploratory surgery. Although technically illegal to look

company

under the hood of someone's

knowing about

didn't want anyone

its

bit

it

it,

to tell

wasn't

software, the

of reverse engi-

neering. Such a revelation could bring embarrassment and legal scrutiny. St.

id

John

Hecker promptly

says

and creator of Doom, and

game. Carmack confirmed

called John

told

Carmack, the founder of

him Microsoft had bored

that, yes,

Although Hecker was proved wrong, he boasted the

call,

into the

page flipping was used in Doom. to St.

John about

further souring relations between the two.

"Jesus,

why did you do

standing?"

John

St.

this

when

thought we had an under-

I

recalls. "It's really a sensitive issue.

That's not

something you want getting out." Despite his personality battles, Hecker

Computer Game Developers Conference

April 1994, at the Valley,

he

Microsoft oper's

the

up a prototype of Doom on Windows

made

available beta or test versions of

forum through the Internet

first

game

fired

made headway on WinG.

service

3.1.

in Silicon

Soon

WinG on

CompuServe.

In

It

after,

a devel-

marked

time Microsoft had released software specifically targeting

developers.

WinG wasn't the

prettiest piece of coding, Segal says.

remained [Hecker] was able

and make games work on and got the thing Engstrom

says

industry." Yes,

to take a piece of shit called

Windows

He strapped ajet engine on a Beechcraft

in the air."

WinG created

the "biggest debacle in the computer

Hecker fused ajet engine with a Beechcraft. But he got

exactly the results

one would expect.

"The wings came off Engstrom

it.

"But the fact

first,

followed by the rest of the plane,"

says.

Meanwhile,

Eisler,

whose mantra

ing that he had lost out

is "I

don't play to lose," was stew-

on the games-evangelist job

49

to St.

John.

RENEGADES would soon be

Eisler

opers,

St.

THE EMPIRE

OF

pacified. After a cursor)' survey of game devel-

John prepared

a

of items he believed he needed to

list

assemble a credible games-development team, which included a request for several programmers.

St.

John

also

get inside the company's multimedia group, fect opportunity.

much

rejected

wanted

and

this

to help Eisler

presented a per-

However, group director Paul Osborne balked and

of

John's wish

St.

list. St.

John

says

Osborne

him because

"I

Unable

what he wanted through the front door,

to get

disliked

was constantly in his office demanding things."

around the back. He asked Segal not mention that

St.

John and

Osborne, but insisted he

to talk to

Eisler

John ran

St.

were friends. Segal obliged and

suggested Osborne would need someone to take over for Hecker "because Hecker was certifiable and was probably going to quit anyway." Segal strongly

Osborne agreed with the loss to

St.

recommended to hire Eisler,

Eisler.

which helped him come

to terms

John. Besides, Eisler reasoned, he didn't want to

be an evangelist anyway. The Canadian computer whiz preferred coding to paying

visits to

Osborne assigned to

hostile companies.

Eisler to

work with Hecker. Accounts vary

as

what happened between the two, who worked together for eight

weeks

in Microsoft's Building 9, a replica of the

to Gates's

lair.

Eisler maintains

one who "stayed up

all

X-shaped edifice next

he was the "damper" for Hecker, the

night running

tests"

and helped move WinG

along. "I sat

on the

of himself.

A

annoying, but St.

John

to "sit

process," Eisler says. "Chris was really

little I

arrogant.

loved

on Hecker's

young and

was great working with Chris.

than sitting on the process, Eisler had

chest" to get

him

he had

to

to finish the

make

WinG

code.

sure that "Craig wouldn't

Hecker. Hecker wouldn't report to Craig. Hecker just didn't

anybody

— he was a

full

A little

it."

recalls that rather

Segal, meanwhile, says kill

It

like

real piece of work."

Yet the two hypercompetitive nerds shared

much

in

common.

Once, over a catered dinner at Microsoft, the two debated whose

50

INTERNAL WARFARE

more vile.

recent surgery was

Eisler

argued that his

stick to the inside

details

about a polyp removal and painful catheter procedure, argu-

more heinous.

who recalls

St. John,

the

too well, says the conversation killed everyone's appetite.

all

Hecker declined

some

wound

the scab would

of his undergarments. Hecker countered with lurid

ing that his experience was far

dinner

still-healing

how

troubled him more, going into rich detail about

insight

on

to

be interviewed for

this

his relationship with Eisler

book, but he did offer

by way of an E-mail to the

author:

"Have you ever been

in

one of those

situations

what actually happened would take so long that it,

even though you know several people

look stupid

(and

I'll

if

me

you don't? That's

will

John was

in his

wouldn't be worth

probably

try to

make you

with your book. I'm really sorry

probably be more sorry after

it

comes

have the time or inclination to dredge up St.

it

where explaining

out), but

I

just don't

this stuff."

element with the gaming community. His own

disregard for Microsoft authority figures was equaled only by the

game

developers' antipathy for the big

once held a trade-press meeting Segal put

St.

know what

John

St.

trade-press writers, "Yep,

and Windows

3.1

to

Microsoft

demonstrate WinG.

I

to do, "so

I

want

to

could claim ignorance and

shit hit the fan."

John emerged onstage

He booted up

Redmond company. campus

in charge of the presentation, but didn't

John was going

run cover for him when the St.

at the

at the Microsoft theater

know what you guys

a computer.

logo came to

The blue life

on a

and

told the

think about Windows."

start-up screen with clouds

large display.

A graphic

of a

shotgun barrel rose from the bottom of the screen. With the audi-

ence looking down

The

its

sights, the

press erupted with laughter

gun

blasted five holes in the logo.

and approving applause.

Brad Chase, Microsoft's senior marketing vice president, turned crimson and told Segal, 'You gotta fire

this guy."

Chase was so enraged

he considered going onstage and putting an end

to St. John's

show. Segal set Chase straight: "I

looked Chase right in the face and

said, 'You

don't have a clue.

RENEGADES He just

gained

all

THE EMPIRE

OF

the credibility in the world from these press guys.

They think you're a slime bag; they think you getting up there St. "I

John wasn't

know

this

is

will help.'

John

St.

said,

St.

don't think

using the derogatory term for

patchy software coding. "But the people

going to make some

I

He demonstrated WinG.

finished.

a hack,"

he's a hero.

"

who

use this crappy hack are

damn money."

John was seduced by the ensuing adulation. Like

a techno David

Letterman, he later developed an act that included lampooning

The more approval he

Microsoft. tions

received at subsequent presenta-

and trade shows, the bolder he became. His

mocking

shtick of

Microsoft bureaucracy, his disrespect for senior executives

excluded

— and

— Gates

his disregard for political correctness played well, for

the most part, with

game developers even

as

it

made him enemies

at

the company.

"He it,"

called people like

Chase morons and [game developers] loved

Segal says. "Executives at the

company

couldn't get over

thought he was doing damage. But the gamers loved they had

someone who had

their interest at heart.

think Eisler or Engstrom could have pulled In 1994, Microsoft 95.

announced

The company spent

Trek:

St.

this day,

kits at

install

WinG

trade shows

John

in

boost fall,"

giving

and conferences

"I

IBM marketer

surrender."

trade journals announced, was going to be huge.

"Many games developers

W inG," wrote

"Games

Windows

plugging Microsoft's new gaming tech-

sent Segal a white flag with a note stating,

thanks to

in

WinG,

who played the android Data in Star make special promotional appearances.

nology that after one computer game conference, an

WinG, the

don't

I

Spiner,

The Next Generation, to

So aggressive was

would

To

off."

millions of dollars promoting

out free software development

and even hiring Brent

it

it

They

it.

They thought

it.

T

Byte

see

DOS's games domination ending

magazine

utilizing Microsoft Corp.'s

retail sales

and stem returns

in

November

1994.

WinG specifications could

for

Windows games

starting this

read a lead in the August issue of Computer Retail Week.

52

help

INTERNAL WARFARE

That same month, Computer Gaming World magazine said Windows

WinG, "may bring the computer gaming world one

95, blessed with

step closer to the 'plug-and-play' dream. Certainly, anything that will

and hardware configuration

dispel the nightmares of installation

DOS

and Windows gamers did the world

Little

WinG

kill

for

be welcomed with open arms."

will

know that Eisler, Engstrom, and

St.

John would

in midflight, replace the technology with their

own, and

trigger a battle inside Microsoft over what was the best approach for

games

for Windows

munity

at large

While

and

on

it

Eisler

it.

— a war that eventually spilled into the game com-

and would throughout the

WinG

was true

nineties.

Doom on Windows

could run

3.1, St.

John

saw flaws in the technology and thought they could improve

WinG was fast only with certain types of graphics and did nothing and

multi-

user play. Yet Hecker had convinced others at Microsoft that

WinG

to boost

performance control with joysticks, sound

could enable

games

all

John

"It didn't," St.

you

actually tried to

to

work on Windows.

says. "It

make

cards,

was a neat hat

game

a real

run.

over

trick that fell

when

WinG just made for a good

demo, and people who didn't know any better

at Microsoft

thought

it

was enough." Eisler

and

St.

John

didn't

know

exactly how, but they were con-

vinced they could do better. Moreover, they understood the company

was marshaling ily

all its

forces to

produce Windows

95, the

most heav-

hyped software the world had ever known. Their careers would

take off

if

they could hitch their boosters to that

In August 1994, Eisler spirit

of evangelism,

St.

money

and St. John worked up a

John took

it

to

some

rocket.

and

in the

game

devel-

survey,

thirty top

opers and asked the crucial question: "What could Microsoft build that

would compel you

piled the results Seriously,"

to write

games

for

Windows?" The two com-

and wrote a white paper

titled

"Taking Fun

which outlined what steps Microsoft needed

make Windows 95

a successful

game

to take to

platform.

But before they embarked on what would be a jihad over the company's

game

technology, Eisler

knew they needed

53

a program

man-

RENEGADES someone

ager,

duction,

THE EMPIRE

OF

to write specifications for the technology, oversee pro-

and ensure the nascent development team had enough

resources and personnel. Just as important, the role also

some "blocking" dudes,

code without management to liberate

keep Osborne occupied so

to

distractions. Eisler

Engstrom from

and

demanded

Eisler could

John decided

St.

Advanced

his self-exile at Microsoft's

Consumer Technology.

The two urged in the

their weight-lifting

multimedia group, but not

buddy to interview for a position

to

mention anything about

friendship, a contrivance they believed

would go unnoticed, would

help Engstrom 's chances, and would in the end help advance careers.

the

their

their

all

Almost two years had elapsed since Engstrom got jilted, and

memory still caused him

to

weep, friends

say.

He had been

think-

ing about quitting Microsoft. But the chance to do something

new

was alluring and would prove cathartic.

Engstrom didn't know anything about games. In

them

strategy

that

fact,

he hated

— the shoot-'em-up games made him nauseous; the so-called games bored him. None of that mattered.

nobody with whom he'd

interview, especially

St.

John

told

him

Osborne, knew any-

thing about multimedia or computer games. Nonetheless, Engstrom

read the preface of a 3-D graphics book to prepare himself.

"The

typical Eric thing to

vocabulary,"

Engstrom tion

Engstrom

is

to readjust

enough

some game screen

to

have some

interviews.

He

shots so he could

and

men-

breezed through the technical

interviews, in large part because the interviewers

a technical evangelist,

to

says.

also reviewed

them during the

do

knew he had been

at least in the early nineties,

be a Microsoft evangelist unless you knew your

you didn't get

stuff.

The

ease of

those interviews, however, would almost be his undoing.

Engstrom then faced Heidi Breslauer,

a multimedia

program man-

ager at the time whose perceived lack of technical and leadership skills

earned her the derisive nickname Brussels Sprouts. She asked

Engstrom how

his technical interviews

"They weren't

all

that technical,"

54

had gone.

Engstrom

casually told her.

INTERNAL WARFARE

Breslauer interpreted this to

mean

that

Engstrom had not been

grilled

hard enough, presumably because he wasn't technically

She

Engstrom

left

sitting in

fit.

her office to express her fears to Osborne.

"I'm not supposed to be technical enough," says Engstrom. "This

coming from a program manager who has never written code." Osborne

later

summoned Engstrom

he was leery of Engstrom's previous job-hopping cal

and

into his office

told

— Osborne's

him

politi-

way of saying he didn't believe Engstrom possessed technical

Osborne would not have hired Engstrom had

savvy. Eisler,

"this "I

who, never revealing

Engstrom guy" was the

had

to

his friendship,

not been for

convinced Breslauer that

real deal.

do my best Jedi mind

Engstrom was

it

relieved. "Things

trick to get that

changed

done," Eisler

for me,"

he

recalls.

says.

"And

Microsoft was fun again."

The media

three friends from the

gym were now

fort.

55

inside Gates's multi-

THE BEASTIE BOYS

Based

on the feedback they received from the "Taking Fun

Seriously" white paper, Eisler,

ized they

needed

for forging quality

complex

digital

to

St.

John, and

now Engstrom

go shopping for a 3-D engine, a

drawn

terization.

is

alchemy. Objects such as monsters and the worlds they

moved about

in perspective by projecting the 3-D objects

and then

screen,

crucial alloy

computer games. Computerized 3-D animation

inhabit must be described in terms of 3-D geometry, space,

real-

actually

drawn and redrawn

in a process

in

onto a 2-D

known

as ras-

A 3-D engine is used to speed up rasterization for smoother

animation. To achieve game-quality animation, a computer system

must have

John

of rendering capability.

didn't have a 3-D engine for

way too

late to

in 1995,

The

this type

make one from

games

Eisler,

Engstrom, and

at their disposal,

and

it

St.

was

scratch to be ready for Christmas sales

when consumers would be hungry

for

Windows 95

software.

three proposed buying RenderMorphics Ltd., a London-based

specialist in

3-D programming

tools, specifically for

its

flagship 3-D

engine, Reality Lab.

To buy Maritz,

a company, however, the three

needed approval from Paul

group vice president for Applications and Systems and a mem-

ber of Gates's five-person Office of the President.

and

St.

John

didn't have

Eisler,

Engstrom,

computer-game experience and 3-D creden-

56

THE BEASTIE BOYS

on

tials

and

their resumes,

they didn't have the credibility to per-

so,

suade Maritz to buy an entire company. However, Michael Abrash, Microsoft's

most valuable player

possess this credibility. Abrash,

programming, did

in 3-D graphics

who had

gramming, was a program manager

written books

in the

ing on 3D-DDI, the 3-D device driver interface

communicates

— software

Engstrom, and

Eisler,

St.

John

Abrash, however, wasn't concerned about computer games.

erator hardware for

Windows designed RenderMorphics

had

to soften

him

"We would go

Microsoft's

Windows NT,

if

first

He was

low-cost 3-D accel-

the industrial-strength version of

To win Abrash 's favor on the

for corporations.

Engstrom, and

deal, Eisler,

that

would buy RenderMorphics.

his blessing, Microsoft

more consumed with developing

that

hardware and boosts performance

directly with video

of 3-D graphics. Maritz told

Abrash gave

on 3-D pro-

multimedia group, work-

St.

John decided they

up.

into his office every day," says

him nuts with cooperation. He could not

St.

John. "We drove

he could

leave his office,

not go to a meeting, without us being invited to help articulate whatever his point of view was. say anything that

intended.

We wouldn't make

John dubbed the

The

He had no

we couldn't

peace.

take

No

privacy.

He

couldn't

and carry further than he

a decision without consulting him."

St.

practice "Abrashing."

three also worked

on bending Osborne

to their will.

They con-

vinced him that adding RenderMorphics was necessary for the

advancement of the company's games and multimedia

efforts.

Osborne, in turn, told Abrash that he could be in charge of Microsoft's 3-D graphics strategy

if

he endorsed the RenderMorphics

deal.

Abrash acquiesced, Maritz gave the nod, and Microsoft bought RenderMorphics.

One

Abrash quit Microsoft

result of their feigned

to

work

for id, the

sycophancy was that

game maker.

"Abrash actually said that Eric and Craig were responsible for him quitting the company,"

one insider

Abrash eventually returned

says.

to the

57

"That's kind of cool."

Empire, but not before he and

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

others would lead a private campaign to

by

Eisler,

Engstrom, and

St.

kill

game technology

built

John.

By September 1994, Windows 95 was already months behind It

operating system hit

retail shelves.

deck

to accelerate

its

would be another year before the celebrated

original launch date.

Management

called

all

work on Win95, but the bugs lurking

hands on

in the oper-

ating system's 15 million lines of code couldn't be killed fast enough. Eisler

was called to

problems with the operating system's joystick

fix

control as well as help correct flaws with Direct Control Interface or

DCI, a joint Microsoft/ Intel project for enhancing video perfor-

mance. As

was concerned, these projects were annoying

far as Eisler

distractions.

Windows 95

He and

his

two conspirators were plotting to make

the preeminent platform for computer games.

From September through December St.

John

initiated their

bold scheme without authorization

undertaking they called "the Manhattan Project," America's World a

company

War

II

atom bomb

created cover of sorts for the ect

trio,

who

under the company's managerial

took the wraps off their plan, too invested to abort

it.

Moreover,

St.

after

The

cabal was essentially

Windows 95 shipped

initially

radar.

much

— a rogue

named

to get

effort.

The chaos

within a company.

and

1994, Eisler, Engstrom,

worked on

their proj-

By the time the three

time and

money had been

John had been leaking

details of

the technology to the trade journals, building unauthorized buzz

making

trio

it

more

December

In

difficult for

1994,

Microsoft to

unbeknownst

to

kill.

most Microsoft executives, the

hosted about thirty of the industry's top

technical design review at the day, the developers Eisler,

game developers

Redmond campus. By

the

knew more about what was up

Engstrom, and

ment. As an evangelist,

the sleeves of

John than did most of Microsoft manageSt. John enjoyed enormous freedom and had

no problem booking the Developer Relations Group's

like

hotel

any conventional conference

and plane

fare

to a

end of the

St.

ference center at Building 12 for the design review.

run

and

— attendees paid

and were issued customary

58

special con-

The

review was their

own

visitor's passes.

— THE BEASTIE BOYS

Microsoft hosts dozens

on any given

game

not hundreds of business and family visitors

if

day. Thirty or so representatives

from the computer-

industry would hardly have caught anyone's notice.

Design reviews are techno show-and-tell sessions, often thrown together using video and other visual sleight of

hand rather than

using real code. They're meant to show the possibility of a technology,

not necessarily the technology stress

the

who

trio,

stayed

PowerPoint

their

when

itself.

On

the eve of the review, the

of the self-imposed deadline and fatigue conspired against

up

stupidity often

would be

until three o'clock that

slide presentation. In the

hilarious

if

morning, readying

predawn hours

mistaken for inspiration

is

each computerized

— they

— a time

thought

it

were a different shade

slide

of radiation green, Day-Glo orange, fuchsia, and whatever other

obnoxious hue came

to their

weary heads. By the harsh light of

however, the hilarity of the idea was

"No one thought it was

hilarious,"

Developers did, however,

make

easy to write

it

games

that

the

says,

shaking his head.

of technology that would

would run

well

on Windows. They

Manhattan project

mushroom-shaped cloud logo and

day,

lost.

Engstrom

like the idea

also liked the giveaway black

The slogan came from

somehow

slogan, "Shall

T-shirts with the

we

play a game?"

Matthew Broderick movie WarGames,

where a Department of Defense computer runs amok and nearly launches global thermonuclear war. Eisler,

their

Engstrom, and

new

St.

John had

as yet

no

actual code written for

technology. But they did have a road

map

outlining a plan

of attack. After the design review, the three embarked on their

pronged

assault

—a

suite of application

programming

five-

interfaces

designed not only to improve game performance on Windows, but to simplify the task of writing

system. that

The

arsenal

—a

games

for Microsoft's flagship operating

series of application

programming

interfaces

communicated between the operating system and hardware

included DirectDraw for faster video playback; Directlnput for swifter joystick control, DirectPlay for playing

a network such as the Internet,

games with others over

and DirectSound

59

for better playback

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

of prerecorded sounds. Later they would add the most controversial of the bunch, Direct3D, the RenderMorphics 3-D engine to

games more

lifelike.

Others inside Microsoft's Windows

were championing another type of 3-D engine

NT

— OpenGL—

make group

trigger-

ing an internal power struggle that eventually fueled a near-religious battle in the Similarly,

gaming community. compete with DCI,

DirectDraw would

the joint

technology for enhancing video performance.

Microsoft/Intel

DirectDraw allowed game developers a computer's video card, the resolution imaging,

circuit

little

mapping

to exploit all the capabilities of

textures

board that controls high-

on

animation. DirectDraw gave developers access to

without having to configure extra code for

and high-speed

objects,

this digital treasure

the multitude of

all

dif-

on the market.

ferent video cards

Directlnput was derivative of the work Eisler had done on fixing joystick support for

modate

a joystick

is

Windows.

A computer system

virtually useless for

that won't

accom-

many games. Under DOS,

then the standard computer-game platform, developers had to write

code addressing every brand of joystick on the market. Again, Directlnput freed

game programmers from

keeping and connections write

code for network or

leave multiplayer

others

games

took care of

It

tasks, so

drudgery.

game community's

DirectPlay was the answer to the

support for multiplayer games.

this

all

plea for better

the digital book-

game programmers

modem

didn't have to

play. It also let players

in progress without crashing the

— a problem with DOS because of

all

enter and

game

for

the various compatibility

issues.

DirectSound was similar to DirectDraw

grammers deep

access to

all

in that

it

the capabilities available

allowed pro-

on the myriad

sound cards on the market.

The

significance of the trio's assault cannot be understated.

Microsoft would be trying to

move

the entire PC-using world off of

DOS and primitive versions of Windows and onto Windows 95. Engstrom, and

St.

John were working on a plan

60

that

would

give

Eisler,

game

THE BEASTIE BOYS

developers and a vast segment of computer users reasons to buy into

Windows

The

95.

three decided

on the

"Direct" monikers because their tech-

nology would give programmers a standard way to write Windows

games

directly to

press wag,

hardware such

amused by

all

as video

and sound

A

cards.

trade-

the references to "Direct," later called the

collection Of APIs Direct "X," the variable suffix used in the

computer

industry to connote a future, indeterminable software update.

"They made fun of us, calling

"We

liked that, so

we took

it

the 'DirectX APIs,'

marketers later wanted to use the

media APIs other groups

company

to

Eisler recalls.

it."

The DirectX campaign would become

at the idea of

"

so successful that Microsoft

name for a whole

built. Eisler,

raft

Engstrom, and

St.

of new multi-

John

bristled

having their technology co-opted and encouraged the

come up

with another branding campaign. Thus the

"ActiveX" APIs were born.

"We

always joked that 'ActiveX'

thy of being called 'DirectX,' Eisler,

whose superfast

"

meant

the crap that wasn't wor-

says.

had earned him the nickname

reflexes

Twitchy, was in charge of the

all

Engstrom

unglamorous but

crucial heavy-lifting

C and some assembly language. Engstrom was the program manager, who drew up specifications of what should be included in DirectX, made

job of coding, which he did mostly in the computer language

sure Eisler had

enough bodies and

managers what he and

his

resources,

and

later,

explained to

two companions had schemed.

was the face man, the guy

who would

St.

John

pitch the technology to the

game-development community and the

press.

While

St.

John's job

was primarily marketing, he played a key role early on in the devel-

opment of the

technology. Several APIs were developed by program-

mers under

John

St.

at

Developer Relations Group, As these aspects

St. John moved them to the Systems group, where came under Engstrom's control. St. John also supervised the

of the project grew, they

teams that wrote the Eisler,

first

Engstrom, and

games St.

for

Windows

John soon

95.

realized they

needed more

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

developers to help build the technology, but weren't given authorization by

Osborne. They had grown to

telling

him what they were hatching.

dislike

Osborne and didn't bother

Segal, the director of multimedia

evangelism at Developer Relations Group, helped route one or two

programmers through DRG, but soon declined "Segal told me, will

'If you

be no. Just do

it

hire contractors or

sion to talk to

want something, don't ask, 'cause the answer

and don't

ask,' " St.

commandeer

and convince them

John

much

evangelists

"So we would just

make

and then hope

stuff for us

came

up.

We'd already

of [DirectX] with nobody's permission."

John would

St.

says.

developers we didn't have permisto

they didn't get fired by the time their reviews built

to help further.

and

Group money

take full advantage of the

freedom bestowed on

quietly funneled $1.7 million of Developer Relations to

pay for developers'

salaries that

managers

in the

Systems group refused to authorize.

The

first

version of DirectX was by seven contractors, a couple of

full-timers brave

enough

to

venture into the

fray,

and

Eisler,

the lion's share of coding. Later, about sixty programmers,

whom were John "I

did

outside contractors, helped build second and third gen-

erations of DirectX. St.

who

many of

Some

of those pressed into service worked near

in Building 12.

housed a number of contractors for Eric because

do from DRG,"

St.

John

it

was easier to

says.

Others were stationed near Engstrom and Eisler inside Building

They

later

would move

to Building 27,

and eventually

4.

settle in

Building 30, a three-story, brick-and-glass box located away from the

center of the Microsoft metropolis.

More than one hundred

grammers would eventually be assigned

to DirectX.

But that

pro-

would

be years away. What mattered most in the beginning was producing

working code, and

demanding Eisler

1994.

It

Eisler,

Engstrom, and

St.

John confronted

a

deadline.

began coding on the Manhattan Project on December

seemed

ect of his career

perfectly natural for

on Christmas

Eve.

He

62

him

24,

to begin the biggest proj-

had, after

all, just

four months

THE BEASTIE BOYS to finish the task.

The

game developers

three had promised

hand out beta or

Microsoft would

test versions

Computer Game Developers Conference

the

California, the third

packaged

in what's

known

games. Microsoft had St.

Santa Clara,

in

week of April 1995. The technology would be as a software

development

short, a collection of tools to build other

Moreover,

that

of the technology at

or

kit,

technology

—

SDK for

in this case

not authorized the Manhattan Project.

still

John had not even arranged

for floor space or speak-

ing times with conference officials in Santa Clara.

And

the sands of

the hourglass were slipping. "I

had no clue how any of it would get done by April,"

"Every day I'd

say,

'I'm so fucked, I'm so fucked,'

Eisler says.

and

just write

more code." Engstrom and ally if

St.

John

say

it

may not have been

so dire. Eisler usu-

regarded (and described) everything as an impossible problem,

only to ensure that his colleagues were duly impressed

solved

when he

it.

As he feverishly coded,

his concentration

was broken one day in

February 1995 when Segal burst in and told him they had to go pay

an unannounced

visit to Bill

Gates.

Gates was huddled in his war

and senior

executives, plotting

which had just

On

February

filed

9,

room

with his team of legal advisers

how

to return fire against Apple,

another lawsuit against the

Apple accused Microsoft and

Redmond company.

Intel of stealing

from QuickTime, Apple's popular program that

on a computer, and using

it

in

Video for Windows and DCI, the joint

Microsoft/ Intel project Eisler had been called on to help

weeks

prior. It's

code

plays small movies

fix several

worth noting that Apple controlled just 8.6 percent

of the global personal computer market at the time, while "clones" loaded with Microsoft software

dominated 80 percent.

IBM One

of Apple's core strengths was multimedia. Apple was seeking an injunction to prevent Microsoft from shipping any products with

DCI, a not-so-veiled ploy to hobble the launch of Windows 95.

"We cannot and

will

not stand by and watch the

63

fruits

of our

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

research and development efforts being plundered, and our hard-

fought advances in the marketplace being unfairly undermined,"

fumed David Nagel, senior

and general manager of

vice president

AppleSoft, an Apple subsidiary.

Tim

Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a

and consulting firm based

many

market research

in Santa Clara, expressed the

opinion of

of the techno-pundits: "This could pull the wind out of

Windows

95."

This was the second time Apple had accused Microsoft of stealing. In

March

had

1988, three years after Microsoft

sion of Windows, Apple's

then-CEO John

ing of an eleven-page lawsuit against the allegedly pilfering the "look face.

Both

they

managed

and

lawsuits eventually

proved

to frustrate Gates

after filing the

its first

ver-

Redmond company

fil-

for

feel" of Apple's graphical user interfruitless for

and

distract

involved with the projects that were under

Four days

rolled out

Sculley authorized the

DCI

suit,

Apple. Nonetheless,

everyone at Microsoft

fire.

Apple executives sent a dam-

aging thirty-six-page letter to federal judge Stanley Sporkin, on the eve of his decision whether to negate a tentative antitrust settle-

ment between

the Justice Department and Microsoft.

The

Justice

Department, spurred on by Microsoft competitors, had accused the

company of malevolent monopolistic

business practices, such as

courting would-be software partners only to jilt them after peeking at their

code and quickly developing a similar product. In

a year prior to this, a federal jury

had concluded

fact, exactly

that Microsoft

wrongfully incorporated data-compression technology into

had

DOS 6.0.

Microsoft had failed to win licensing rights for the technology from tiny

into

San Diego-based Stac its

Inc. Microsoft

awarded Stac more than $100

The

plugged the technology

then-newest operating system anyway. Stac sued. The jury

letter to

million.

Sporkin stated Gates had made a "thinly veiled"

threat to stop producing software for the Macintosh unless Apple

dropped

its

look-and-feel copyright lawsuit against the

company and discontinued development of software

64

that

Redmond competed

THE BEASTIE BOYS

with Microsoft's.

The

letter

had

intended

its

Rather than

effect.

kill

the case, the judge kept the antitrust probe alive.

The mood

inside Gates's

chamber was

as foul as the swollen

Northwest skies when Segal and Eisler barged into the room. Gates

had been formulating and

Segal his

his counterattack to the

Eisler interrupted. Eisler

DCI

lawsuit

when

had never met Gates before and

timing couldn't have been worse.

knew Microsoft had never filched code from QuickTime and

Segal

thought that the company should offer blanket legal protection for software developers

needed

Segal ers

from potential

worked on

who were

on

legal

DCI programs

for

Windows.

a letter to indemnify the develop-

harm by Apple.

because he had

Eisler,

fixing DCI, was in tow to provide technical support for

Segal. Indeed, Eisler

gramming

writing

Gates's signature

knew

— he thought

virtually every line of

for certain

Intel's

DCI

DCI

didn't contain Apple pro-

work was so bad

that

he had rewritten

code.

"We're pretty busy here," Gates said when Segal and Eisler bounded

room. "What

into the

is it?"

Segal apologized for interrupting, but insisted that the letter of

indemnification needed to go out that day.

"We did not

recycle any

QuickTime code," Segal

one of those rare times where we were Gates,

who would

afterward he

In

it,

"I

penned

rather fight than flee, signed the a letter of his

Michael Spindler, and faxed

utive,

says.

Gates called Spindler a

am writing to make

it

"This was

clean." letter.

Soon

own

to Apple's then-chief exec-

to

newspapers and magazines.

it

liar.

clear

how disappointed I am

in the lack of

candor and honesty Apple has shown in dealing with Microsoft during the

last several

months," Gates wrote.

communication from Apple

"I feel

to Microsoft

is

more

called for."

Apple relented and dropped the DCI lawsuit

months

straightforward

in

October

after the release of Windows 95. Microsoft readily

to use

any of the disputed code. By then

dered

it

obsolete.

65

— two

agreed not

Eisler's fine-tuning

had ren-

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

knew what Apple was doing,"

"Gates was pissed because he Segal says.

watched during that February war-room encounter,

Eisler mostly as

Gates ranted in his tinny voice about countersuing. "That's

when

I first

over fucking DCI.

It

met

Bill," recalls Eisler.

um, unpleasant."

was,

But Eisler didn't allow the DCI lawsuit to

mary

goal: DirectX.

computer-game Engstrom, and

The

"Over Apple suing us

distract

him from

his pri-

project was not only destined to change the

it also reinforced the bond among Eisler, who were becoming inseparable. When they John,

industry,

St.

weren't spending hundred-hour weeks at work, they were weights in the mornings at the Pro Club. religious crusade to

kill

DOS

Emboldened by

lifting

their near-

games, coupled with pressure of the

April DirectX deadline, the three developed a savage brashness in

the corridors of Microsoft.

trenches

who questioned

hit with the

They were on

their ideas

a mission,

mantra "Computer games represent a

market. Five

and those

were dismissed

in the

as clueless

and

five-billion-dollar

billion dollars."

Heidi "Brussels Sprouts" Breslauer, the Microsoft program manager, left

her position in the multimedia group in February 1995.

Steve Banfield, a former

NCR Corp. programmer and Microsoft tech-

nical evangelist, took her place. St.

position,

John had urged him

hoping he would be a willing

career move,

it

would not be a good year

ally.

to take the

Despite the upward

for Banfield.

Not long

after

joining multimedia, he and other managers in the group were called

before Vice President Brad Silverberg, ing

Windows

95. Silverberg

compatibility problems

new operating

and

fumed

who blamed them

that the

that older

group had

for delay-

failed to fix

DOS tides wouldn't run on the

system.

"His message was pretty clear: 'You guys suck. We're pissed off and

I'm going to take yeah, Steve,

dumped It

it

out on you,'

welcome

"

Banfield

to the team.'

myself into."

would get worse.

66

I

was a

says.

"Then he

litde

worried what

'Oh,

said, I

had

THE BEASTIE BOYS Banfield's

mother died of cancer. His

95, but was instead called to help deal with the lawsuit

Apple had

filed over

Oh, and he was

The Apple

DCI.

also in charge of supervising

new

the only,

program manager

one of the

charges. Banfield was to

Engstrom.

from establishing control

lawsuit distracted Banfield

over his

his

died suddenly of heart

Before the deaths he had looked forward to working on

failure.

Windows

and

sister

first,

but by no means

have trouble with Engstrom. Engstrom

two friends did not respond well to authority, especially

if it

interfered with the Manhattan Project. Gates was trying to ship

Windows tory,

95, at the time the

but

most important product

Engstrom, and

Eisler,

St.

Banfield says he sometimes ordered with

John had them

Windows

their

company

"They didn't care who they pissed

"Nobody

obscenities about what

They figured they were on

off.

multimedia liked these guys," he adds. "They had

all

someone

Gates

is

St.

all

dumbest idea all

sucked.

to his face, 'You're

blunt with people and

John, for

this

the other multimedia guys couldn't design their way

out of a paper bag, that they

"That's the

them or

infidel.

in

attitude that

telling

problem

was.

a mission from God," Banfield says. 'You were either with

you were an

his-

own agenda.

to fix a certain

Windows 95 only to be met with mumbled

a "piece of shit"

in

an

They were not shy about "

idiot.'

isn't afraid to tell his

I've ever heard."

But

Eisler,

employees,

Engstrom, and

their considerable brainpower, are not Bill Gates.

Fellow Microsoft employees, understandably, resented their brutal candor.

"A lot of times

I

felt

a large part of my job was walking

with a dustpan," Banfield

He'd go busting

Many

in

and

says.

I'd

"He was

like a bull in a

behind Eric china shop.

have to clean things up."

resented a condescending mannerism they

all

shared of

thumb to their foremake themselves understood by inferior

squinting while bringing their forefinger and

head, as

if

struggling to

beings. This was followed by an exaggerated gesture, ripping their

67

RENEGADES hand away from to

THE EMPIRE

emphasize the point they were trying

to

make. "It

was almost

like they

they were going to saying, 'You

of

head

their

OF

my

were pulling a piece of their brain out and to you," recalls Banfield. "Like they

it

"

referred to the trio as the Multimedia Mafia. Others called

them the Eisler,

Beastie Boys, a

name

Engstrom, and

St.

bluntness at Microsoft

that stuck.

John did not corner

— they merely took

it

to

company where

being blunt

is

lot

titles

little

on

contempt and

"We improved

in," St. John explains.

but not before bruising a

the market

an extreme.

"There's blunt and there's brutally blunt with a

arrogance thrown

In a

were

know, you're just so stupid, I'm going to give you a piece

brain.'

Some

hand

.

.

.

over time,

of people."

mean

often don't

a way to establish dominance.

much

as

as credibility,

The company was

rife

with pecking-order gamesmanship, such as not answering E-mail or chronically arriving late to meetings.

"The dominance game was

something more important," executives Eisler,

ior

be the

to

last

one

walk into a meet-

St.

John

says. "It

was used by

all

the

and emulated by the underlings."

Engstrom, and

St.

John acknowledge today

was barbaric, but they offer no apologies.

reminded he used ax, his

to

everyone what you've decided, and claim you have to run to

ing, tell

to

St.

that their behav-

John laughs when

plod through the hallways with a

unkempt reddish beard and

his

plastic battle-

three-hundred-pound bulk

adding a certain primitive menace. Yet the three maintain that

Group suspected they were querading

would

as

nobody outside Developer Relations

close friends.

They believed

that by mas-

enemies, their real enemies inside the Systems group

reveal themselves.

The

three believed they would be able to

advance DirectX and their careers by surreptitiously gathering

infor-

mation from identified adversaries.

"A

lot

would

of people didn't

piss

know how good of friends we

and moan about the other guy

68

to

were, so they

one of us,"

says Eisler.

THE BEASTIE BOYS

"We would it.

People

we

that to

up

play

still

that

don't get

we

didn't get along. People really didn't get It's

it.

very powerful to have that perception

would

didn't like each other because people

guts

spill their

one of us.

The late

as a

means

to

manipu-

managers.

"We'd agree ter,

mock arguments

three even scripted

vehemently on the things that didn't mat-

to disagree

then we'd 'spontaneously'

the three things

we

unify,

together the night before and plan

would agree

agers]

ground.' St.

but with great contempt, over

"We'd get

originally set out to do," says St. John.

to the issues

all this

out.

To make peace, [man-

where we had found 'common

"

John

says this subterfuge

was necessary because they faced

resis-

tance to their Manhattan Project. There wasn't a burning desire to drastically

change course

With Osborne

Windows

in "rest

95, there was

effort creating

new

at the

and

vest

little

multimedia group,

mode" and

the

incentive to spend even

technology, especially

says St.

John.

company focused on

if it

more hours and

meant helping the

Beastie Boys.

"The company has a very narrow focus on ness.

.

.

.

I'm not saying

that's bad," says St.

its

profitable busi-

John. "But

it

does pre-

clude you from doing any dramatic thinking, doing any dramatic innovation.

"We'd come and

say,

'Here's the right thing to do,'

wouldn't happen," he adds. then what do you do next? Banfield, Segal,

heads

at the

"If

no

is

We just wanted to make cool

and others

and no,

it

not an acceptable answer to you, technology."

familiar with the situation shake their

notion nobody knew the Beastie Boys were buddies.

"They had

this delusional belief that

they threw

up

this

huge

matrix where everybody believed they were enemies," says Segal, laughing. "The real trick didn't

know

this

is

to find

was going on.

If

somebody

in the

company

you find that person,

let

that

human

resources know, because they're stupid and should be fired." Banfield, a Kentuckian

who

possesses his

69

own

matter-of-fact,

RENECADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

Southern bluntness, concurs. "The idea that they didn't other

.

.

.

and

no one was any the

that

During development of DirectX,

wiser,

Eisler

I

think,

is

each

like

horseshit."

had moved out of Building

40 and into another nearby office where he could code without

But

traction.

Osborne

to

his

give

a

Eisler

relatively

Engstrom received a better

poor performance

review.

review, despite the fact that Eisler was

doing most of the work on the innovative game technology. threatened to quit. Engstrom, out of

"Because of the nature of what

going over specs," Engstrom

says.

loyalty,

did,

I

"He

I

made

The

Beastie Boys, nerd warriors

and

their IQs

Redmond. Banfield

the

same

Eisler

threat.

was always in Paul's

office,

didn't have a lot of contact

with Craig. Paul was almost impossible to work

matched only by

dis-

absence from multimedia group's headquarters led

for."

whose naked ambitions were

egos, were raising hell in the halls of

says the only reason they didn't get fired

then

was because too many game companies were making business plans

Manhattan

in anticipation of the

and

St.

Project.

Without

Eisler,

Engstrom,

John, the project couldn't get finished, thus making them

tually impervious.

Or

Weeks before the Computer Game Developers Conference April, Microsoft vice president Eisler into his office

vir-

so they thought.

and

in

Brad Silverberg hauled Engstrom and

demanded

angrily

to

know why everyone

was complaining about their behavior, why they couldn't get along with anybody, and

why they wasted

indelicately called the

Manhattan

"You could cease to exist at

so

much money on

this

thing

Project.

at Microsoft

tomorrow," Silverberg railed

them. Eisler,

est they

Engstrom, and

had come

St.

John

say that,

up

to then,

it

was the

clos-

to getting fired at Microsoft.

Moreover, Silverberg declared he was killing the Project

and didn't buy

Project

changed the world,

name Manhattan

explanation that "the Manhattan

Eisler's

for

good or bad

— and we

really like

nuclear explosions." Perhaps. But the Japanese had a huge presence in the

70

game

indus-

THE BEASTIE BOYS try.

An unamused

Silverberg worried that computer-industry leaders

naming technology

there would take offense to

World War

after the

project that had rained nuclear terror on their nation.

II

Some

also

worried that protesters might picket the company. Silverberg suggested that the trio call their collective technology

by the

"We

less

name Windows Multimedia.

incendiary

didn't want to call

it

Windows Multimedia because we

what people thought of Microsoft's multimedia," his credit, listened to us.

a

game SDK

Much ally

[software

He

didn't like

development

later they also

it,

all

knew

says Eisler. "Brad, to

but we ended up calling

it

kit]."

reached a compromise on the logo, eventu-

replacing the mushroom-shaped cloud with a variation of a radi-

ation symbol.

"Brad came to appreciate our sense of humor," Eisler

Soon to

after the

showdown

in Silverberg's office,

says.

Engstrom returned

demonstrate the game Super Bubsy running on Windows 95. The

computer screen

filled

with fast-motion, high-resolution characters

bopping around a 3-D environment. Nothing

it

had ever been

said,

'Oh my God.

like

seen on a Windows 95 prototype. "Silverberg nearly

Whatever that

I

is,

recalls. Silverberg

ogy "and

all

out of his chair and

became an

the hard

Eisler received

fell

want Windows

work

to

instant

really

an improved

do more of

that,' "

Engstrom

champion of the new technol-

was over," Engstrom adds.

review.

The

Beastie Boys

went back

to

work. But the session with Silverberg did nothing to change their attack-dog ways. Shortly before the

Conference details of

Computer Game Developers

—DirectX's coming-out party— the Beastie Boys leaked

DirectX to PCWeek magazine, which referred to the code

name Manhattan

Project.

ulating the press.

It inflates

The

leak

is

a time-honored way of manip-

a reporter's sense of self-importance

and

lust for exclusivity,

while serving the self-interest of the source.

John soon became

a master at the well-timed, self-serving leak.

St.

Brad Chase, Microsoft's top marketing executive, was enraged and fired off

memos

expressing his displeasure.

St.

John leaked

that as

RENEGADES As a

well.

came

members of

result,

to regard

DirectX

THE EMPIRE

OF

the trade press

and game developers

maverick skunk works that was defying

as a

the Empire.

on many levels because it made using among developers for the first time, and

"This trick worked for us

Microsoft technology 'cool' it lit

PR

a fire under the

created for

them with the

department's butt to clean up the mess I'd press," St. John says.

"Our management just

thought we were nerds with no clue about the media and that PR's

all

We

fault.

it

was

could always count on being underestimated."

By sidestepping

official

Microsoft

PR

channels and arranging for

DirectX to be splashed in the pages of one of the industry's leading trade publications,

Microsoft wouldn't the

"tar

to

do so

additional insurance that

— not that there was any evidence

at this late stage. St. John calls this tech-

babying" the technology.

'Tar baby'

can't

John was buying the project

kill

company wanted

nique "

St.

ungum

means you have

themselves from

becomes

to get Microsoft stuck to it," St.

John

explains. "If

kill

ted to

on record, Microsoft executives get glued

it

If

it

Banfield almost "

public,

so that they

it's

not public,

and you have Microsoft commit-

you can

it.

it

came unglued when he read

to the technology."

the article.

'Manhattan Project' was never supposed to have gotten outside

the company," Banfield says. "Eric Engstrom, Craig Eisler,

took great joy in getting that

name out

there.

I

and Alex

thought they were

being stupid for stupid's sake. There's something to be said for flying the pirate flag as a motivational technique.

And

then there's some-

thing to be said for walking too close to the edge and getting killed." St.

John had encouraged Banfield

to take the supervisor's

job

at

multimedia with the expectation he would serve the Beastie Boy cause.

That plan backfired miserably. Banfield had grown

tired of

cleaning up after Engstrom 's explosions with coworkers and confided in

St.

John

that

he was considering

informed Engstrom, hoping

his friend

firing

Engstrom.

would change

his

St.

John

ways and

conduct himself more diplomatically. Instead, Engstrom confronted Banfield, blasting

him

for unprofessional gossiping.

72

THE BEASTIE BOYS

Another interesting subplot had developed. As the games evangelist

and cocreator of DirectX,

St.

John influenced the quiet asphyxiation

of WinG, Hecker's project that allowed games to work better on

Windows

and the very technology Microsoft had trumpeted

3.1

for

Windows 95. True, WinG was almost experimental technology and had limitations.

But WinG also showed promise. Games such

Freddi Fish, King's Quest VII, and

Engstrom and gelical

Eisler driving

Jump Raven

DirectX and

St.

as

WinDoom,

used WinG. Yet with

John wielding

megaphone, WinG eventually faded

the evan-

into oblivion, as did

its

embattled counterpart, DCI, the Microsoft/ Intel venture to boost digital

video playback.

"Hecker had annoyed us to hated pharaohs, St.

John It

we

set

to the extent that, like the Egyptians did

out to erase his cartouche from the tombs,"

says.

should be noted that

Intel's

experimenting with multimedia

didn't die with DCI. Intel, desperate for the software industry to

develop applications that forced consumers to upgrade to faster computers

and

frustrated

with

Microsoft's

embarked on developing something

efforts

in

this

regard,

called Native Signal Processing,

a central-processing-unit chip that could run

game animation.

It

was

being engineered to replace video, sound cards, and 3-D rendering

—which threatened not only makers of those types of hardware,

but the as-yet-unborn DirectX technology. Native Signal Processing, or NSP, highlighted the uncomfortable symbiosis between Microsoft

and

Intel. St.

companies

made okay

John and others likened the

to

relationship between the

two escaped convicts shackled at the ankles

progress

when running

in stride, but

— they

stumbled when one

suddenly bolted in another direction. Intel

had

invited

Engstrom and Microsoft colleagues Carl Stork

and Marshall Brumer

to

a

Windows and Hardware Engineers

Conference held just prior

to the

wanted the Empire

how

to see

computer-game trade show.

aggressively

which triggered the "Cuban missile

crisis"

it

Intel

was promoting NSP,

of multimedia between the

two companies, illustrated by the following internal Intel E-mail.

73

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

From: Gerald S Holzhammer [[email protected]. intel. com] Sent: Thursday, April 13, 1995 2:40 To:. 1 1

.

.

AM

[email protected];Bill_R_Miller@ccm

.sc.intel.com;Robert_Sullivan@ccml

Whittier@ccml

1

1

.sc.intel.com;Ronald_J_

.sc.intel.com;[email protected];

mcg@ibeam. intel. com; [email protected] intel. com; Murali_ .

[email protected]. intel. com; Joe_Casey@ccml 1 .sc.intel.com; [email protected] Subject: Microsoft Face to Face

Summary

Text item: Text_l

Bottom-Line:

—Based on W95 experience MS finds that they need to own

all

drivers

—Expect no real cooperation from MS on NSP or media; input/ education

—At Games able

games

is

welcome, of course

developer's conference focus on "Design scal-

for

Pentium" message; DON'T make a half-hearted

attempt to push Native audio without a compelling ISV story (current POR).

MS

messages are tuned for

this audience;

we'd come across defensive at best

—

Bill, let's

do the Native Audio press release before [Game

Developers Conference];

it

won't

harm our MS

relationship:-)

Details:

We met

with Carl Stork, Marshall Brumer, and Eric Engstrom

for 3 hours.

WinHEC

clearly

opened their eyes regarding the

scope of NSP. They are upset with us being in "their" OS

space

—no surprise there. Interestingly, they have evolved

their thinking

... to do

A

on what their "space" needs

to be.

recurring theme was that nobody but

MS

is

qualified

good driver [software]. In their mind, [Windows 95] was

delayed 9 months by 3rd party driver dependence.

7 4

THE BEASTIE BOYS .

.

.

Stork openly admitted that

MS

has completely missed

the boat on developing a compelling state of the art media

subsystem for Windows95. ...

MS

don't expect

I

openly attack

to

BUT

Developers Conference],

their thrust

NSP

at the

[Game

clearly counter

is

NSP. ...

Not only would NSP have usurped multimedia from Microsoft, also a really

bad idea because

manatee on

tranquilizers," St.

NSP

Ironically, Intel's

it

would run [games] about

John

"it

was

as fast as a

says.

project fueled Microsoft

management

sup-

port for DirectX. Microsoft dispatched evangelists and executives to

dissuade Intel from developing NSP, explaining

it

duplicated

many

features of DirectX. "It

was a weird sort of 'competition,'

"

was more than happy in some respects to ing so

NSP

much attention

to multimedia,

effort to

St.

if it

John went about quashing

have Microsoft devot-

was to crush their own

a Microsoft marketing

have the Beastie Boys' game-software developer

WinG 2.0. Walt Disney Co. its

finally

even

initiative."

Meanwhile,

in

says St. John, "because Intel

face

when

saw

foray into

its

Compaq had shipped computers

angry parents

demanded

to

containing an

game and

untested driver with WinG, which didn't run the legions of children sobbing

renamed

CD-ROM game

they released the infamous Lion King

for Christmas '94.

kit

computer games blow up

left

on Christmas Day. Tens of thousands of

know what was wrong. Disney was unpre-

pared for the wave of consumer angst. "I

had mixed

feelings about

game companies be

it," St.

John

successful, but at the

be proven right about WinG's inadequacy.

dent to

kill

fact

—

wanted

same time I

I

to

have

was happy to

used the Lion King

changing the name of our technology

to

WinG

inci-

2.0."

—

rather St. John spared no expense hyping DirectX at Computer Game Developers Conference that spring, despite the

Microsoft the

says. "I

conference

officials tried to

block Microsoft's presence. Event

75

RENEGADES

declined to provide time for Microsoft speakers, or

officials initially

suite space for officials finally

suite

THE EMPIRE

OF

St. John says. CGDC company a small demonstration

seminars and demonstrations,

relented and gave the

and some time

at the

rostrum when

"commandeer" the event with the

full

St.

John threatened

to

weight of Microsoft marketing

money. St.

John launched

that time

it

was too

"My job was

CGDC

DirectX launched successfully,"

set

up

St.

it

John used

after the official

tions,

as a

says. "I

to

do something

itself,

so spec-

couldn't be ignored." Microsoft's

checkbook

to rent out

Great America theme park across the street from the

ence

John

St.

a session or a suite at the conference

no one would come. Microsoft would have tacular that

realizing their

staff,

be more accommodating. But by

to

late to recall the missiles.

to see

concluded that if we

The

a full assault.

and offered

mistake, relented

conference ended.

marketing platform for

St.

his

John used own show,

Paramount's

CGDC

the day

the official confer-

passing out invita-

hanging banners, the works. The seminar and party were

collectively

dubbed Ground Zero,

in

keeping with DirectX's original

who attended the conference Gates's tab. And it was quite a

theme of nuclear war. Most everyone show on

stayed for the DirectX

Bill

show, both onstage and behind the scenes.

During the CGDC,

match with

St.

Eisler

and Engstrom engaged

John because he had

set

and other multimedia technologies in addition Engstrom thought ing

it

wedged

St.

John

in with other

enough DirectX

tools

in a shouting

up demonstrations of WinG to DirectX. Eisler

and

diluted their technology's impact by hav-

demos.

and demos

to

St.

John explained there weren't

fill

the

room and he needed

the

other stuff for padding. Eisler

and Engstrom were not on speaking terms with

day they stepped onstage

at

St.

ater for DirectX's official public demonstration.

They both wore

coats for theater, mad-scientist props in keeping with the

Project roots. As

John the

Great America's thousand-seat amphithelab

Manhattan

Engstrom began explaining the concept of DirectX

76

THE BEASTIE BOYS to the

game

developers, the crowd started chanting, "DOS,

DOS." Engstrom

tried to talk over the chant, but

it

was

DOS,

useless.

As the din reached a crescendo, Engstrom bellowed, "This

is

what

He stopped speaking. On cue, Eisler pushed on the Super Bubsy demo running on Windows

DirectX can do for you!"

up the acceleration 95.

The game whirred

at eighty-three

frames per second

—

faster

than

the motion picture standard of twenty-four frames per second.

DirectX did to the gamers what

it

had done

to Microsoft vice presi-

dent Brad Silverberg. There was an audible, collective gasp from the crowd, then stunned silence.

77

BEYOND GROUND ZERO

After the

demo, the Beastie Boys

sat with their legs

dangling off

the edge of the Great America stage as a crowd of newly con-

verted developers converged to ask about DirectX. Engstrom directed a crush of marketing questions to technical inquiries to Eisler;

if

St. John; St.

answer, he pointed people to Engstrom. All three T-shirts

and

—

development

kit

pressed just hours before the event. Not only had

Ground Zero been

who were

handed out black

free beta copies of the DirectX software

on CD-ROMs

John referred

there was something Eisler couldn't

a success for DirectX,

it

was cathartic for the

trio,

again on high-fiving terms. Eisler and Engstrom, impressed

with the turnout, forgave

St.

John.

When

the crowd began to thin,

the Beastie Boys climbed aboard a roller coaster

the fireworks display

St.

John had slipped

After the celebration, the three returned to

and craned

to see

into the event's budget.

Redmond

to finish

what

they had started. Eisler

continued

his

mad-paced coding. Engstrom continued

rounding up internal support and kept the project focused.

schemed ways

to

promote what was becoming a press

darling.

most of the world's media focused on the long-overdue

Windows 95 and

its

St.

John

While

arrival

of

attendant business applications, numerous antic-

ipatory articles about DirectX emerged. Gates helped fuel this inter-

78

BEYOND GROUND ZERO est

when he announced

action

would build

that Microsoft

and adventure games

own 3-D

its

Dreamworks, the

in partnership with

Spielberg/ Geffen/Katzenberg Hollywood studio.

"Win95

be a watershed for multimedia," gushed PCWeek in

will

June 1995. "Millions of households

game

consoles will buy

that previously

Windows 95 PCs

bought video-

instead."

That same month Computer Gaming World wrote that beta versions of DirectX 1.0 and

Windows

"Windows 95 has incredible potential three

95.

fall

on the

Of

side of the good.

shape up the way Microsoft hopes they

had

tested

verdict?

— for good and bad — but

months before the announced August

chips will

The

it

release,

course,

will,

we

it

will

looks as things

if

if

the

do not

have the same

kind of muddled confusion that prevails in software today. But things

do happen according

new gaming

to plan,

for the Beastie Boys.

"Ultimately,

where

all

the

power came from was

and making what they felt they wanted,"

was a spin to

its

if

next hot

platform."

Not bad PR

ers

gaming could have

that.

We

More good news

says

talking to develop-

Engstrom. "But there

gave them what they wanted on our terms."

for the

company

as a

whole was

in the offing.

At

an August 21 hearing, three days before the launch of Windows 95, U.S. district court judge

Thomas Penfleld Jackson declared an end

to

the Justice Department's five-year probe of Microsoft. Jackson signed

a now-famous consent decree, settled in 1994 but delayed while previous presiding federal judge, Stanley Sporkin, whipsawed Justice to find

more

dirt

from the case

on the company. An appeals court removed Sporkin after

it

determined he had overstepped

his legal

authority.

Under

the consent decree, Microsoft agreed to

charging computer makers licensing fees even weren't loaded with Microsoft software.

The

end if

its

practice of

their

machines

decree, which had a

life

span of six and a half years, also prevented Microsoft from requiring

vendors to sign contracts lasting up to

five years. Instead,

was to have one-year contracts with

vendors.

79

its

Microsoft

The decree did not

RENEGADES specifically address

Windows

THE EMPIRE

OF

NT — the

industrial-strength operating

system Microsoft would use to crack the corporate computing market.

But the government noted

decree that "successor versions

in the

of or products marketed as replacements" to Windows could be

geted

tar-

later.

Many in

— including a consortium of competitors who include NT — saw the decree a mere slap on the

the industry

wanted Justice wrist because

to

as

didn't prohibit Microsoft from bundling

it

its

Microsoft

Network software with Windows. Microsoft Network, or MSN, was Microsoft's on-line service. Rivals such as

America Online com-

plained that this gave Microsoft an unfair edge because of its market

dominance with operating systems

— an

argument

that

proved

groundless. Microsoft Network never really challenged the domi-

nance of AOL

ernment

said

as

it

an Internet service provider. Nonetheless, the gov-

would keep constant

what the company plugged into

Windows 95

finally

its

on Microsoft and monitor

vigil

operating systems.

launched August

24, 1995, with all the global

hype $100 million can buy. Microsoft reportedly paid $12 million

to

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards so the company could use the Rolling Stones' song.

When

pop

hit "Start

Microsoft

first

Me Up"

Windows 95 's

official

theme

approached Jagger with the request, he

reportedly quoted a ludicrous

would turn him down. But

as

amount of money thinking Microsoft

to his surprise, Gates

opened the com-

pany's checkbook without hesitation.

Gates hired Jay Leno to stand onstage with him under a big white tent at the

Redmond campus

as the

two demonstrated the new oper-

ating system. "He's not necessarily so different from the rest of us,"

Leno quipped of his is still

host. "I

went into

his

den

last

night and his

VCR

flashing 12:00."

The company

also benefited

Journal reported there were stories official

from free

more than

about the operating system just

publicity.

sixty-five

in the

and radio

features.

Computer

8o

Wall

Street

hundred newspaper

two months prior to the

launch date, and there had to have been

television

The

stores

at least that

many

around the world

BEYOND GROUND ZERO

opened

at

hunger

for

midnight on the twenty-fourth

bloated with tle,

and

to exploit

consumer

an operating system that was about two years

more code than

many

was, by

late,

was

the software used to run the space shut-

accounts, inferior to Apple's operating system.

many ways, didn't wet blanket over Windows launch

Apple, although eclipsed by Microsoft in so

miss

an opportunity to throw a

day.

Apple placed a billboard near Microsoft's headquarters that read, "C:

1/40NGRTLNS.W95,"

that plague

For

all

names

file

a nerdy insult of the technical limitations

in Microsoft

programs.

the hype about Win95's multimedia

wasn't included with the operating system's

simple reason

it

around

in

St.

John

DirectX

—for the

explains. "It was car-

games, not the operating system.

support in the company to

No wonder. The

tie it to

didn't have the

St.

more support from

many people

inside

John committed the

sin of

they did from

and

Microsoft. Eisler, Engstrom,

We

the OS."

Beastie Boys initially enjoyed

game developers than

outside

initial release

wasn't designed to be tied to the OS.

"DirectX was built to be parasitic," ried

capabilities,

designing software without consulting or working in concert with established players

who had

created the innards of Windows.

"There were guys who designed the Win95 kernel and guys who

worked on the core guts of

WinNT and

Microsoft

who have been around

matters

pretty

is

much

there were people in

awhile and their

gold," says Banfield. "If you

technology, you better run

it

past these guys

word on

technical

come up with new

and they better give

their

blessing.

"[The Beastie Boys] had their own development process," he adds.

"They decided they were going

done

in the past. If there

putting

it

to

be incompatible with anything

was a new idea that no one

tried,

they were

in there at the last minute. In terms of decorum, they

broke

every rule in the book."

That they created new gaming technology without collaborating with the masters of

Windows

is

testimony not only to the arrogance

of the Beastie Boys, but also to their brilliance.

RENECADES came

Yet their success

THE EMPIRE

OF

at the price

of alienating or offending

many

within the company, which did nothing to encourage collaboration

with other groups working on multimedia or to help lead to a

more

cohesive multimedia strategy.

Meanwhile, the staggered release of DirectX angered and confused

some

in the industry.

Technologies

made hundreds The

as

ATI

Diamond had adopted DCI and

of thousands of DCI-enabled products, only to have

Microsoft replace

DirectX.

Video board manufacturers such

Matrox, and

Inc.,

DCI

with DirectDraw, one of the components of

echoed the OS/2 debacle. Microsoft had

switch

declared that video board makers should design their products to

work with DCI. Even the Windows 95 Hardware Design lished by Microsoft Press, stated that

cards running

Windows 95

when using DCI

Guide, pub-

drivers, video

enhance playing back video or

"will

Windows 95-based games."

The tually

Beastie Boys

changed the

proved better than DCI

at

rules.

Although DirectDraw even-

improving video playback, many

consumers had purchased video cards that were useless shipped. Fred

Dunne

— now

it's

DirectX

of Jon Peddie Associates, author of the

Graphics Report, said, "Microsoft life itself

until

dead.

PC

went around preaching that DCI

Now they are

saying DirectDraw

is

is life itself.

[These next] few months are going to be confusing."

Dunne ers wait in

noted, "As multimedia manufacturers and

limbo until DirectDraw

ing Christmas sales.

.

.

.

is

game develop

finalized, they're afraid of hurt-

Board manufacturers are miffed

at

being

held hostage until DirectDraw ships." Still

another trade publication

removal of DCI from Windows 95

said,

is still

"The reason behind the

a mystery."

No mystery at all. The Beastie Boys killed DCI because of the Apple lawsuit

and because DCI was inherently unstable.

Engstrom

says at

no time did Microsoft

say

would coincide with the launch of Windows

shipment of DirectX

95.

"We shipped right on schedule. Well, six weeks late," he says. "When we shipped it, we were clacking our mugs in the hall, until we

82

BEYOND GROUND ZERO

SDK guys were so slow they had to We were never part of Windows 95."

be

read the article that said the

pushed out of Windows

The

Beastie Boys

and

They

celebratory mugs.

95.

their

pack of developers did more than clack Chinese food fight of epic pro-

initiated a

portions, nearly blinding one of the software contractors with hot

mustard and trashing a Microsoft conference room. Senior Silverberg

— Engstrom

authorized

clean-up

the

hope you guys had

"I

VP Brad

and sent a note

bill

to

fun."

Microsoft released the final version of DirectX 1.0 on September 29, 1995.

DOS

Within a

year, the three

had

built the

games and would be the framework

weapon

that killed

for another, even larger

jihad targeting the Internet.

"Through the play games,

efforts of a

Windows 95

is

few Microsoft evangelists

poised to be

THE game

who

actually

operating system

of the coming years," Computer Gaining World wrote that month.

magazine was a victim of

St.

The

John's evangelism, for the Beastie Boys

when

hadn't been big

game

ect in late 1994.

But the magazine was correct in forecasting that peo-

ple

would

start

players

they had

embarked on

their proj-

buying Windows PCs to play computer games, severely

eroding market share of the television-based Nintendo or Sega game consoles.

To trade

fuel DirectX, St. John

show

to

be held

engineered a Halloween theme party and

at Microsoft's

Redwest campus, the domain of

former consumer division senior vice president Patty Stonesifer.

Although she oversaw one of the most poorly performing groups the company, she

had

insisted

on having one of the

on campus. Redwest reflected her arty European Cafe, complete with vaulted

tastes

finest buildings

and included the

ceiling, a

palatial

man-made pond

by a man-made stream, and the expanse trimmed with natural

beams

said to

be

left

over from the construction of

in

Bill Gates's

million techno mansion in nearby Medina. Redwest was

still

fed

wood ISO-

under

construction at this time and the underground parking lot was largely

unused

— a perfect spot for

objected, but

St.

St.

John's twisted trade show. Stonesifer

John had secured approval from

83

his

more powerful

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

He

masters at Developer Relations Group.

promptly orchestrated the

construction of a two-story volcano inside her glorious cafeteria and

turned her building's underground parking

Judgment Day

St.

lot into a

free T-shirts proclaiming that

DOS

GWAR,

its

upcoming

to reflect a

theme

For example, id brought the band

titles.

group famous for

a

fake brains,

was dead. Each room of the

haunted house was designed by a game company

from one of

haunted house.

John's demented marketing

came complete with bowls of fake blood,

extravaganzas,

and

the second of

I,

The

sadomasochistic raunchiness.

its

bandleader wore a four-foot-long costume penis, while another

mem-

ber was dressed as an eight-foot-tall toothy vagina covered with penile

Mounted atop

tentacles.

this vaginal

monster was a severed head of

O.J. Simpson. They were a strange sight, but

of the two hundred or so journalists

about

this particularly

played Satan.

Some

hooded

still

none wrote

filed by,

that

word

a

their back.

demons, while

as

St.

John, nat-

of the fifteen hundred invited reporters

and game developers entered

bound behind

was stranger

macabre scene.

and Engstrom came dressed

Eisler urally,

who

it

a

chamber where

their

hands were

They were then blindfolded and forced by

figures to kneel before a faux guillotine.

"One way

for Microsoft to get rid of the competition,"

quipped

one attendee.

The event made

local headlines. Stonesifer

the trade show, she fired off an angry

him for

that

St.

memo

John had disrupted her building

Judgment Day

I.

was not amused. After

to Bill Gates,

for a

informing

week preparing

What's more, she had not been invited. Gates

forwarded the mail without comment to

St.

John,

who

couldn't

resist

a rebuttal:

"Her

down St.

I

division bleeds so

figure

I

save the

John's party paid

were represented

at the

much revenue

that every

week

I

shut

them

company money." off.

More than

show.

forty video

game companies

The year before almost no games were

planned for Windows. By Judgment Day, the Beastie Boys had helped marshal more than seventy-five game

84

titles

for Christmas, 1995.

BEYOND GROUND ZERO St.

John's madness manifested

itself

again at the

Computer Game

Developers Conference in April 1996. Like the year before, he

CGDC, using the own show. He had dreamed up Pax Romana, a Roman-circus theme party that managed attached his party and DirectX conference to the official

to

event as a marketing vehicle for his

enrage

CGDC

offend some

annoy Microsoft

officials,

executives,

and even

game makers.

Sponsors included

ATI, IBM, and

Intel,

herded into buses and driven

to

San Jose State

NEC. Attendees were University,

where they

were issued togas and a bag of "gold" coins and ushered into a sports arena. Awaiting

them were

slave girls

and bodybuilders

in togas

and

four islands in the middle of the arena overflowing with turkey drumsticks, ribs, pasta, salad, fruit

—an orgy of food and drink dispensed

on broad aluminum

Two

One

plates.

actual lions prowled

behind

bars.

of the beasts inexplicably escaped, but was quickly corralled

before anyone was mauled. St.

John

soft-porn

also invited Gillian

game

Bonner, a Playboy Playmate turned

developer, to appear at the toga party, which included

a requisite slave auction

and vomitorium.

Bonner, president of Black Dragon, had just unveiled her Riana

Rouge

title,

a cyberlove adventure

game

for

Windows

95,

where users

helped a vixen-warrior conquer alien worlds. Bonner was

to play

Cleopatra and auction off slaves for "senators" played by corporate sponsors. St. John touched off controversy days before the event when he responded in an on-line newsgroup to someone who sug-

gested few

women would

rec. games. programmer

attend Pax Romana.

newsgroup post on April

6,

The

following

1996, triggered

"Bunnygate," which never got press attention but became infamous in the

gaming community:

Okay, you guys, this

is

Alex

St.

John, and Jason Robar,

Microsoft's entertainment evangelists, here to address

an

issue or two. First

off,

regarding the 0.01% female attendance level at

85

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

may be true but one of the 0.01% may be a Playboy bunny, which should

the Toga party. This

females attending

more than compensate. Anybody who has been to Ground Zero, or Judgment Day out there, should be able to attest that the events us game evangelists plan don't suck. Last issue:

we

useful or just marketing fluff and cheer-

Is this

leading? The party

is

marketing

fluff

and cheerleading, but

figure the 12,000 cans of Silly String,

make

going on, will

it

sors (ATI, IBM, Intel,

and other

stuff

completely painless. There are 4 spon-

and us) plus 9 game companies and

hardware companies just dying

to

spend a bunch of money

entertaining you.

The Developer event the next day

we bring

core,

the guys

who

designed to be hard

is

build the technology to explain

themselves, and us marketing fluff types provide color for

them

much raw

so your head doesn't explode with too

SDK n SDK

data.

from

We'll be giving out the developer

for the internet

the PDC, beta 3 of the DirectX

(including Direct 3D),

beta

1

of the DirectX

m SDK (including DirectPlay for the

internet, Direct3D Sound), plus the ActiveMovie beta

and the game sampler CD. And we're going plus

SDK,

to cover all of

it,

some technologies that we're announcing, and Softimage

stuff for NT.

PS> And

St.

John had

I'll

his

be 14.095% funnier then

last

who

defenders and detractors,

rec. games. programmer

newsgroup

year as

well.

flocked to the

to vent.

"Those Neanderthals," huffed Diana Gruber, a longtime game pro-

grammer and Microsoft

critic.

"Alex

ence 'more than compensates' for a babe,

and I'm an

for being

arf-arf,

more offended than

She derided the event moric

and

John

said the bunny's pres-

my absence.

In other words, she's

that's all that matters. I

have ever been in

as "DirectBeer"

my

and likened

.

.

.

Excuse

me

life." it

to a

sopho-

frat party.

Others threatened to inform social

St.

Bill

Gates and questioned Microsoft's

enlightenment quotient.

86

BEYOND GROUND ZERO "This

the most disturbing aspect,"

is

B. Schultz. "If St.

John doesn't

comes with a high-profile job (he Microsoft)

,

I

added

responsibility that

for the purposes of that forum,

is,

then maybe they've got the wrong guy.

that his attitude

God,

fumed game developer David

realize the

is

My

worst fear

is

not an aberration, but representative of his (oh,

hate this term!) corporate culture."

Other developers begged

their contemporaries to lighten up, not-

ing that the beer would be on Microsoft's tab.

A smiling nothing

St.

like a

Microsoft had

"But

I

John

sat

back and watched the sparks

There was

threatened boycott to boost event registration.

demanded St. John remove Bonner from

maintained a high

being nearly

fly.

Still,

participating.

of obstinate refusal to the point of

level

fired, as usual, right

up

to the

day of the party," he

says.

Capitulating on the day of the event, he scrapped the Cleopatra skit If

and instead had Bonner auction

a slave got the thumbs-down,

them into a "pit of lions." tress,

slaves to the

audience onstage.

Bonner would have centurions throw

Slaves jumped into the pit, landed

and were escorted back

to the circus.

on

a mat-

Meanwhile, a guy

sta-

tioned in the pit would throw up severed body parts and pieces of a torn toga, while a National Geographic video of roaring lions tearing apart an antelope played In the end,

St.

on giant

John was

screens.

girls

to

who had been St. John's

the audi-

the slave

feeding him grapes and forced him to apologize

everyone for being a In

women in women freed

sold as a slave to the

ence for sixteen hundred gold pieces. The

pig.

evangelical mind, he believed he

ulated the controversy leading

up

to the event.

had

perfectly manip-

But while the bicker-

ing and threatened boycotts raged outside of Microsoft, internal

outrage was escalating. Executives were growing increasingly troubled with

this

rogue evangelist.

"The Beastie Boys disavowed [the Playmate] to

had by now

lost

show up,"

all

knowledge that they had gotten

says Banfield, the

any semblance of control over Engstrom and

"People inside the company were saying

be involved in

program manager who

this sort

of thing.

It's

87

the

this isn't cool,

wrong

Eisler.

we shouldn't

sort of image.

RENEGADES "But these are the guys

THE EMPIRE

OF

who

called the thing the

he adds. "They went for that

Project,"

Even Doug Henrich, one of those

who had advocated seemed

to

hiring

St.

every day

St.

all

Manhattan day long."

Developer Relations Group

at

John, questioned

Henrich and others that

mote himself than

shit,

his

methods.

John was doing more

It

to pro-

Microsoft's technology.

"Those events were too extreme," Henrich

says.

"More extreme

than they needed to be." Yet the Beastie Boys,

within the

emboldened by

company and acceptance

their sense of

in the

prominence

gaming community,

expected and demanded more from Microsoft. After the release of

Every

on

his

months, Microsoft employees draft a

list

of goals, which are

six

months, managers

1.0, St. John

DirectX six

received a perfect 5.0

usually refined by a manager. At the

end of

grade their employees on a scale of one to

five,

they have achieved their objectives. Chief among to kill seller

not lar

semiannual review.

based on

how

well

St.

John's goals was

DOS games and make sure none appeared in

the top-ten best-

list

Bill

during a certain time. Reportedly only senior executives,

Gates himself, can sign off on a 5.0 rating because such a

if

stel-

review comes with promotions and/or large quantities of stock

options.

Reviews and the company's frequent reorganizations work in an intriguing dynamic. Reorgs, as they're known, provide an opportunity for

groups to unload deadwood

somehow manage company and tends

to

likes firing

to

— unproductive employees who

hurdle Microsoft's high standards for entry. people;

it's

No

demoralizing for those remaining

be expensive in terms of recruiting, replacement, and

training costs. At Microsoft there are always power-hungry

managers

eager to swell their head count and so are willing to take on dead-

wood during

reorgs. This

is

countered by other executives who,

the interest of appearing cooperative, are equally eager to

in

dump

their underachievers.

Microsoft managers are generally supposed to allocate reviews

according to the following

ratios:

25 percent get 3.0 or lower; 40 per-

88

BEYOND GROUND ZERO cent get

3.5;

and 35 percent get 4.0 or better. Employees with too many

successive 3.0 reviews are given six

company or

the

months

face termination.

A

another position in

to find

manager who

is

top-heavy with

valuable or talented people doesn't want to be forced to give reviews.

So these managers kept a few extra

them

slabs of deadwood

3.0

around

so as to save the higher reviews for the employees they want to keep.

Moreover,

when

padding and,

a reorg occurs, these crafty managers have

when

attacked by a

rival,

some

can shed some deadwood to

sat-

a predatory manager's appetite.

isfy

Eisler

and Engstrom didn't get a

and were envious of

5.0

Moreover, Engstrom had looked over the company's

command least

He

—

hierarchy

ranging from

levels

to 15

1

opers in

Redmond,

he and

that they

Eisler

John.

official chain-of-

— and demanded

double jumps up the rung, something unheard of

cited his belief that

St.

at

at Microsoft.

were the best multimedia devel-

were moving an entire industry off DOS-

based games, and that they had created brand-new technology. Eisler

was

at Level 12.

hood scheme

Engstrom,

to get to the

leap to 13, the pay

and not

far

who once

built a robot as part of a child-

moon, was at Level

1 1

and requested a lunar

and authority equivalent of a general manager

below vice president. Level 15

is

slot

the equivalent of a vice

president and a promotion only Gates himself could authorize.

Microsoft

is

a development-oriented

company and

respects results.

Great programmers, for instance, don't have to stop programming

and

take

on administrative

roles

and lead teams

for career advance-

ment. Really good developers can make Level 14 or perhaps higher, get paid the equivalent of a vice president,

code. Engstrom was roots,

he wanted

on the administrative

to lead

and

still

do nothing but

path. True to his Viking

people and wield power.

"[Engstrom] came in and

me why I don't deserve this,'

"

said, 'I've

done

says Banfield.

all

these things.

Show

"They were told that they

were getting good reviews, but they were a management nightmare

and

that they

Eisler

had

to start playing nice."

and Engstrom received one-step promotions, but no big pay-

off of stock options.

89

— RENEGADES

EMPIRE

THE

OF

By 1996, Banfield, tired of dealing with the cantankerous emotionally depleted by the deaths of his mother and Microsoft. Engstrom,

who

trio

and

sister, left

has since mellowed and matured, occa-

lunch with him. That can't be said for most of the other

sionally has

program managers who took Banfield's place. One ersatz manager who thought he could control Engstrom was On Lee. "His entire job as near as I can figure out was to trv to become my boss,"

Engstrom

he never actually

direct quote. But

he just wanted

"He 'needed

says.

Lee walked into Engstrom's

would ever work "

'Not only " 'if

ing,

way

for

am

you don't

"He and

I

start

make

life.

also

"

if

Engstrom

in the

Engstrom

group,

I

recalls say-

find a

will

who have not mended our can't figure

I

ways,"

what value

it

He's one of those people where you wouldn't

makes

for a perfect enemy."

said that 70 percent of his

his turf.

it

this organization.'

friends with because he

Engstrom often

threats,

one day and asked

doing some work

your existence in

my

in

even

defending

office

"We never have lunch.

would add

useful for

again.

are two people

says.

try to

him

do anything

it."

not going to work for you,'

I

to terminate

Engstrom

tried to

be responsible for

to

be responsible for DirectX,'

to

He

job time was spent

often used fear and intimidation to ward off

such as the face-to-face engagement with

On

found that discrediting interlopers worked

Lee. Engstrom

well. If

one

chal-

lenged Engstrom's leadership, he would take the time to shine the light of truth

on

company, usually

that individual's feeble contributions within the to great effect.

Engstrom minced no words. He

rarely

backed down from a

fight.

And

could

rest

own

faults

would quickly be brought into

assured his

if

somebody

dence. Engstrom usually used these blunt

means had

failed

only

him, he evi-

when subder

first.

Engstrom made enemies more

easily

friends, a legacy of his mostly solitary

nearby Omak. Omak's claim to fame Race, so

tactics

criticized

named because

riders

than he tended to make

upbringing

is

the

in Oroville

stampede horses off steep

90

and

World Famous Suicide bluffs into

BEYOND GROUND ZERO the

Okanogan

an annual

River, in

horse than for man.

It's

decidedly

rite

more hazardous

a rough place. Engstrom

is

for

a product of his

environment.

As a college dropout, Engstrom was Northwest

cliche.

at risk

He might have worked in

the

of falling prey to the

woods

until

an injury

put him on disability and spent his days in a dead-end job and his nights in poorly

lit

taverns,

smoking generic

cigarettes

Rainier beer. Fortunately for the computer industry

unfortunately for a few inside Microsoft

and drinking

— and perhaps

— Engstrom did not bow

to

the stereotype.

After the release of DirectX, Engstrom

He and

his

had reason

to feel brash.

won And he had bought his first Porsche, a twin-turbo Eisler's. He and Eisler had been driving similar Mazda

two friends had overtaken the gaming industry and

press accolades.

911

—just like

RX-7s.

Then

Eisler

had switched gears and one day wheeled

into

Engstrom's driveway to show off his black Porsche. Engstrom

remarked that

"it's

no

different than a Mazda." Eisler let

for a test-drive. After a couple of hours erful

German machine, Engstrom

him hop

in

behind the wheel of the pow-

pulled into the same Porsche

dealer where Eisler had purchased his and, that very day, bought the

same model, only

Not wanting

to

formist, St. John

silver.

be

left

behind, but refusing to be a complete con-

bought a massive, customized, purple Humvee, com-

plete with air-conditioning,

CD player, and of course, snorkel exhaust

for deep-water excursions. Oversized, loud,

perfect

St.

Johnmobile.

boom with no shortage

And

obnoxious

—

it

was the

Microsoft, at the height of a building

of construction

sites,

was the perfect

Humvee

playground. To celebrate closing a deal to port DirectX to Sega's

Dreamcast game console, chairman and

CEO

St.

John

piled in Shoichiro Irimajiri,

of Sega America, and Bernard Stolar, the com-

pany's president, for a cross-country

romp through

icured lawns and construction

On

visit to Intel's

sites.

Microsoft's

man-

another occasion, he paid a

Seattle-area office to raise sponsor support for yet

another DirectX promotional event. The Intel reps

91

made

the mistake

RENEGADES of asking for a ride.

St.

John thought

an expanse of a nearby greenbelt. a three-foot concrete freshly

THE EMPIRE

OF

it

He

would be fun

to ply

through

pitched the massive truck over

embankment, but instead of

tearing through

mowed grass, he landed nose-first in a swamp. The back of the

Hummer was hung up on

the

embankment. The front end was

sink-

ing into muck. Water lapped at the windshield. Horrified Intel reps sat

wide-eyed at

John's lapse of stupidity.

St.

"Don't worry,"

St.

John

long was the snorkel

The monster inches to the

is

truck had self-inflating

Hummer's

to deflate the tires,

On

height.

came

to

lots. St.

John would

into the

under-

in Microsoft's

Humvee terror day he jammed the

John's reign of

forget

eventually

truck into

at Sea-Tac International Airport. Instead of terrifying

computer industry nienced innocent his

St.

and the elevated Humvee would smash

an unceremonious end the

an overhang

as

which added a couple

tires,

occasion

warning: low clearance signs hanging

ground parking

The engine will run

said. "It's watertight.

above water."

Humvee, he

officials,

civilians.

sold

it

he had now outraged and inconve-

Realizing Seattle wasn't big

and bought

enough

for

a decidedly smaller Mitsubishi

sports car.

Not long after the Beastie Boys' car-buying spree, the wheels to fall off their

DirectX

2.0 in June 1996.

Reality

The

ride.

The

Beastie Boys

started

had released DirectX

release included Direct3D, the

RenderMorphics

programmers

to quickly create

Lab technology

that allowed

animation segments. Technologically, tant ingredients in DirectX 2.0.

it

was one of the most impor-

The technology wasn't

the only thing

impressive and important about RenderMorphics. Microsoft had paid a lot of

money

to

buy RenderMorphics and executives wanted

some return on the investment. By

that

summer dozens

to see

of developers

were making games and business applications using Direct3D

— more

than three hundred DirectX-based games were due that Christmas.

The maker of the was

among

hottest-selling

games on the market,

those that had pledged support for the

nologies.

92

new

id Software,

suite of tech-

BEYOND GROUND ZERO "Direct3D

is

a crucial technology for the rapid

and widespread

acceptance of 3-D acceleration hardware," John Carmack,

founder and technical But

in

id's

director, said in June.

December, Carmack, a

titan in the

computer game indus-

suddenly reversed himself and threw his influential weight

try,

behind OpenGL, competing technology that had by now been ported to the

PC from high-end

decision seemingly

trans-

workstation computers. Carmack's

came out of nowhere. The move threatened

Direct3D and the career advancement of the Beastie Boys. industry followed id's lead

have to explain to

Bill

and abandoned Direct3D, the

Gates and the executive

had spent millions of dollars

to

staff

trio

the

If

would

why Microsoft

buy and develop technology nobody

was using. It's

no coincidence

that rivals of the Beastie Boys inside Microsoft

were working on developing sis,

OpenGL for Windows. Their old nemeOpenGL technol-

Michael Abrash, had been convinced that the

ogy the Windows

NT group was

developing was adequate for games.

This had been the subject of violent debate inside Microsoft, with

John

one can never be too paranoid

at Microsoft, the Beastie

Boys

pected Abrash of defecting to id to sway Carmack on OpenGL,

an

St.

strongly lobbying for the Direct3D API. Underscoring the fact

effort to validate his long-held

sus-

all

in

opinion that the technology was

right for games. St.

John

also suspected Microsoft

employee Otto Berkes and

others of making clandestine trips to help id

OpenGL version Below nity,

is

of

Quake

II

to

— and Abrash — port an

Windows.

a sample of Carmack's letter to the developer

which appeared

in a public

authenticity, the posting has not

been edited

errors:

[idsoftware.com]

Login name: johnc In real Directory:

/ raid/

commu-

newsgroup. To preserve historical

life:

nardo /johnc

John Carmack

Shell: /bin/csh

93

for grammatical

RENECADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

On since Dec 15 01:19:05 6 days 2 hours

Idle

Time on ttyp2

from idnewt

On since Dec 17 01:05:12 4 days 19 hours

Idle

Time on

ttyp3 from idcarmack Plan:

.

.

.

IM

Direct-3D

a horribly broken API.

is

It inflicts

pain and suffering on the programmers using returning any significant advantages.

ANY

market segment that D3D

seems

to

work just

image. There

is

I

great

without

don't think there

appropriate

fine for everything

it,

for,

is

OpenGL

from quake

to soft-

no good technical reason for the existance of

is

D3D.

D3D

I'm sure

but this

will

suck less with each forthcoming version,

an opportunity

is

to just

bypass dragging the entire

development community through the messy evolution of an iU-birthed API.

The "I

surprise attack enraged

and

see ID was completely

deadpanned

an E-mail

in

Keondjian, Alex

St.

Engstrom and

to

Eisler.

successfully evangelised,"

Craig

Eisler,

Engstrom

Steve Lacey, Servan

John, Jason Robar, and Kate Seekings. Engstrom,

knowing he'd have

to explain this disquieting turn of events to

Microsoft's executive

staff,

the clandestine trip to Eisler

wanted verification that Otto Berkes made

id.

was more forceful, blaming Carmack's 180-degree turn on

"linear combinations of stupidity, ignorance,

incompetence and out-

right lying" by those inside Microsoft.

Kate Seekings,

Morphics

who was

Redmond company may Direct3D. Those

needed

"We

to

all

assimilated by Microsoft in the Render-

confirmed her suspicions that

deal,

rivals,

rivals

inside the

have played a part in trying to torpedo

she said in E-mail to Engstrom and

Eisler,

be "shut down."

know

that

our

OGL team has been working against us," she

noted.

94

BEYOND CROUND ZERO Microsoft was pursuing a confusing 3-D strategy driven by internal political warring,

which was dragging the entire computer-game indus-

Enemies inside Microsoft wanted

try into conflict.

Engstrom, and

St.

John

perish.

One way

advance a competing technology while, failed to get solidly

OpenGL

to see Eisler,

hobble them would be to

to

— OpenGL. Rival executives, mean-

behind either technology,

telling the public

was great for high-end workstations and that Direct3D was

good for making PC-based games.

OpenGL was good

But, in the end, Microsoft would

for games, too.

debate would continue into

The

industry's

late 1998. (Despite

Carmack's defection,

Direct3D survived and underwent inevitable refinement. so did

OpenGL.

nologies into a

say,

OpenGL/Direct3D

Then

again,

Microsoft began work on converging those two tech-

combined and compatible API, an

initiative

known

as

Fahrenheit.)

Morale among the Beastie Boys also took a

hit

when

the

company

reorganized shortly after DirectX 3.0 shipped in September 1996. Microsoft constantly boils with internal reorganizations, often

causing

monumental

duties. Gates

is

disruptions and sweeping realignment of

said to tolerate reorgs because they allow burned-out

employees a chance to get recharged in new areas, which stokes competitive fires

and keeps the giant company nimble.

Some joke

that reorgs are used to force

programmers

to clear off

their desks periodically.

The

official

reason for reorgs, however,

is

com-

that by reallocating

pany resources, Microsoft can make better products. "They're in response to market conditions and

meet needs of customers," is

a very fast-paced industry.

uating

A

itself isn't

how we can

says Microsoft spokesman

Any company

Tom Pilla.

best

"This

that isn't constantly reeval-

going to be around very long."

reasonable explanation, but one that might not penetrate far

enough. Others inside the company say many Microsoft reorgs were the result of massive political tectonics and power grabbing

between Brad Silverberg's Windows group and Jim Allchin's

Windows

NT

army. This larger political battle inside Microsoft had

95

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

OpenGL

shaped numerous skirmishes, including the Direct3D

versus

conflict.

Reorgs also provided a gracious means to eliminate failed projects

and disperse deadwood. Again, Nathan Myhrvold's Advanced

Consumer Technology group was

it

prime example. In the

a

many Microsoft employees coveted positions

nineties,

at

early

ACT because

presented an opportunity to work on nonconventional projects

WebTV

such

as

ware,

and other technologies.

multimedia,

"ACT produced

lots

of

set-top boxes, speech-recognition soft-

new

Microsoft ever said, 'Wow! really a

bad

idea. Let's fire

Some dumped The cus

says.

"Nobody

at

a colossal waste of money. This was

them

all!'

all

the various

random

projects

into product groups."

of these "random" elements, as into the

domain of the

turned out, would be

it

Beastie Boys.

'96 reorg was partial fallout

fall

on the

from

Bill

Gates's urgent refo-

Internet.

Gates had put the 1995, when, in the his

John

St.

What

"They just had a reorg and stuffed

and teams

nothing that was

vice presidents, but

ever commercially useful for anything,"

company and

now famous

the world

on notice on May

"Internet Tidal Wave"

memo, he

executive staff marching orders to attack cyberspace.

Internet, Gates said, was

more important

to the

26,

gave

The

computer industry

than the graphical user interface and even the advent of the personal

computer

itself.

Consumers had been racing

to the

Netscape Communication Corp.'s

Web

first

since the introduction of

browser in 1994. The

didn't care what operating system you used.

Web a

with a

Mac

or

machine running Windows the same

OS/2

programming

or Unix. Netscape's browser

Web

You could browse the as

you could using

moved key

application

interfaces to any platform, threatening to turn the

underlying operating system into a commodity. The Internet was the great equalizer.

And

a great threat to

Windows and

Microsoft. Bill

Gates and his executives had seen what was happening to the great

96

BEYOND GROUND ZERO

computer manufacturers of yore changeable commodities comers.

The

not be their

"Now

I

try

— they were being crushed by upstart new-

rulers of the

Empire were determined

would

fate.

"I

want

to

make

clear that our focus

every part of our business. ...

and go overboard on Internet

Gates, of course, didn't suffer '96 reorg

that this

assign the Internet the highest level of importance," Gates

had declared. critical to

products became inter-

as their

he and

St.

deal to put DirectX the "Tidal Wave"

I

on the Internet

want every product plan

is

to

features."

from tunnel

John were making

vision.

trips to

Tokyo

Before the

fall

to negotiate a

on Sega's Dreamcast game console. Nonetheless,

memo

thundered through Microsoft. The Beastie

Boys would not be the only ones jostled by the ensuing tsunami. Senior Vice Presidents Jim Allchin and Brad Silverberg were vated into a

new Executive Committee

that included Gates,

Harvard buddy Steve Ballmer, former Proctor

Bob Herbold, and longtime Microsoft Maritz,

who would head

and Business Systems Group and be

Windows

in

the newly

the tension between the

would be phased

out.

the server applications divi-

under Allchin

Windows and Windows

Microsoft had declared that

tem of the future and

that

Windows

in the

failed to erase

NT developers, how-

NT was the operating sys-

Windows 95 and

Many

lost control

renamed Personal

charge of both Windows and

NT operating systems as well as

sion. Consolidating operating systems

former

executive

executives Pete Higgins, Paul

Nathan Myhrvold, and Jeff Raikes. But Silverberg

of Windows to Allchin,

ever.

& Gamble

ele-

eventually

Windows 98

Windows camp, including

devel-

opers working on DirectX, suddenly felt like second-class citizens and fretted

about job

won this round. who had directed

Allchin had Silverberg,

security. It

would not be the

the release of

last.

Windows

Meanwhile, 95,

would

head the renamed Applications and Internet Client Group, which contained some of Microsoft's most high-profile projects, such as the Microsoft Office software suite and the Internet Explorer browser. Silverberg's

new group included

the Desktop Applications Division,

97

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

Internet Client and Collaboration Division, Tools Division,

Web

Authoring Product Unit, and Developer Relations Group.

John Ludwig and David Cole would be under

Silverberg

and lead

the development side of the Internet Client and Collaboration

Brad Chase would assume

Division, while

man who

Relations Group. Chase, the

demanded

that

Rick Segal,

St.

he be

fired,

would be

command

loathed

St.

St.

of Developer

John and once

John's ultimate manager.

John's immediate supervisor and political heat shield,

had long since quit Microsoft. Doug Henrich, who had helped

John and had replaced Segal

St.

disliked

Chase and moved

place would step

appreciate

St.

Tod

to

hire

as the forgiving superior, reportedly

another part of Microsoft. In Henoch's

Nielsen, a doppelganger of Chase

who failed

to

John's particular talent for mayhem.

This sort of massive executive musical chairs was unusual in one regard.

Where

reorganizations were usually handled quietly by inter-

nal E-mail, this time whole divisions were shuttled to a nearby con-

ference center for face-to-face meetings.

The reorg followed on

the heels of Microsoft's August 1996 release

of the Internet Explorer 3.0

Web browser, beating rival Netscape's 3.0

version of Navigator out the door by a week. Microsoft had shipped its first

Internet Explorer browser just in time for the

launch.

It

Windows 95

borrowed heavily from technology licensed from Chicago-

based Spyglass.

And Spyglass based most of its

browser technology on

Mosaic, the original graphical browser developed in part by Marc

Andreessen

at the

National Center for Supercomputing Applications

Champaign-Urbana. Andreessen went

at the University of Illinois in

on

to

become Netscape's

senior vice president of technology, com-

pleting an incestuous competitive circle

common

in the software

industry.

Microsoft ended up giving T-shirts for the first ten

its

IE 3.0 browser away, along with free

thousand people who downloaded the

soft-

ware off the Web, which clogged Microsoft's download apparatus and triggered network traffic jams.

Microsoft also announced

it

would bundle future versions of the

98

BEYOND GROUND ZERO

browser with Windows. Netscape had an 80 percent browser market share, according to widely reported estimates. Microsoft, with but 15

percent, would battle for browser market share by leveraging

Windows.

The bundling announcement prompted Netscape longtime Microsoft enemy Gary Reback to ter to the U.S.

fire off

attorney and

an eight-page

let-

Department of Justice accusing Microsoft of violating

the 1995 consent decree, as well as trampling antitrust laws. Netscape

claimed Microsoft gave "clandestine side payments," as well as

soft-

ware, hardware, and advertising discounts, to computer makers,

Internet service providers, resellers, and large corporations in

exchange for using Internet Explorer. Netscape said Microsoft's decision to bundle

Windows 95 was

anticompetitive.

were charged $3 more for Windows 95 browser icons on their PCs.

its

browser with

Computer makers, Netscape

Finally,

if

said,

they placed non-Microsoft

Netscape also said that by giving

Internet Explorer away, Microsoft was engaging in predatory pricing.

Microsoft defender California,

Doug Rutherford

Internet-analyst

firm

of the

Redwood

Zona Research

Inc.,

City,

likened

Microsoft's tactics to Soviet-era muscle flexing.

"Kirkenes

is

a town

on the northernmost Norwegian /Russian bor-

Rutherford explained in a company newsletter. "During the

der,"

Cold War, the Soviet troops would mass a hundred or so tanks and pieces of

armor and then rev the engines and charge

at

breakneck

speed toward the border. Just before crossing into Norwegian tory

and World War

to a halt. Illegal?

III,

terri-

they would slam on the brakes and screech

No. Aggressive and provocative? Absolutely."

The browser war was heating up, and DirectX had become Microsoft's Internet arsenal. As a result,

Engstrom and

part of

Eisler

had

much of DirectX stripped from them, when the comupper management rushed to take ownership of what had

control over

pany's

become

successful multimedia technology.

The putsch ment.

highlighted the Microsoft myth of individual empower-

Initiatives at

Microsoft typically

99

come from above and

are provi-

— RENEGADES

who can

sioned by senior executives they

fail,

THE EMPIRE

OF

take credit for such projects. If

of course, there's always the reorg option. While

able for developers to suggest

how code should

work,

it

it is

accept-

was alien

at

Microsoft to have rank-and-file developers starting large-scale projects, let

alone fueling them through brash force of will, political subterfuge,

and massive infusions of cash from sympathetic

"Why would any powerful or acquire

DRG.

Microsoft executive support a successful

project they couldn't get any credit for?" it,

forces inside

St.

John

says.

now

defunct SuperMac

"Better to

kill

it."

Jay Torborg, a former vice president at

Technology and an executive

at Alliant

Computer

Systems, arrived to

take

command over much of DirectX.

ware

— DirectDraw, DirectSound, Directlnput, and Direct3D —became

the province of Torborg

on browser an

ally

war,

Everything that was tied to hard-

and was dubbed DirectX Foundation.

A full-

coupled with the success of DirectX, gave Torborg

of Nathan Myhrvold

multimedia project

Engstrom and

—an entree into

this

commercially valid

via the reorg.

Eisler

were given control of the related media layer

that sat atop the foundation

and included DirectShow, DirectModel,

DirectAnimation, DirectPlay, and Direct3D Retained Mode. This tech-

nology allowed developers to create a variety of multimedia for

play-

back in several applications, including NetShow or Windows Media Player, a Microsoft

Torborg came

product that played video and audio

to the

via the

Web.

group championing Talisman, a hardware

chip design that was supposed to improve 3-D graphics.

It

was the

brainchild of Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's chief technology guru

and master

visionary. Yet

many

inside

and out of the company saw

Talisman as yet another masturbatory research exercise run amok. It fell

to

Engstrom

to

choose who

among

his

group would go help

Torborg. Engstrom took advantage of the reorg and, to be cooperative,

shed a few of his developers, keeping some of the better ones for

himself.

Torborg assembled a team of about

fifty

developers to create a

proof-of-concept plan called Escalante, an "everything but the

o o

BEYOND GROUND ZERO kitchen sink" multimedia card that would implement the Talisman ideas.

Talisman would render only those objects that changed in an

animation scene in any given frame, rather than rerendering the entire scene every frame. This

would be accomplished by

several

processes including "chunking," which divided images into pixel regions, rendered each

memory It

was

chunk independently, and reduced on-chip

requirements. all

complex, unnecessary, and confusing. The

sus Direct3D debate was raging.

ware company, announcing that

OpenGL ver-

Now, here came Microsoft, a it

soft-

would introduce a new hardware

"solution." "It's

not

we're hitting a wall in 3-D [graphics cards]," Phil

like

Eisler, director

of product marketing for ATI, told Multimedia Week

magazine. "We're tripling performance every year."

Tension ratcheted inside the company as

"We were

well.

skeptical about Talisman," says Colin McCartney, a

DirectX developer. "The actual projected cost of the boards was extremely high, about

five

hundred

dollars,

when

a board should

cost about ten bucks to be competitive."

Torborg had

also

been brought

in to

impose order on what was

considered a disorganized group. The DirectX team tended to the seat of

its

pants" according to developers inside

"fly

and out of the

organization, a reputation the Beastie Boys nurtured. Although inside DirectX all,

by

conceded that some order was needed, most,

some if

not

chafed under the new commander.

"There was a feeling that the Torborg guys didn't understand the

game community

— they didn't get games," McCartney

says.

"There

was the feeling that members of the Talisman team were being favored."

Amid

all

of

this,

Engstrom and

Eisler threatened to quit over

having someone else put in charge of DirectX. Despite his best efforts, St.

John

failed to

calm the two and sought the help of John

Ludwig, the new vice president in the Internet Platform and Tools Division.

RENEGADES "You can't

let

Ludwig liked

these guys quit," Eisler

THE EMPIRE

OF St.

John begged Ludwig.

and Engstrom. He admired

their drive.

And he

appreciated their differences. Both were passionate about making

more

technology, but Eisler was

analytical while

Engstrom was more

how well it performs specified functions; Engstrom thinks in terms of how people will love certain features and talk about them with friends. "They sparked my emotional. Eisler judges software in terms of

Ludwig

thinking," himself. first

Ludwig

Moreover, they reminded him of

says of the two.

company when he and

time at another

recalls the

his

boss were giving a presentation. Ajunior executive from the host

firm asked what Ludwig

deemed an

asinine question

into him. After the meeting Ludwig's boss hauled

he needed

to

him

aside

and

said

develop another weapon besides the bazooka.

"That's what Craig

Ludwig

and Ludwig laid

told

St.

and

Eric

needed

John he'd agree

to

work on," Ludwig

to intercede

two Beastie Boys to his office for what would be the

Those

weekly, one-hour sessions.

sessions,

says.

and summoned the first

in a series of

which occurred over

six

months, marked the beginning of Eisler's and Engstrom 's slow maturation within the company. to identify goals

Ludwig encouraged

and determine measured

steps

Eisler

needed

and Engstrom to

accomplish

them. They didn't need to use a machete when a scalpel would work just fine,

Ludwig counseled. Moreover, he

Microsoft seemed immense,

it

was

still

stressed that although

a small world in

"and you never know who you might be forced

to

many

ways,

work with one of

these days."

Although Ludwig's lessons sometimes learned from Ludwig

than club them with

"He explained say,

failed to sink in, the two

to smile at their perceived enemies, rather

insults.

to us

how

the world works," Engstrom says. "He'd

'Here's what the executives think about this issue, that issue.

guys spend

all

looking

at the

You

your time looking up from the bottom of the ship.

you're Paul Maritz or

"

how

Bill

If

Gates, you're up here at the top of the mast,

horizon.

'You should learn to look at the ship from their angle,'

2

"

BEYOND GROUND ZERO

Engstrom continues. back down and

fix

"

run up the ladder, take a look, and go

'Just

the boat.'

"That was the best example of mentoring

encountered and

week

that

good

it

Yet for Eisler,

happen

do him

in the future,

Microsoft

that often. John spent his career better.

he made us very

I

ever

an hour a

For

all

the

loyal to him,"

says.

Ludwig's counseling, he could not make Engstrom,

all

and Torborg

Engstrom

doesn't

he could have spent making

will

Engstrom

it

at

realizes

"As bad as

"No one was

it

like

one another. Through the prism of

working with the Beastie Boys was no easy

was for

us,

it

was just as bad for Jay," Engstrom

high-fiving in the halls.

wasn't saying,

I'm so happy.'

T get

to

No one

time,

task. says.

was smiling. [Torborg]

have those two people working for me. God,

"

03

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR

As

1996 drew to a close, the Beastie Boys' wild DirectX ride

they

knew

it

as

was nearly over. The technology was put on a long-

term maintenance schedule. The next updated version of DirectX

— DirectX 5 —wouldn't

be released until summer 1997.

Microsoft would skip the release of DirectX

nology was ready by December

'96,

Engstrom had achieved what most

4.

Although the tech-

the timing was bad. Eisler in Microsoft fail to

product on or ahead of schedule. His system was sions of DirectX in early, middle,

and

late stages

parallel with

each other, enabling the company

about every

year.

But

saturated developers,

DirectX

3.

Moreover,

game companies

to

even for a marketer

to

to

it

have three ver-

pump out DirectX Boys would have

the learning curve of

was deep into Christmas season

— too

late for

plug the technology into new tides and too like St.

John

and

— ship

of development in

in this instance, the Beastie

who were just rounding

do

to orchestrate

late

any meaningful pro-

motional event.

Because of the yawning time span since the previous release, the

company decided

DOS was dead. terrain,

to call the

Eisler

now found

next iteration DirectX

5.

No

matter.

and Engstrom, warriors who had captured new

themselves relegated to caretaker roles. Even

John, the golden pit bull with the 5.0 review

I

4

under

his collar,

St.

would

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR find himself muzzled by the very

He had planned one more

Microsoft's prowess in the

would abort

company

that

had unleashed him.

insane marketing stunt to show the world

computer-game world. But higher-ups

John's coda, costing the company millions of dollars

St.

and, in the end, triggering a bizarre "hostage" situation.

By November 1996,

money

Air Station rior

St.

John had spent $2

an abandoned hangar

to rent

and have

Alameda Naval

Swiss design artist H. R. Giger conceive

mock-up of a spacecraft like the one he had created

Alien. St.

would storm

and

buses,

in,

cart

herd

all

them

last session,

"armed" G-men

hangar

to a

called, of course,

Area

51.

Some

and members of the press were

through a misty tracheal tube dripping with slime and emerge

inside the "spaceship"

At the

tion.

inte-

movie

the unsuspecting attendees at gunpoint into

three thousand vendors, developers, to walk

an

for the

John's plan was to hold a computer-game developers con-

ference at a nearby hotel. During the

hall

million of Microsoft's

at California's

far

would be a

— unwitting participants

end of the stage,

give a talk

on technology, company growth

new world

order,

bug-eyed

alien. In fact,

abduc-

elaborate, football-field-sized exposition

where a videotaped

and then

in a faux alien

Gates would appear,

Bill

projections, the

... rip off his "Bill"

mask

coming

to reveal a gray,

Gates had already been filmed for the event.

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame were scheduled to

make an appearance. Actor Richard

about

St.

John's show and called to see

This was Judgment Day

mote the kit. JDII,

II,

a

if

somehow found out

he could get

in

on the

Barnum-scale spectacle

third iteration of Microsoft's DirectX software as the

act.

to pro-

development

event was to be called, was to be one of the most auda-

cious marketing extravaganzas to

P. T.

Dreyfuss

both the power

—and

limits

St.

John had ever brewed, a testimony

of that power

— he had amassed while

at Microsoft. St.

John's new boss, Tod Nielsen, general manager of platform

marketing and Developer Relations Group, pulled the plug on John's bright idea just two weeks before the big show. Nielsen

St. is

blessed with one of those all-American, fresh-scrubbed faces like

105

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

He wears

those found in circa-1950s yearbooks.

his hair slicked back,

each strand marshaled into exact position. His expensive timonies to tailoring precision.

John

If St.

—with

untucked and beard draped from

shirts forever

increasingly resembled rusted steel wool

—was

suits are tes-

his tarp-sized T-

his jowls

that

the epitome of a

Beastie Boy, Nielsen was the antithesis ... a preppy boy.

Microsoft event personnel told Nielsen that control"

and

that they believed

no

press

St.

John was "out of

would attend the abduction,

plans for which had been in the works for about a year. In previous years, St. John

had often ordered around Microsoft's event planners,

engendering considerable resentment among them. For Judgment

Day

II,

he dealt Microsoft planners the ultimate

them with an outside

to get [the event] stopped," St.

"Mind you, the show was out of

says.

and replaced

contractor.

"They were even more determined

John

insult

control, but

no more

so

than the three successful ones I'd done before."

The same event planners who had John

to Rick Segal

complained about

futilely

St.

and Doug Henrich so many times before suddenly

found receptive ears with Nielsen. Without ever meeting

St.

Nielsen issued a stop-work order while attending the annual

Comdex

computer convention

in Las Vegas, oblivious to the surreal

John,

drama he

would unleash. Contractors

who were assembling

the spaceship were contractually

obligated to stay with their equipment. But

who were

in

members of the

Teamsters,

charge of moving the equipment, didn't take kindly to the

stop-work order and weren't about to the ship until the union got paid.

The

let

the contractors remove

contract with the base required

the facility to be locked at certain times, so everyone, about

fifty

in

all,

allowed themselves to be shut inside the hangar that night. Nielsen

could not be reached cell-phone

Humvee.

call

went

Initially

when

them

live."

When

John,

to St.

amused,

negotiate with terrorists, let

the hangar doors

St.

and

if

slammed

who was bumping along

John joked they lay

down

anyone had been threatened with violence. o 6

in his

that Microsoft "doesn't their

he realized the situation was

i

shut, so the

weapons, we may

serious,

he asked

if

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR "No, no, not at

all,"

said

one event

official at

the scene. "But

I

can't

be held responsible for anything that might happen should someone

remove

try to

Now

that

that equipment."

sounded ominous. Because the incident was on

The next morning,

property, calling civilian police was not an option. St.

John ordered

made

military

breakfast catered to everyone inside the hangar

and

contact with the base commander.

"So,

is it

customary for you to allow

St. John The unamused commander

of your base?"

until the base

John had

civilians to take

over sections

asked.

said

he wouldn't

lift

a finger to help

was paid the $60,000 owed for rental of the hangar.

up and asked

a check written

St.

none other

his top superior,

than Brad Chase, for a signature. "If

I

sign this," said Chase, glaring, "I never

want

hear about

to

this again." St.

John promised the problem would go

away.

Indeed, the incident ended quietly after the base got

its

money

from Microsoft. Military police cleared the hangar. Eventually, the Teamsters and independent contractors got paid. The $2-million spaceship remained in storage as this book went to print.

own

"I still St.

it,"

John notes

Nielsen that

it

third-party sponsorship, to let the

says.

cost $4 million to cancel the event. But, with it

would have

cost Microsoft just $2.6 million

show go on.

Clearly, Microsoft

would have been

had changed. Where once

muzzle him. Microsoft had almost doubled in arrival in 1992,

state

St.

John's antics

company was now more

tolerated, the

inclined to

size since St.

from about seven thousand employees

in

John's

Washington

alone to about twelve thousand by the end of 1996. As Microsoft

became more of a became

societal icon, the

less like a feisty start-up

servative corporation.

And

company, while

and

in

agile for

many ways more

that tended to be

its size,

like a

con-

bad for renegades

within the company.

Nonetheless, as 1997 dawned, the Beastie Boys could their plastic swords

and

still

wave

battle axes in triumph. Despite the can-

107

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

celed conference and the jarring reorg, the three had succeeded

not only in driving a stake through the heart of DOS-written games, they helped boost the sales of

Windows

95.

They had changed an

industry and looked forward to the rewards that they were certain

would reality

follow.

Their expectations, however, collided with corporate

— games were not a priority among Microsoft executives. The

Internet had grabbed their attention. Although the Beastie Boys

had

identified

and seized new technological

in the

end they

worth

to

realized they

them. The

trio

terrain for Microsoft,

had played out DirectX

would have

to

for

mount another

all it

was

offensive to

claim the lucrative bonuses and stock options they believed they deserved.

"When we made

DirectX, the whole idea was to

nology that would solve a whole

We

did that.

our

spent years of our

asses off,

technology.

and we had

We changed

all

of problems,"

lot

lives, lived

Engstrom, and

Eisler,

our

St.

John

offices,

says.

"We

we worked

the market, and the net effect

St.

tech-

these developers out there adopt our

on our

"

careers was, 'Thank you very much.'

as they

in

make neat

John now confronted

mutually reassessed their careers.

St.

a turning point,

John's power had

evaporated when Nielsen and Brad Chase took

command

at

Developer Relations Group. Eisler and Engstrom were now working under Torborg.

The

Beastie Boys,

who

all at

one time harbored

fantasies of becoming vice presidents, realized that probably wasn't

going

to

happen.

St.

and distracted with marital woes,

John was growing disenchanted with

his

his

job

troubled marriage. Eisler was also having

and both he and Engstrom chafed

DirectX taken from them. They could

all

at

having had

have just quit, but leav-

ing Microsoft and $1.5 million a year in stock options was like freeing yourself by gnawing off your

power and wanted more.

St.

own arm.

John

Besides, they

says the three

had

tasted

concluded that

only one of them would have a realistic shot of advancing to the

upper echelons

at Microsoft,

and

that

allegedly argued that he should be the

i

o 8

man

was Engstrom. Eisler

one the others got behind.

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR

what

"Eric has

it

takes to be vice president,"

St.

John

said.

"We

should get behind him and push." St.

this

John

and Engstrom

says Eisler begrudgingly agreed. Eisler

never happened.

Nonetheless, the three concurred

along better with supervisors

management

To curb

courses.

it

would be a good idea

to get

and coworkers. Engstrom began taking their tendency to disparage others,

the Beastie Boys agreed to pay each other a fine of $5 each time

of

say

them

ularly

talked

hard

ill

of fellow

human

to break, however,

ping the same $5

one

beings. This old habit was partic-

and the three

usually

ended up swap-

back and forth.

bill

But the migration from making cool technology to trying to make Microsoft managers happy was painful for the Beastie Boys.

It

how

Their discussions increasingly turned to

also short-lived.

was they

could build technology so innovative, so impressive, so important to the

company and

to the world, that they

could not go unrewarded.

Yet to achieve the type of fame they coveted would require

building application

programming

interfaces,

more than

which were necessary

but unglamorous pieces of software plumbing.

With DirectX they had proved themselves

to

be very capable

plumbers. They knew they would have to build something that would

be more of a stand-alone product, technology that lived not apart from Windows, then at least as a companion

as

an entity

if

—software that

could be hyped on the front of shrink-wrapped merchandise

testify-

ing to Beastie Boys authorship. Relatively few Microsoft programmers are in the position to innovate. Their charter

Windows,

new

Office,

features

on

and such

— bolt tightening,

existing products. Building

is

largely to

it's

called

work on

— and stack

something from

scratch,

however, and creating a stand-alone product was, as Engstrom

says,

"an engineer's dream." So, taking their cue

from Gates, the Beastie Boys

set their sights

on

cyberspace. Gates's "Tidal

Wave"

memo

had

Internet course. Eisler, Engstrom,

set the entire

and

09

St.

company on an

John were eager

to exploit

RENEGADES that to

and

in January

began a

THE EMPIRE

OF

series of

how

brainstorming sessions on

marry some of the elements of DirectX with Microsoft's latent

obsession with the Web. Over beers and sodas

— Engstrom

had

injured his back while lifting weights and the three no longer worked

out at the Pro Club

about bringing

fast,

Web began to coalesce. Web as a plodding means

graphics to the

The

— ideas

three saw the

constrained by inherent limitations of piping

and other

digital data

through phone

and

voice messages. Eisler, Engstrom,

lines St.

world of games, where motion occurred

ond with

The

of communication,

text, graphics,

sound,

designed to carry analog

John were used

at thirty-plus

to the fast

frames per sec-

But the three had no experience with

high-fidelity sound.

the Internet.

high-quality 3-D

closest experience

any of them had with the

Web

was perhaps posting a message on a newsgroup or sending corre-

spondence

via the

company's internal E-mail network, Microsoft's

none had ever authored any Web

central nervous system. Certainly

computer-game technology, they were

pages. As with

take unfamiliar ground.

there was vast

room

"We looked

And

as in the

improvement.

for

and

at the Internet

said,

'It's shitty.

We're bored. What a primitive paradigm,'

games

lived in a

They wanted

much

it

with the Web.

and something like

flashy

" St.

It

John

takes forever.

recalls.

"We

in

faster world."

to use the 3-D

Microsoft was bolting into the

couple

setting out to

realm of games, they thought

animation power of DirectX, which

new Windows 98 operating system, and

What

they had in

mind was something

fast

— a browser that could deliver animated-game-

3-D images and sound, an ultimate multimedia browser ... a

"browser on steroids." St.

John

originally hit

tual breeze.

Drawing on

on the idea of a

flag that

could flap in a

But the original concept soon evolved into

vir-

much more.

their recent experience with games, the Beastie Boys

incorporated the concept of a "collaborative" browser, where groups of people could interact with and manipulate the same the

same time

— much

like

Web page

multiplayer computer games.

I

I

They

at

also

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR

thought about adding a simple authoring

draw primitive 3-D shapes, add

users to

tool, software that

color, texture,

enabled

and shading.

With the authoring tool sprang the idea that the browser could be used as a tures

medium for exchanging more complex

on the

3-D images and pic-

Instead of using text, people could use images

fly.

graphics to convey certain concepts, giving high-tech

phrase "a picture

is

meaning

and

to the

worth a thousand words."

With these rough ideas developers from DirectX

mind, Engstrom enlisted two veteran

in

— Bob

Heddle, a skinny Canadian, and

Colin McCartney, a cherubic Scotsman with a voracious appetite for diet Pepsi

and Mountain Dew. Heddle and McCartney were

still

work-

ing on DirectX, but quickly grasped the Beastie Boys' vision and

became

Chrome

willing

waving-flag

new

carry

St.

John's

— the spelunkers who would rappel into the guts of

technology. Engstrom would play the

agerial role. Eisler try his

The two would

example further than he envisioned and would be the

core developers the

recruits.

hand

as

would play a

lesser role.

commanding man-

He would grow

eager to

an administrator rather than a coder and slowly

migrated to the project's periphery.

As a technology and project, DirectX enjoyed a good reputation within the company, even lunatics.

The

if

the creators were viewed as obnoxious

success of DirectX helped lure

on Chrome. Moreover, executives

programmers

liked the idea

behind the

to

work

project.

That kind of buzz whetted the appetites of the ambitious, who asked to

be reassigned. Programmers, program managers, marketers, and

others within Microsoft can pick

up and

Managers can stop them, but that cised

to

sort of authority

—detaining people against their

mance. Chrome's

initial staff

leave for other assignments.

will

is

rarely exer-

can hurt a group's perfor-

of a dozen or so would eventually swell

about a hundred. "Most came to

Engstrom

says,

me

because

it

was the coolest thing at Microsoft,"

noting that working on a way to bring dazzling

3-D multimedia to the Internet was far

more rewarding

kering on yet another upgrade of Word or testing

SQL

than,

new

say, tin-

Server.

RENEGADES St. John,

THE EMPIRE

OF

meanwhile, would be haunted and distracted by

his failed

marriage. His estranged wife, Kelley, wanted to punctuate their separation with an official divorce, forcing the procrastinating to deal with the inevitable. With his American

Dream

The dilemma would

at Microsoft.

Heddle and McCartney were not burdened with such

and took an

that,

distractions

Chrome. They soon incorporated

enthusiastic shine to

concepts of 3-D objects

he

lose $5 mil-

up one of the

set

most celebrated and notorious escapes ever recorded

John

in ruins,

would eventually want out of Microsoft, but didn't want to lion in unvested stock options.

St.

when

clicked, could

change

color, tex-

An icon of an elephant, say, when clicked could Web page about elephants complete with live links to Web pages about pachyderms. The Web page resided in the

ture, or shape.

morph other

into a

3-D object, opening a

new realm of

McCartney envisioned Web pages that could spin

and

reveal

interactivity.

more Web pages

—

six

Heddle and

mapped

that could be

to a

pages for the down-

load price of one, in essence. In another scenario, sections of a

page could swing back

like a door, revealing

cube

more

Web

valuable screen

by their work with computer-game technology,

real estate. Inspired

they toyed with the notion of bringing interactive, 3-D cartoon characters to the

Web

— characters that could

They saw how 3-D could

Web

TV

hi-fi interactivity

advertising. Internet

and the

could

Football.

TV

rip-

bombarding

The Chrome team for

ad revenue was just approaching $1

billion

more than $23

billion

ad revenue the year before. But advertising on the

ing faster than

— pond

They saw the

mount real competition

a year in 1998, while television had hauled in in

like.

deliver exploding, shocking,

graphics like those seen on Monday Night believed that such

and walk about a page.

unique page transitions

deliver

ples, shattering glass, sophisticated fades,

potential to have the

talk

revenue

Web

was grow-

— Chrome could hasten a narrowing of

the gap.

Indeed, the technology could do for the television

turn pull

— make more

it

more

interesting

I

2

color did for in

computer purchases, and

in

users on-line, increase

i

Web what

and appealing. This could

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR the end, deliver

more revenue

for Microsoft

Not only would the technology be

try.

fast

and others and

in the indus-

flashy,

it

would be

functional. Initially

referred to by the lackluster

McCartney started

name "multimedia

calling the technology

browser,"

Burning Chrome, the

title

who

plot

of a William Gibson book about a pair of renegade hackers a way to break into a

The

technology's

the shiny stuff

on

mob-run computer.

name was soon shortened

cars."

to just

Chrome,

Engstrom's business manager, Chris

"after

Phillips,

paid a young developer in Oregon $15,000 for the rights to use the

name. Coincidentally, the developer had used the moniker for a 3-D authoring tool

up

until two

the

summer

But

kit

he had invented. The name Chrome would survive

weeks before

it

was

finally

unveiled ahead of schedule in

of 1998.

to ship, the nascent

nificant technical

and

Chrome team would have

to

overcome

business-strategy hurdles, not to

sig-

mention

Microsoft's internal political minefield.

John Ludwig, the mentoring

vice

president in the Internet

Platform and Tools Division, was growing impatient with the team's

Chrome

lack of progress. Engstrom, Heddle, McCartney, fellow

initial

Chrome member and DirectX veteran Cristiano Pierry, and occawere now meeting every Monday morning at nine with Ludwig, who would ask for progress reports on the project. The weekly meetings were becoming more painful as the Chrome team sionally Eisler

had

little

weekend parlance tural

to

show Ludwig. Chagrined, McCartney spent an

drafting a 130-page specification report

— detailing Chrome.

—a spec

entire

in software

Specs are to software what architec-

drawings are to buildings. Specs outline what the technology

about, what

it

will

do,

why it is important, what

the deadlines are,

is

and

provide enough information so that developers can code the desired features.

That next Monday, McCartney was prepared. However, Heddle didn't think the spec was ready

have one in a week or

and

told

so.

"3

Ludwig

that the

team might

RENECADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

"John was clearly unhappy," McCartney the

programming spec and

laid

on the

it

recalls.

table.

"Then

I

pulled out

That started the

ball

rolling."

The

and most obvious technical obstacle was overcoming the

first

limitations of existing bandwidth, that

phone

line, coaxial cable,

is,

how much

information a

or any other type of network can carry.

Images, movies, animation, and graphics are notorious bandwidth hogs. As cyberspace drew

leading

many

to

dub

the

more

users, digital traffic

most phone modems pulled

early 1997,

jams

resulted,

World Wide Web the World Wide Wait.

In

in data at 28.8 kilobits per

more expensive 56K modems

second, expressed as 28. 8K. Even the

rarely achieved anything above 38K. Cable

modems, which

delivered

data at superhigh speeds through cable-TV lines, were only useful in a few major

cities,

and even then

their adoption was limited.

high-speed transmission lines such

Other

as Integrated Services Digital

Networks (ISDNs) and Digital Subscriber Lines (DSLs), which could deliver data over existing faster

copper phone

lines twenty-five to fifty times

than 56K modems, were expensive, not widely available, and

poorly marketed.

None

of the high-speed options had

ubiquitous as conventional hookups. that the promise of greater

The

become

as

Beastie Boys were betting

bandwidth would be years

if

not a decade

away.

"People always assume that the wire, the infrastructure, to solve the

ture

bandwidth problem. Not

needed

to get that

bandwidth

is

going

true," says St. John. "Infrastruc-

to

everybody

will

take years.

To

simply say we can solve our inefficient use of our existing bandwidth

by adding more

is

simply use that bandwidth

false. You'll

ineffi-

ciently as well.

"Rather than waiting for greater bandwidth and bigger modems,

which was

five years away,

bandwidth more

we thought, why don't we make

existing

efficient."

But how? Instead of Internet bandwidth, the internal bandwidth of the

Chrome would find its power inside itself. The Beastie Boys would

computer

I

I

4

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR leverage Moore's Law, coined by Intel cofounder

number of transistors on

stated in 1965 that the

ing chip would double every year.

months. The more

He

Gordon Moore, who a

computer processeighteen

later revised that to

His

transistors, the faster the processing chip.

As a

revised law has proved accurate.

result,

computers could process

information a thousand times faster than the Internet could deliver data. Yet, as a rule,

computers, with

mostly idle as

Web

the rules

again.

.

.

.

pages trickled

Chrome would have

When

it

all

in.

came

the computer

their computational power, sat

The to

Beastie Boys

would change

Web

downloading

pages,

do most of the work.

Recognizing that computers, rather than bandwidth, would do the heavy

lifting,

Engstrom approached

company tweak

its

newer Pentium

Intel early

II

on requesting the

and the future Pentium

III

processor chips, code-named Katmai, to optimize Chrome. Intel readily agreed. chips.

A word

Most software applications don't need superfast

processor or

Web

work

browser, for example,

fine

on

a computer running at the pedestrian speed of ninety megahertz.

Chip makers

Intel,

Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola

Inc.,

and

others are desperate for applications that justify superfast chips.

Other than games, speech recognition, and a few other selected applications, there was

little

market

justification for faster,

more

expensive chips housed in correspondingly pricier PCs. At a time

when demand high,

Chrome would

more money would prove fact,

for cheap, sub-$ 1,000

computers was

As

would

in

all-time

represent a reason for people to plop

down

for the higher-margin, faster machines. Intel's role

to

be crucial in more ways than Engstrom imagined. In

the liaison would inadvertently rescue

managers

an

at

tried to

kill

Chrome when

Microsoft

the technology in the spring of 1998.

game animation, Web elements authored with Chrome out as a series or mesh of polygons. The skeletal frame-

start

work of the image would be piped

to a

Windows-based computer

equipped with Chrome, which would then apply the specified texture,

shading, motion,

Chrome's secret was a

and other behaviors

sort of compression. If

I

"

5

to

the

you had

to

color,

object.

move

a

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

house over a narrow, rickety bridge,

on the

walls

it

would be nice

if all

you had

and have carpenters on the other

carry over was the frame

and roof and

to

side slap

the plumbing and electricitv.

install

Chrome was like the carpenter on the other side of the bridge. The amount of data that actually needed to be downloaded would be dramatically smaller than a complete

known

sion format

as JPEG files (Joint

or their bulkier cousins, GIF

Heddle and McCartney

in standard

or hypertext

Photographic Experts Group)

files.

initially

wanted

markup language,

to use a variety of highly

the language that browsers

is

use to display text and images and create links to other

You can use the

ple formats.

HTML

Web

pages.

tag to display text in bold, or to

display a restricted range of font sizes or set

ily

compres-

HTML tags as a basis for scripting or authoring Chrome.

customized

HTML,

image sent

up

tables

tags are generic, easy to use,

and other sim-

and thus necessar-

limited in what they can do.

Heddle and McCartney

— and legions of other developers — saw

creation of custom tags as a

means around

the limitations of

HTML.

But custom tags could only be read by browsers that support them. In customizing

HTML

an unforeseen buzz

tags,

Heddle and McCartney were running

Many

saw.

in the

into

Web-development industry were

not happy that Microsoft and Netscape were releasing browsers that didn't support the in

HTML tags. Layouts and designs that worked

same

one browser often didn't work

to write

ment

Web

costs.

The

well in another, forcing developers

pages with both browsers in mind, driving up develop-

The

industry wanted a

industrv got that

commitment

commitment

in

to standards.

June of

'97.

Microsoft and

Netscape reached a rare truce and agreed to support only standard

HTML tags as defined bv the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, composed of industry representatives — including — and academia. The so-called Web Interoperability Pledge

the standards body

Microsoft

took Heddle and McCartney by surprise. couldn't use their custom

nascent technology was

HTML

doomed

to

before

I

i

6

If

Heddle and McCartney

implement Chrome, then the it

ever

left

the

womb.

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR

"The

initial

his Scottish

after

spec [for

we introduced

HTML

Chrome] was HTML-based,"

accent rendering the word

that was not

Chrome

that spec, Microsoft said

it

W3C-compliant. Bob and

I

McCartney,

says

Kruuum. "Shortly

as

would not release at that

point pan-

icked."

Chrome was dead

before

arrival.

Or

so

it

seemed.

"Bob went on a hunt and came across XML," McCartney

came back and

'That might be just what

said,

Indeed, extensible perfect for

industry

XML

we

need.'

says.

markup language, or XML, would prove

Chrome. Developed by

to

be

from

on-line publishing experts

and academia under the auspices of a

"He

"

W3C working group,

enabled users to create custom tags and more finely separate If HTML were a blunt collection XML represented the verbs and adjectives that allowed for

content from presentation formats. of nouns,

nuance.

That was

XML wasn't

critical

mass to get

the standards-setting ability to

by the

even a standard yet didn't really matter. There it

adopted, with heavy support coming from

W3C.

Microsoft's initial interest in

XML was its

support Channel Definition Format, a standard proposed

Redmond company for "pushing"

content to

its

Web channels

on the Windows Active Desktop. The Active Desktop, yet another spring of Microsoft's Internet quest, included a

major partners such

as

list

off-

of Web icons from

Disney and America Online running down

the right side of the screen. Using push, content

from selected

was continuously updated and fed to a user's computer.

sites

Many

Microsoft employees use push to keep track of stock fluctuations.

"XML gives users the ability to manipulate and input data efficiendy, with minimal load faster, richer,

As

it

nology.

on the

and more

server," said John

Ludwig. "The result will be

interactive information

turns out, a majority of

on the Web."

computer users didn't use push

Most users don't remain on-line hours on end

watch their stock portfolios.

And

at

tech-

work and

corporate information-technology

administrators complained that uninterrupted flows of pushed content clogged internal networks.

I

17

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

XML had obvious advantages over HTML, and Heddle and the

Still,

Chrome team were eager to

take advantage of this

More important, implementing Chrome easy. It

took significant programming

XML,

skill

emerging standard.

XML was

relatively

to use DirectX, limiting

number of developers. But

use to a smaller

its

with

with Chrome's use of

the riches of DirectX were unlocked for vast legions of

Web

developers. "It

was fortuitous that

XML came along,"

McCartney

says.

Armed with the spec, the Chrome developers now had Chrome content and had theoretically figured out

deploy

a

way

to

a

way

to

cheat the limitations of Internet bandwidth. But that created another

problem. Chrome would

demand

machines that ran

hundred megahertz or

at four

superfast

that could process information at a

per second. Computers, the time. Microsoft

ing a nonexistent

it

computer processors,

minimum

faster

should be noted, that didn't even exist

had never

install base.

built

and marketed technology

machines would be rolling out sometime

at

target-

The Chrome team conferred with

and other hardware and computer makers and were

assurances, the

— computers

of 400 million cycles

Intel

told that faster

in 1998. Despite those

Chrome team would be shooting

at a

moving

target,

or at least one that lay over the immediate horizon. Critics

to

where

of other, In fact,

complain that Microsoft doesn't innovate; that it is

more it

it

has gotten

by acquiring other companies and copying the successes innovative minds. This could not be said of

Chrome.

could be argued that no other software company but

Microsoft, with

its

billions in assets

and near monopoly

in the

PC

operating system market, could afford to build and market software for

computers that didn't yet

Initially,

the plan was to

exist.

sell

Chrome

as a

premium multimedia

browser, bundled only with deluxe versions of Windows 98 versions of Windows NT. Microsoft

had

been giving away

and future its

Internet

Explorer via CDs and downloads over the Internet. The company was

planning to sidestep that channel and bundle the IE 4 browser with all

versions of Windows. That strategy would prove fateful for

I

i

8

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR Microsoft and eventually force Engstrom to alter the marketing

scheme

for

Chrome.

But for the time being, Chrome was to be the one Microsoft browser consumers would have to pay for at a price yet to be deter-

mined. But with that cost came reward. For the

computers would be able

to display

more

first

time, high-end

interesting

Web

Web

content

than low-end machines, for up

till

on a $700 computer

on a $2,000 model. Because Chrome

would say

as they did

be proprietary

at least initially

— the

then

—

it

pages looked the same

wouldn't run on a Mac,

technology possessed branding appeal and gave users

another reason to buy high-end Windows machines.

Over the long term, the price of high-end computers would drop as the

processing chips

became

faster

— the addendum

to

Moore's

Law. Intel was talking about producing chips that churned at 550

MHz by early

1999.

The high-priced computers of 1998 would be

the

cheap computers of the near future. Over time, the argument went,

Chrome would become

ubiquitous ... at least on Windows-based

machines.

Even

if

the

Chrome team were

were in the offing,

it

relatively certain faster

had no such assurance

that

Web

computers developers

would use Chrome. And without Chrome content, the technology would be

stalled

on the information superhighway. This highlighted

and marketing meet. The Beastie Chrome team would need the cooperation of the company's Developer Relations Group to convince Web authors to build Chrome sites. the intersection where technology

Boys and the

Yet without an existing install base, even Microsoft's Relations

Group

own Developer

hesitated to evangelize

Chrome. Early on, Engstrom

DRG

was supposed to evangelize

pleaded for evangelism support.

leading-edge technology and Engstrom pressed this argument hard.

But

DRG was no longer the cowboy outfit it had once been. Microsoft

had already conquered much of the computing frontier by 1997. Brad Chase,

who came from

a pure marketing background, was

helm. Developer Relations Group had

lost a lot

now at

the

of its aggressive edge

RENEGADES and was much more cautious

and

gelist,

DRG vinced

OF

since

THE EMPIRE

when Engstrom had been an

evan-

DRG balked.

manager Morris Beton

Engstrom

told

that

he wasn't con-

Chrome had market appeal and was skeptical about its revenue

potential.

Another

DRG

operative said Engstrom had a "poorly articulated

vision."

had a

Eisler

less

different take: "There's a lot

Windows

gelizing

NT

5

more comfort

in evan-

and established technologies. There's

comfort to evangelize something where you have

a lot

to get a lot of

[independent software vendors] aboard. In the face of a tougher job, fewer people are inclined to do

"Back when

"Now,

it's all

I

it.

was evangelizing NT, no one wanted

it,"

Eisler adds.

people want to do. They don't want to evangelize new

technology unless they're sure

it's

a sure win.

Chrome

hard

is

to see

as a sure win."

Yet

Chrome had

its

high-level supporters within Microsoft, includ-

ing Nathan Myhrvold and

Bill

Gates. While

DRG would drag its heals,

Heddle had Microsoft video developers produce

demo

for senior executives.

sailing ship

on a virtual

more monitor

space,

The video included

sea, parts

and

of the screen flapping back to reveal

a litde 3-D stick character that tore off a

Netscape logo and shimmied down a

Chrome was

pitched to

a concept video to

the flapping flag, a

management

Web

as a

way

page. Like DirectX, to leapfrog the

com-

petition.

Indeed,

Chrome was

a

Web weapon aimed

at

many

targets. It

didn't require users to waste time downloading special software called plug-ins, used to view animation or video or hear

and the

like.

As a

result,

it

was a threat to Macromedia

sound

Inc., the

files

com-

pany that produced the Shockwave plug-in that enabled browsers

to

see animation.

Because of graphics,

its

ease of use

and the

fast

download of animated 3-D

Chrome challenged some uses of Java, the complex to make banner ads on the Web.

gramming language used

2

pro-

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR

Chrome's 3-D

3-D graphics language for the Web. After downloading

VRML page,

its

contents can be viewed, rotated, and manipulated,

and simulated rooms or

one reason

plexity was

it

interiors can

VRML's com-

interest of most features.

Web Still,

developers that they had

fear.

"Chrome

3D

into."

one of Chrome's

VRML

Microsoft took pains to convince

nothing to

be "walked

had never captured the

developers. In contrast, simplicity was

grate

although

it.

ification for a

a

in the crosshairs,

made contorted arguments that Chrome wouldn't comVRML, or virtual reality modeling language, is the spec-

Microsoft pete with

VRML

put

ability also

an

is

interactive

media browser

graphics objects, animations and

that

3D

is

designed to

inte-

(user interface) ele-

Web pages and to add intelligent navigation, interactivity and impact," a Microsoft report concluded. "VRML is primarily tarments within

geted at ited

3D

media

Internet solutions integration.

.

.

.

and

There

fully

But the two

fattest targets

ample room

is

and other multimedia technologies

immersive

3D for

worlds with lim-

VRML, Chrome

to coexist."

were Netscape and, once again, Apple's

QuickTime. Because the foundation of Chrome was based on DirectX

—which was owned wholly by Microsoft— and tied

Windows operating anything "It

like

always

[Apple],"

system, neither Netscape nor Apple

to the

would have

it.

seemed

Heddle

like

we were

always trying to catch

up

to

Cupertino company. "We showed

says of the

Microsoft taking a leadership role in a technology area where our

competitors really would not be able to or have a very hard time equaling or even taking the lead from us." In

many ways Chrome was

could blow away

rivals

a paradox.

Here was technology

Netscape and Apple.

It

that

also gave reasons for

people to buy high-end computers. Yet because

Chrome

didn't tar-

get an existing install base, key factions at Microsoft were skittish

about supporting

it.

"People wanted to

know what our Netscape and Windows

was," Eisler recalls. "People forget that

I

2

I

3.1 story

we make our fucking money

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

from Windows. There's no money

be made from making corn-

to

modi ty technology." In the 1990s, leveraging the market

what Microsoft was Justice continued

made good on

its

about.

all

dominance of Windows was

the reason the Department of

It's

battle against the

its

company when Microsoft

promise to bundle the IE 4 browser with Windows

95. .And in the end, that's

why key

executives at Microsoft supported

Chrome. Although Microsoft tually

— mindful of an antitrust probe —would even-

market Chrome

as a

Windows 98 "enhancement"

improve 3-D graphics delivery from

CD-ROMs and

that could

more

their

robust cousins DVDs, the technology was squarely aimed at con-

quering the Web.

"Chrome was one of many Microsoft executives, because

ideas that

it

was a

we could

big, fat,

ture," St. John says. "Microsoft just loves that

one

in

your technology forever.

It

had

actually sell to

bloated technology fea-

because

it

tangles even-

'Internet' in the sentence

did that mystical multimedia shit that Engstrom,

Eisler,

and

I

and con-

trolled.

"We knew we had

the magic formula."

Indeed, although Microsoft was making inroads into Netscape's

browser market share, browser.

it

came

at a cost. Microsoft

Zona Research reported

Internet Explorer had

more than

in

was giving away

its

January '97 that Microsoft's

tripled

its

market share against

Netscape's Navigator since August, jumping to 28 percent from 8 percent. Netscape's

market share had

fallen to 70 percent

from 83 per-

cent according to Zona, which asked 211 businesses to

name

their

"primary" browser.

Netscape sold Navigator for $49.50 and would robust

Communicator

later sell

its

more

browser, which included E-mail, newsgroup,

and Web-page-authoring

software, for $59.50. But Netscape

would be

forced to give away the browsers in the face of Microsoft's growing

market grab. Gates hated the idea of giving away technology. Chrome, however,

I

2 2

CHROME, THE NEW EXCALIBUR

could be marketed as a premium, upscale browser. Unlike the stan-

dard Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft could hang a price tag on

Chrome.

It

was a way Microsoft could reverse the freebie trend, yet

retain existing gains in "Finally,"

damn

market share.

Gates reportedly said, "a way to

Net."

123

make some money off the

8

ST.

As

JOHN'S WATERLOO

Chrome began

Project

to coalesce,

himself confronting an old

enemy

Alex

St.

John soon found

— Chris Hecker, the former

WinG wunderkind. Hecker, who had since left Microsoft to found his

own game company

game makers ponent

in

Hecker and

wanted the company

marquee

group of

an attack against Direct3D, the 3-D rendering com-

in DirectX.

ing technology

called Definition Six, was leading a

first

credibility

to offer

allies inside

more support

for

and out of Microsoft

OpenGL,

developed by Silicon Graphics.

— Hollywood has used

it

to

the compet-

OpenGL

make

enjoyed

Jurassic Park,

Mask, and other special-effects blockbusters. Plus, Direct3D was too

complicated and too poorly documented to use, complained Hecker

and

his cabal, including

game guru John Carmack.

By now Microsoft was

definitely supporting

OpenGL

in

Windows

NT— targeted for corporate users — and to a lesser degree, it was offering

some support

for high-end,

in

Windows

95. Microsoft

was advocating

complex computer animation, once the

OpenGL

sole province

of Unix-based workstation computers. But Microsoft saved

all

the

mainstream technology that game developers needed for Direct3D

and positioned

it

as the solution for

Direct3D allowed Windows to take

games

full

for personal computers.

advantage of the new breed of

inexpensive 3-D graphics and accelerator chips coming to market. Microsoft did not offer that same support for

I

2

i»

OpenGL, making

it

JOHN'S WATERLOO

ST.

OpenGL drivers

harder for chipmakers to write

muddle

with Windows. Yet, continuing to

Microsoft also said

if

would work

that

the message

developers wanted

on

this subject,

they could use

to,

well

OpenGL

for games.

was a confusing strategy and one that Hecker

It

friendly contacts inside Microsoft

OpenGL

— exploited

—with aid from

to publicly

push for full

support on Windows 95 and the upcoming Windows 98

operating system, code-named Memphis. St.

John had

Windows

95,

at

one time advocated supporting

and he had even asked the Windows plug

in writing the necessary software to

wasn't interested in

PC games,

forcing

St.

it

in.

OpenGL

in

NT group for help But the NT group

John and

his fellow Beastie

Boys Engstrom and Eisler to look elsewhere. That led to the purchase of RenderMorphics, which produced the foundation for Direct3D. After going through

gramming John.

having a competing application pro-

all that,

games was unacceptable

interface for PC-based

He had

spent too

evangelizing DirectX

—

much

time, effort,

as flawed as

it

initially

to St.

and Microsoft money was

—

to allow

Hecker

or anyone else to attack the Beastie Boys' achievements. His

OpenGL

order of business was to quash Yet as

St.

John prepared

to slay the

inside the

first

company.

OpenGL movement

inside

Microsoft, his failed marriage reappeared to haunt him. After being

separated for three years, Kelley divorce.

St.

deal with.

John was forced

to

St.

John had pressed

for an official

confront something he didn't want to

He was now fighting a

multifront war. Historically, warring

nations that spread themselves too thin eventually collapse. Dealing with divorce lawyers

and fighting enemies inside and out of Microsoft

were becoming too much.

something didn't

St.

John

realized he

would implode

if

give.

my ability to be productive," he says. "The threat that some or all of my [stock] options would be taken away from me left little incentive for me to The

get

up

distraction of the divorce proceedings "fucked with

in the

morning and come

have your wife and kids leave to is

to

work hard

for a future

to work.

try to figure

It's

very hard

you don't have anymore."

"

25

when you

out what the motivation

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

Paradoxically, those very unvested stock options, worth an

mated $5

million,

were too seductive for him

have the mettle to just

quit. So,

he

to

he eventually

says,

He

abandon. hit

esti-

didn't

on the novel

idea of forcing Microsoft to fire him. Microsoft rarely fires people.

The company spends an investment

much

as

hate to see disappear. Rarer

employees got

John

to

still

new

$20,000 recruiting each

as

in intellectual capital that

human

hire,

resources managers

were instances where fired Microsoft

keep portions or

of their unvested stock. If

all

St.

was no chance he'd get to keep any of his unvested

quit, there

options. If he was fired, he believed he

had a chance

to see

some of

that money.

Resolving to get fired freed

campaign against what he Boys'

technical

Microsoft's

own

would have the

"tar

him

launch an aggressive internal

to

were the key threats against the Beastie

and career agendas

— OpenGL

3-D chip design.

ill-fated

The

collateral benefit of helping

Chrome was

In the spring of '97,

been

felt

still

in

and Talisman,

noise he'd generate

Chrome.

its

infancy.

It

had not

babied" and could be killed by competing factions within

Microsoft, particularly the Internet Explorer group.

The

IE team,

understandably, thought any technology having to do with

browsing should be under attempting to

pany

yet

infiltrate

its

Web

domain. The Beastie Boys were

one of the most important

— the browser market— and were

at risk of

assets of the

com-

being ordered to

work on Chrome under the direction of another group

or,

worse,

having their new technology simply taken from them. St.

John reasoned

Chrome by waging a

that

he could serve

as a political

diversionary, no-holds-barred internal battle.

John believed

that by kicking

could advance

Chrome

up

a storm,

St.

its

John

chance for

told Eisler

Engstrom and

at least to the tar-baby stage, get

somebody or something important enough markedly

heat shield for

it

his

stuck to

to Microsoft to increase

survival.

and Engstrom

and Talisman and make

life

that

"I

would go destroy

OGL

miserable for [Windows multimedia

group manager] Jay Torborg." St.

St.

team

John soon got an opportunity I

26

to

launch his personal jihad.

JOHN'S WATERLOO

ST.

Otto Berkes, the Microsoft employee suspected of helping id port

OpenGL version of Quake to Windows, was to speak before the Computer Game Developers Conference in April '97. St. John found out about it and moved to kill Berkes's appearance. He told an

Developer Relations Group manager Morris Be ton that Berkes was about to undermine the company's entire Direct3D message.

The company's 3-D multimedia fired off E-mail to Berkes

Beton

strategy was in disarray.

and Torborg, inquiring just what

Berkes was going to say at the

game developers conference.

it

was

keep

"I

hearing conflicting opinions on whether we're in sync" with regard to

OpenGL and

Direct3D, Beton wrote.

Torborg, more consumed with advancing Nathan Myhrvold's

Talisman dream, offered

theless,

on the

little clarity

He admitted he was "a little

Torborg said Microsoft should

for games, but

suggestions

if

tell

they really wanted to use

how best

to

issue.

nervous" about the presentation. None-

implement

it

for

developers not to use

OGL

company should

offer

it,

the

Windows.

A few days later, Berkes sent E-mail stating that he had decided not to give his presentation

because "talking about

Developers Conference

OpenGL

as

is,

OpenGL at the Game

by simple association, talking about

used with games."

This was exactly what

John had

St.

told Beton.

St.

John won

round one. St.

John could not have engaged in

tumultuous year for Microsoft lated,

his internecine battle in a

— a year

in

competitors increased their attack on the

and the government stepped up In February, Texas

its

became the

more

which the browser war

antitrust

esca-

Redmond company,

campaign.

first state to

launch

its

own probe

of Microsoft's business practices, paralleling an ongoing Justice

Department

investigation that

had begun the previous summer

at

Netscape's behest. Netscape accused Microsoft of charging personal-

computer makers

less

money

for

Windows 95

if

they didn't install

Netscape's Navigator software. In March, three U.S. senators,

unhappy with the pace of the Justice

Department probe, asked the Federal Trade Commission

127

to

grab

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

control of the Microsoft inquiry. Republican senators Conrad Burns

of Montana, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and Craig

wrote the

FTC

after receiving complaints

Thomas

of

Wyoming

from Netscape and South

Dakota-based computer maker Gateway. The FTC demurred. The letter's

authorship

is

queer

number

in a

outnumber software developers

of respects: Bears probably

Montana, Alaska, and Wyoming,

in

and Republicans are generally card-carrying free-market Yet the letter was significant because

had joined the

fight

it

between Microsoft and

shadowed more government scrutiny

capitalists.

marked the first time Congress its

competitors and fore-

later that year.

That same month, IBM, Sun, Oracle, and Netscape said they would develop

common

standards for network computers and related

ware. Unlike personal computers that

had

network computers or NCs were

software,

own hard

their

It

cheaper alternative

seemed

to personal

that for every bit of

and

keyboards and

essentially

display monitors linked to a central computer. Oracle was pushing as a

soft-

drives

NCs

computers running Windows.

good news

to

come

along,

bad was

almost sure to follow. Microsoft's browser market share continued to

make

gains

on Netscape, and the Redmond company's

Street happy.

The Software

Publishers Association even awarded

Microsoft's IE 3.0 browser a Codie

an Oscar

—

in the Best

New

stock kept Wall

— the software

industry's version of

Software Product category. But

week after the award was presented, the browser was found

than a

less

to

have

seri-

ous security flaws that allowed hackers to get access to the inner workings of

computers that

been gearing Patrick's Day.

Netscape to unveil

this climate

down

its

its

sites.

Microsoft had

IE 4.0 browser

on

St.

Communicator 4.0 browser first.

investigations, St.

cide mission to flame out

Deborah

Web

of increasing competition, industry

mounting government

could

booby-trapped

But the discovery of the bug forced Microsoft to delay the

release, allowing

Amid

visited

to release beta test versions of

with him.

On

and take

as

hostility,

John embarked on

many

internal enemies as he

April 25, he fired his

first

major salvo

Black, Microsoft's director of systems division.

just shoot over her bow, but

bombarded her with

I

28

and

his sui-

He

at

didn't

a three-page,

ST.

JOHN'S WATERLOO

single-spaced E-mail detailing the company's failed 3-D strategy

and

warning her about those inside and out of Microsoft who were trying to

torpedo Direct3D.

John

St.

Microsoft's

he was worried by what was going on with

told Black

"new improved" 3-D

strategy.

not an unbiased observer due to his

he had credible evidence

said

Black's

group were leaking

to

DirectX. Nonetheless, he

support his belief that members of

details of Microsoft's internal

Direct3D and OpenGL. Black's team, tion to Michael

He acknowledged that he was

ties to

St.

debate about

John claimed, fed informa-

Abrash and Chris Hecker, among others,

in

an

effort

to generate enough controversy to force Microsoft to adopt a friendlier

posture toward

flurries

.

rec. games. programmer Internet

of which were there even as

.

this

book went

internal

newsgroup,

to press. In

one

Hecker wrote:

instance,

.

OpenGL. Hecker had posted much of this

on the public

conflict

two

[3-D]

APIs

fairly

competing would be the best thing

overall for the industry. However,

it

doesn't appear that will

is a shame and 3D game programmers. Already, I've the MS OpenGL team will no longer be

be allowed to happen inside Microsoft, which basically

an

insult to

heard rumors that

allowed to innovate on the API, meaning they can't propose extensions nor implement them. Also, the fate of the

DirectDraw bindings (which

seems St.

to be

up

John grew more

for

believe are finished code-wise)

forceful in his correspondence to Black, point-

edly telling her that there was

community

I

in the air for purely political reasons.

no demand

Silicon Graphics, Inc., the creators of

"There said,

is

no

in the

OpenGL, other than from

OGL vs. D3D

game-development

those directly funded by

OpenGL.

debate that we aren't creating,"

St.

John

adding that members of her team were conducting their own

evangelism direcdy competing with his

Stop the leaks,

Graphics, id Software,

efforts.

John admonished, and Hecker.

St.

I

29

particularly to

Silicon

RENEGADES Despite

THE EMPIRE

OF

John's warning, Chris Hecker continued to gain access

St.

to Microsoft officials, including

Deborah

Black. Meanwhile,

St.

John

continued to erect his career dolmen by needling upper manage-

—and drawing unwanted attention away from Chrome. On May

ment

20 he sent mail to Gates and Senior Vice Presidents Brad Silverberg, Paul Maritz, and Brad Chase, showing that in March, for the ever, all top-ten-selling

PC games were

time

first

Windows using

written for

DirectX.

"We just win drivers," St.

if

we keep our platform

Talisman chip and

Three days

OpenGL

For

make

and innovate at the

our

in

company's 3-D

"Everybody getting

efforts.

he shot E-mail

later

Veres, Torborg, Gates, tling the

stable

John wrote in a not-so-veiled stab

this?"

Talisman project leader Jim

to

and more than a dozen other executives

belit-

Talisman project as irrelevant.

St.

the

—

John, the company's aim should be to do one thing

PC

the

to

number one multimedia machine.

"We've got more multimedia marketshare and ISV's [independent software vendors] than Sega, Sony, Nintendo, Apple or SGI," said.

The war,

as far as

he was concerned, was

ing to solidify Microsoft's position in the did anything but help St.

him manage

over.

game

St.

John

Now, he was work-

industry,

and Talisman

that.

John was never shy about voicing

his opinion,

but had become

even more bellicose since deciding to get himself fired from the world's

most powerful software company. Despite

satisfaction

when Hecker open

include support for

why

told her

OpenGL

then Hecker would give the

—

in

John took

9,

in

bombshell.

demanding

Windows

i.e., St.

inside the

private perverse

he had orchestrated a petition

John

130

company

media. Hecker told Black

—were

demand

that the

98. If Microsoft didn't yield,

letter to targeted

agers about the lack of developer

of Talisman and

On June

letter to Microsoft,

that Microsoft evangelists

St.

hit Microsoft with a

Hecker met with Black and the form of an

is

futility

OpenGL leaks from

repeated warnings about the suspected

company went unheeded. Which

harangues, or perhaps

his

because of them, his pleadings about the

for

lying to Microsoft

OpenGL.

man-

JOHN'S WATERLOO

ST.

Hecker ers

on

they had

no other

"That's to

told Black that while

it

was true that some of the develop-

were using Direct3D, they were doing so because

his petition

choice.

what the

letter

is all

about," Hecker told Black.

be able to choose OpenGL, and we'd

like Microsoft's

"We want

support in

this decision."

The

petition, signed

by some

fifty

John Carmack, was a toned-down letter

from the previous

game

However,

year.

developers, including id's

reprise of Carmack's anti-DirectX this

time the letter would be

getting greater public exposure in the trade press. Black sent E-mail to Maritz asking for direction.

In

she said Hecker would postpone sending the

it,

letter,

which he

intended to issue as a press release, until she had time to confer with

She

Maritz.

will

OGL was

supe-

was "entirely possible that

OGL

also said that "every indication"

rior to Direct3D,

and warned

that

it

was that

gain broad support."

Hecker had

tried to gain

Hecker and referred him

audience with Maritz. But Maritz blew off

to Black. Maritz,

who

clearly didn't

want

to

be bothered by the former Microsoft programmer, essentially instructed Black to ignore Hecker.

"Chris

is

somewhat of a strange animal

—mixture of chutzpah and

naivete," Maritz said.

And "We ment.

so, .

.

...

.

on June call

13,

Hecker released

on Microsoft

his letter,

to continue

its

which read

active

OpenGL

in part:

develop-

As developers, we believe the choice of which 3D API

to

support for our games should be ours alone.

"We recognize Microsoft must take part in creating this

technically

competitive environment because of their control over the operating system. ..."

and Web magazines printed Hecker's

After several publications petition, St.

John unleashed

Microsoft chain of

command,

executives of incompetence.

a series of scorching E-mails essentially accusing Black

He

also expressed bitterness

up the

and other about not

being informed of Hecker's meeting with Black and her ensuing

RENEGADES E-mail dialog with Maritz.

doubtful Microsoft senior

It's

had ever received such brazenly

And

employees.

it's

THE EMPIRE

OF

management from

bellicose mail before, at least

doubtful they ever

will again. St.

John had

a

knack for burying the knife deep.

He the

accused Black of "spewing" leaks to Hecker and others outside

company and

deliberately "subverting" his evangelism

the computer-game community. BS," he told her. "I'm fed

up with

Less than an hour later Maritz,

"some

really

work against

trying to help

work

this

in

kind of

you here." directly to Gates,

others, saying the petition was the

poor evangelism and account management, a

bad media handling, a

little

can't

John sent E-mail

St.

and Torborg, among

result of

"I

screwed-up

really

3D

strategy for too

long and a proactive effort on the part of some current and former Microsoft employees." Maritz promptly responded, telling

out of

line.

St.

John he was completely

Maritz acknowledged that he received E-mail from

Hecker requesting a meeting. Maritz ignored the message, and passed

it

on

her to meet with Hecker to

to Black, instructing

later

try to

pacify him. At any rate, Maritz said, Microsoft was going to support

Direct3D based on feedback

Group

—

St.

John's

own

received from Developer Relations

it

people.

"We may very well have had other folks leaking stuff outside of MS during

this process,"

Maritz told

St.

John. "But

it is

not Deb, and you

owe Deb an apology."

John "apologized"

St.

bleeding sarcasm that

Employees scrambled office

doors of the

it

all

right

has

— an apology dripping with so much

become legendary

inside the

company.

to get copies of it to post in the hallways

and on

Redmond campus, even as Microsoft lawyers issued

orders that the E-mail was to be destroyed.

John

St.

him

in

debate.

open

verbally attacked Maritz

and Black

for failing to include

any of the meetings or discussions regarding the Direct3D St.

John was

letter to

particularly furious that

Microsoft only after

it

he was told of Hecker's

was published.

"HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO MANAGE THESE age the media on something

like this

I

32

when nobody

is

ISVs or man-

communicating

ST.

JOHN'S WATERLOO

me or DirectX marketing?" St. John fumed. tions my job?"

with

John

St.

in the

developer

rela-

"tremendous" wealth of

said Microsoft was ignoring his

knowledge and experience

"Isn't

game community.

"While I'm shouting 'Look out for the rocks!' at the top of

me

lungs, you're telling

Deborah

with

for

to apologize for getting angry

running the ship aground," he

and

my

frustrated

said.

His three-page, single-spaced tirade segued to sardonic apology. "I'm sorry to so

many

personally promised so

I

much

ISVs and IHVs and lived to see

technology and support

them burned

so badly by

our blundering and lack of focus," he began. "I'm sorry

I

accused Deborah of maliciously leaking internal

falsely

information to Chris Hecker. mistake that she

ish

made

"My humble

passage.

He went on

clear to

It's

me now that it was just a fool-

despite being warned," he said in another

apologies."

to "apologize" to

Tony

Garcia, Bruce Jacobson

and

Patty Stonesifer for their contributions to "dull, uninspired multi-

media

He

titles."

apologized to Paul Osborne, a "nice, well-intentioned guy"

who

did his best by "pursuing the uninspired strategy of doing whatever

Apple

did."

To Alistair Banks,

opment of Quartz, that

my effort was

made ally

its

for trying to stop

him from announcing the

a stillborn challenger to QuickTime.

futile,

inevitable failure

more

stressful for

John included Mike Van Flandern

make

everybody without actu-

for the run-in the two

about,

and never wrote a

To Mike Abrash, all

day, told all of the

line of

can't

had

seem

code

game developers

for."

On Lee, Otto Berkes, Steve Wright, Hock San Lee,

the other 3-D developers. "With so

many

still

a simple joystick driver work, let alone the vastly complex one

you envisioned delivering one

so

now

solving anything."

St.

and

devel-

see

and challenging your video architecture just

over the aborted "Raptor" joystick project. 'Your group to

"I

different API's

and

drivers

onto a solution one day."

133

many people working on

how could we help but stumble

— RENEGADES And finally, that "the only

St.

John tipped

way

opers and not finishing

done.

He

And

it

to ship after

promising

was to have Craig Eisler

really, really piss

who

his hat to Chris Hecker,

WinG

to get

THE EMPIRE

OF

him

it

taught

on him

sit

him

300 devel-

to

to get

it

off."

apologized to Jay Torborg, Mark Kenworthy and Jim Veres,

"three great worker bees

who

agement, and justify massive

did their level best to

man-

satisfy their

R&D investment."

To Colin Campbell and Salim AbiEzzi: "I'm sorry Animation such a hard time for being

useless

I

gave Active-

and having no

identifi-

able customers." Bill

people

But

Gates has said publicly that Microsoft "has to attract a lot of

who

think in different ways,

clearly Paul Maritz

enough of St. John's

and the

dissent. St. John

in for a chat. If Microsoft

do

it

has to allow a lot of dissent." staff

had gone too

The day

far.

DRG,

at

managers have something

via E-mail.

had had

of the executive

manager

the "apology," Morris Beton, group

ees, they'll usually

it

rest

When

called

St.

to say to

after

John

employ-

they have to fire someone,

doomed employee in for a talk. This allows Microsoft security officers to swoop in when the employee is out of the office, sweep the room for any sensitive documents, and lock down the comthey

call

the

puter to prevent sensitive St.

John knew

anticipated the time tives

would

Before ful

call

from

files

leaving.

his days at Microsoft

were coming

to a close

and

when Beton or Black or any number of execu-

him over

for the final good-bye.

grabbed a hand-

leaving his office for the last time, St. John

of Hershey's chocolate kisses from Engstrom's office and scrib-

bled a note saying "Help yourself!" for the security guards.

A

beaming

St.

John walked

into Beton 's office

and plopped an

apple on his desk, like a proud grade-schooler sucking up to a teacher.

"What's that for?" Beton asked. "That's so you can have a funny anecdote to

about how you fired me,"

St.

John

said.

Morris put on his bureaucratic

game

face

talk

had

failed to

improve on

his

tell

and

told

performance over the

I

34

people when you

St.

John

last six

that

he

months

ST.

JOHN'S WATERLOO

which was untrue but necessary for

legal reasons. St. John's lowest

review during his tenure at Microsoft was a

4.0.

"I'm supposed to advise you strongly that

time for you to pur-

it's

sue other interests," Beton finally said.

And with For the

that, St. John strode off the

first

time in

indentured servant

He

five years, St.

who had put

Microsoft campus a free man.

John

felt relief, like

in his last

day

a techno-

at the digital factory.

never did get his $5 million in unvested stock. But he viewed that

as the price "I

he had

pay to get his

to

John

says.

"Microsoft

made

Others in the company fired St. "If

back.

life

from

didn't have to choose to walk away

still

.

.

.

was a

St.

easier."

had

his

own ISV

audi-

behave differently

to

other development teams and senior management," says Banks, one of Microsoft's original evangelists. "I'm sure he

loss to Microsoft,

damage than good whole of the Yet

it

debate whether Microsoft should have

he hadn't grown so powerful so quickly with

Alistair

made

John.

ence, he might have learned that he

with

million dollars,"

five

the decision for me, which

St.

rest

but considering

at that time.

all

things,

Something had

he was doing more to change,

and the

of the hierarchy wasn't about to leave."

John's impact could not be understated. At one time

Microsoft had eighty evangelists urging software makers to build pro-

grams for Windows were built during

95.

St.

Of the

scores of Windows 95 applications that

John's tenure, he claims to have ushered more

than 60 percent of those on his

Ken hiring

own by

evangelizing DirectX.

Fowles, the Harley-riding evangelist St.

John

who had

strongly backed

in '92, believes Microsoft reacted too corporately.

"Five years earlier

he wouldn't have gotten

fired," says Fowles,

recalling the Microsoft of the early 1990s. "There was this siege tality

when

I

joined. Microsoft was attacking

ket segments. Evangelists were fearless.

all

these different mar-

They would get on

descend on people and didn't even ask

if it

men-

a plane to

was okay to go."

Fowles says the company grew more conservative, in the pejorative sense.

Frequent reorganizations may have played a

tia as

many hunkered down, hoping

"35

to

part, creating iner-

dodge the expected

disrup-

— RENECADES

OF

and dismantling and reconstruction of product teams.

tions

Moreover, because of its at Microsoft

had

size

and power, many

lost the taste for the

particularly after the

drawing antitrust

"Now there's

all

gun

company

new

self-conscious

Justice attacked

— and

some

for certain markets for fear of

fire.

this attitude that, 'Well,

because of what the company

and

is,'

joined, this complacency," Fowles says

the

Department of

inside Microsoft were hesitant to

—but by no means

hunt, that desire to conquer

made

markets. At the same time, size

He

THE EMPIRE

where once

St.

John's

I

we

can't

do

that kind of thing

never heard that

when

I first

says.

vitriolic

E-mail would have triggered

a "flame war that would have flamed out," such spirited candor was

now

considered insubordination.

moved an

"This guy single-handedly

thought of getting

changed

—Alex

rid of a

sixty

like that baffles

St.

John.

He was able

pounds within two months

started

making

to the

South

"The

me. The company

didn't."

That was fine with shed

guy

industry," Fowles adds.

social contacts again Pacific.

wrap up

his divorce

and

after leaving Microsoft.

He

to

and took an extended vacation

What's more, the day after he was

Microsoft acknowledged that

it

had canceled

its

fired,

Talisman reference

design for 3-D chips. Although Microsoft vowed to keep elements of

Talisman

alive,

Score a

TKO

But best of

no

trace of

for

all

St.

ever appeared.

John.

for the other two Beastie Boys,

game had helped keep gained

it

St.

John's noisy war

the wolves at bay while Project

momentum.

•

3 6

Chrome

INVITE TO A "REVOLUTION"

John's noisy exodus cleared some of the internal political land

St.mines

for Eisler

and Engstrom. Others who might have

ambushed Chrome were engaged with

their

own

well as St. John's spectacular career suicide. Eisler,

team Chrome took advantage of some of invasion of the

Web. But

this to stage their

to stage a revolution,

Web

sites

with the

The Chrome team nology it

to

if it

as easily as

that's

HTML.

Eisler

and Engstrom reasoned

Chrome would be to build Chrome sites. With

Unlike the RenderMorphics deal,

this

Microsoft

money

tools

credibility at the

id,

in hand,

company.

time he would not need to

curry the favor of Michael Abrash, the 3-D graphics guru

defected from Microsoft to join

that

provide a tool that would

Engstrom took the lead and went shopping for a

Engstrom 's

actually

why Heddle and McCartney wanted

to simplify

help developers

who would

technology.

believed developers would embrace the tech-

was easy to use;

author

one way

new

hopeful

you need people wag-

ing battle in the streets, in this case developers build

skirmishes as

Engstrom, and

who had

only to return to Gates's Empire.

company,

if

not his popularity, had risen

with the growing market adoption of DirectX. That technology,

developed by a skunk works, had gone mainstream

—

it

had been

plugged into Internet Explorer browsers and would be hardwired to

Memphis, code name for Windows

98.

"37

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

So Engstrom thought he would have

fledgling

little

trouble

X

San Francisco-based Dimension

to assimilate

Chrome

try's first start-up to

build

in 1995, billed itself as the

tool,

Its

claim to

which enabled

make 3-D and multimedia Web content such

ner ads, animated graphics, and the Java-based

to the

computer indus-

and market Java-based products.

fame was Liquid Motion, a Java-based authoring to

it

arsenal.

Dimension X, founded

programmers

when he wanted

and add

VRML

(virtual

like, as well as

as ban-

Reality, a

modeling language) browser.

reality

Microsoft had already licensed

Liquid

some of Dimension

X's technology for

the IE browser. With the acquisition of the forty-employee company,

Dimension X's Liquid products and technology would be integrated further into DirectX multimedia, which enabled developers to incor-

porate video, audio, 3-D, 2-D, and animation into applications for

Windows.

A

couple of

stars throttled into

alignment to help Engstrom win

approval for the acquisition, even though the odds

initially

appeared

stacked against him.

Tod

Nielsen, the

manager of multimedia

Group who had canceled ing a project

media

as

iHammer, code name

iHammer "as a world unto

Developer Relations

at

alien-abduction event, was advancfor a set of canned multi-

special effects for Internet Explorer

derided as the

known

St. John's

itself

4.

Engstrom

and not nearly

multimedia authoring technology Dimension

privately

as functional

X had developed.

to the point, Engstrom viewed iHammer as a competitive threat Chrome because iHammer siphoned from the same pool of

More to

resources and duplicated

some of

the elements of his work.

Under

ordinary circumstances, trying to sink a general manager's project

would appear

reckless

and

marshaled information In February,

But

in typical

a compelling,

from making if

do what was necessary

Engstrom fashion, he

to his advantage.

Engstrom alerted superiors

sion was two weeks

made

futile.

its

own

that Sun's JavaSoft divi-

play for

Dimension X, and

not Byzantine, argument that Microsoft should to thwart this acquisition. JavaSoft

38

was aligned

INVITE TO A "REVOLUTION"

with

spin-off

its

Engstrom

Marimba

said that JavaSoft

Netscape to provide

of Mountain View,

Inc.

and Marimba were poised

California.

to partner with

with key multimedia authoring tools hoarded

it

from Dimension X.

how important iHammer is to TodN, I would think derailiHammer equivalent for Netscape would be a HUGE thing,"

"Given ing the

Engstrom wrote Senior Vice President Brad Silverberg. "We could achieve a big tactical win here by removing their key tool."

Depriving Netscape of a weapon was an argument that played well with senior

management, even

if it

came

at

an estimated cost of $20

million. Microsoft authorized the purchase.

But pulling the rug out from Netscape wasn't entirely Engstrom 's point.

"The whole point

.

.

.

was to vector Tod Nielsen's support for

iHammer into the Dimension X frankly, iHammer was a project needed Tod Nielsen's support

I

Engstrom

says.

"Quite

to kill at Microsoft,

but

I

[for the acquisition]."

with

more than

a dozen highly

programmers.

"We desperately need good 3D faster,"

wanted

X came

Moreover, Dimension skilled Java

acquisition,"

Engstrom wrote

to

talent ... to

members of his

make Chrome happen

staff.

With the assimilation of Dimension X, Engstrom predicted that by mid-1998, Microsoft would be "churning out tions of the Still,

AWESOME demonstra-

power of Chrome."

Engstrom 's acquisition didn't

sit

entirely well with key

members of his team. "With Liquid Motion, the ered to ask the

Chrome

Chrome authoring

leads

if this is

tool,

he never both-

something they needed or

wanted," says Heddle, Chrome's lead program manager. "That decision took a lot of time out of our schedules to interview a lot of people.

There were times we needed

trying to close the

"He

actually

Dimension

X

to get

ahold of Eric and he was off

deal.

hindered Chrome

at

some

stages."

Nonetheless, the acquisition earned Engstrom glowing accolades

39

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

from Microsoft executives, who saw the Java programming guage to

—which promised

to

—

run on any operating system

lan-

as a threat

Windows. Microsoft would much rather absorb an innovative Java

company such

Now

that

X

Dimension

as

he had

his Java,

than compete against

Engstrom wanted

it.

his Caffeine, a

poor

man's version of Liquid Motion. Where Liquid Motion would be a separate

tool

provide sophisticated transitions and

to

Engstrom intended Caffeine simple 3-D shapes and the

be included with Chrome to supply

to

This generated more gripes from

like.

Heddle and McCartney, who believed

that

on too much work, but also suffered from add on features

desire to

"When

Eric

understanding involved," it, it

McCartney

didn't

do a

work on Chrome,

to

effort, there

says. "In fact I.

tasks as well, mostly all

"We

me

was a team

was just Bob and

Engstrom not only piled

"feature-itis," the insatiable

to a technology.

approached it

effects,

Eric

when we

managed

DirectX

particularly

would be a first

to give us

it

was with the

lot

more people

started

working on

about thirteen other

stuff.

good job of starting Chrome because

of the other responsibilities," he adds.

McCartney

tried to

dropped most of

his

keep

the balls in the

all

while Heddle

air,

DirectX duties and focused on Chrome, creat-

ing another source of tension between Engstrom and his lead

Chrome

developer.

At one point Engstrom outlined no that

he wanted crammed into the

hi-fi

less

than eight

version of

initial

features

Chrome, including

sound, 2-D rendering, 3-D rendering, and Caffeine,

others.

work

first

Heddle and McCartney wondered who was going

to get all these features into

Chrome's

first

to

among

do

all

the

release, initially

slated for June 1998.

"None of the people this stuff

said they

were

could explain

I

talked to

who were supposed

how it was going

to work," says

to

do some of

Heddle. "They

understood when Eric was in the room explaining

at a loss later.

They were

realitv distortion field.'

victims of what

"

l

40

I

call

it.

But

the 'Engstrom

INVITE TO A "REVOLUTION"

Engstrom has a way of imposing persistently,

arguing him back in again,

his will.

He

debates methodically,

and enjoys arguing someone out of

Heddle

says.

then

his position,

— sometimes just for the pleasure of beating him

Engstrom was the

an astronomer that Venus, not remarkable rhetorical

guy,

Polaris,

remember, who convinced

was the North

can also take up a

skill. It

lot

Star.

That takes

of time.

Heddle and McCartney would argue that certain features

in

Chrome were beyond the scope of what the first release should contain. The first iteration of Chrome, as conceived by the ambitious Engstrom, was just too

added

big.

Engstrom

initially

refused to ditch

and the ensuing arguments, Heddle

features,

says,

all

the

delayed the

project.

"We'd say,

say, 'Eric,

the stick's too long!' "

'Measure again,'

could actually squeeze more pi, right, is 3.14.

and he'd break the

Heddle. "Sometimes he was

says

But other times

in.

But Eric would

say,

stick

and

right,

you

was impossible. Like

it

'Measure again.'

Some

things you

can't change."

Heddle was

also disappointed with St.

secure the licensing rights for the Lucasfilm's motion-picture

had wide brand recognition

some of Hollywood's to render.

But

"That was

St.

—

it

through," Heddle

— and was a

large, simple

says.

right

shape

finishing the job.

big request of Alex and Alex didn't

come

"That was the extent of his involvement in

were the ones who did

one

the initials for

demonstration video because

John flamed out before

my one

logo,

failed to

materialized at the beginning of

biggest movies

Chrome. Yeah, Chrome may have been I]

THX

who had

sound technology. Heddle wanted a

to use the metallic, futuristic logo in a it

John,

all

his idea,

but [McCartney and

the implementation. Having an idea

thing. Actually executing

it is

is

another."

But Heddle and McCartney were busy working deep inside the hull of

Chrome and

personal battles

The two were

St.

did not see the bigger political, strategic, and

John had been engaged

also

in

on the upper deck.

harboring resentment toward

Eisler,

who

thought wasn't pulling his weight. Eisler often was absent day

I

41

to

they

day

RENEGADES when

THE EMPIRE

OF

could have been useful. But he would make

his expertise

Chrome meetings when company

appearances at

bigwigs were

attending.

common

"There was a

McCartney

perception that Craig wasn't doing much,"

"He decoupled himself from Chrome. There was

says.

a fair degree of resentment for that. to get

He came

done.

There was work

that

needed

to these vice president meetings, but

wasn't involved in the preparation.

I

answered

all

he

the technical

questions."

Heddle, McCartney, and others didn't the master coder of DirectX patents, was

undergoing a

fully

appreciate that Eisler,

and the recipient of no

rite

of the overworked

less

than eleven

— divorce. His

six-

year marriage had collapsed while he toiled for the Empire and the riches such

work promised.

While he dismisses the divorce including Engstrom, beg to "It

as

not

much of a distraction, others,

differ.

was massively distracting to Craig," Engstrom

plays his divorce

and

says.

that leads people to believe that

"He down-

he must not

have cared, right? In his effort to make himself look strong he may look indifferent.

"There was a good two-month period in there where Craig was going through

his divorce

Engstrom adds.

"I

where he did nothing and

didn't expect anything from him."

Engstrom could

relate. Eisler's internal hiatus

Engstrom had taken

after his

he went

inside

hide

to

own marriage

under Engstrom. Although

with

St.

spirits, in

the

Eisler

plans had collapsed and

had grown

tired of

working

and Engstrom thought themselves

Eisler

end Engstrom

John. Both were built

mirrored the one

company's Advanced Consumer

the

Technology group. Moreover,

kindred

that was fine,"

like

hay

actually

had more

in

bales. Like St. John,

common Engstrom

never earned a four-year degree, a noncredential that bestowed a certain

renegade

St. John,

status in the

Engstrom seemed

strom and

St.

John

to

degreed realm of Microsoft. And be more of a risk-taker than

Eisler.

like

Eng-

stayed in touch socially. Eisler, however, distanced

l

42

INVITE TO A "REVOLUTION"

himself from

St.

John for political

reasons.

The smallest of the Beastie

Boys entertained bigger plans to advance his career, and associating with

St.

John and

lingering

him

weren't going to get

on the

there.

So

fringes of DirectX

and Chrome

toward the margin

Eisler drifted

of Chrome

— and away from the other two Beastie Boys—

ibrated his

career compass

Despite the the

ill

recal-

Heddle and McCartney were busy

progress.

problem of getting Chrome

instructions sent via a into

he

toward Eisler and to a lesser extent Engstrom,

will

Chrome team made

solving the thorny

as

at Microsoft.

phone

line

and then

to interpret digital

to reconstruct the data

animated 3-D images. Meanwhile, Netscape did

its

best to keep

Microsoft executives focused on the browser war.

The same month released

its

official

St.

John and Microsoft parted

version of

Communicator

browser that allowed users to compose via E-mail,

Web

a bruiser of a

Web pages among other

pages, send

and read and post messages on newsgroups,

While some decried the browser

things.

ways, Netscape

4.0,

as bloated

— no other — the press

browser to date had such a broad range of capabilities gave

Communicator

rave reviews, noting that the official release of

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0 was

But Microsoft could not it

let

didn't have any real return

still

some four months

off.

the challenge go unanswered, even

ammunition

at the

if

moment. The day

Netscape released Communicator, Microsoft unleashed an advertising blitz touting the

coming of IE 4

—a

typical

and

perfectly legal

Microsoft ploy to persuade consumers to delay purchasing or down-

loading a

rival

product. Netscape responded with predictable out-

rage.

"Customers buy our products, not promises of future resources, not promises of future products, not

doubt that Microsoft

is

all

that fear, uncertainty,

and

the best in the world at spreading," blasted

Jim Barksdale, Netscape's chief executive. For

all its bluster,

Netscape was running scared, having seen

its

browser market share tumble from nearly 90 percent to below 70 percent in

less

than a year. By June '97 Netscape's stock price had

43

RENEGADES imploded

as well,

dropping

THE EMPIRE

OF

to

about $29 a share, a free

high of $78 a share in January 1996, adjusted for

The market share about 30 percent

for Microsoft's free IE 3 browser

from a

had surged

—despite the bad publicity associated with the

covery of a security bug in the program. the release of IE 4 at

fall

splits.

The

and undoubtedly slowed

Netscape market share.

"Refuse to Use" Netscape

bumper stickers

dis-

had delayed

security flaw

Microsoft's relentless grab

hung

Microsoft's IE team, which

Still,

to

in the halls of

Redmond

in

reference to the "Refuse to Lose" slogan of the '95 Seattle Mariners,

had reason

to rejoice.

Netscape,

it

release,

security flaw in Netscape's

inadvertent

immune

turned out, wasn't

Communicator's

Web

to bugs. Shortly after

Denmark

developers in

new and

discovered a

previous browsers, giving Microsoft

momentum.

Netscape, which had exploded onto the scene with the mercial

Web

browser, was trying to

sumer browser

sales.

By 1997

wean

first

com-

from reliance on con-

was targeting corporate "intranets,"

it

in-house versions of the Internet that

Web documents on

itself

let

employees E-mail

files

potential size of the intranet market was expected to exceed $10 lion by the year 2000. Yet the corporate enterprise was Sun, to a

growing extent, Microsoft

territory.

Microsoft had been forging

forced with the 1995 acquisition of Lotus and

"We may not be cool

in corporate

its

groupware, enjoyed

America.

head of Internet

at

IBM.

Competing against Microsoft was tough enough, but it

was strong bordered on the insane.

to attack

championed

its

software as the

weapon

der Windows irrelevant. Bolder and more foolish

that

ridiculed

Windows 95

as a

I

to the

would ren-

still

Andreessen, Netscape's senior vice president of technology, licly

it

And Netscape wasn't just

any competitor. This was the company that had beat Microsoft Internet and

rein-

Netscape], but we are trusted," quipped

[like

Dr. Irving Wladwasky-Berger,

where

bil-

IBM, and

deep into the corporate realm with Windows NT. And IBM,

an entrenched presence

and

presumably secure networks. The

internal,

was Marc

who pub-

mediocre, bug-laden device-driver

44

INVITE TO A "REVOLUTION"

The

layer.

truth does

more than

hurt;

it

tends to

make people mad.

Andreessen's bad-mouthing of Windows 95 angered not only Microsoft executives, but riled Engstrom as well. "It's like

to a great

Andreessen found

samurai and

said,

"Netscape's problem was

ignore

it

so

we had

sword in the forest and held

this

'Look!

I

have one,

too,' "

made too much our own sword."

it

to use

just

it

Engstrom

noise.

We

up

says.

couldn't

That sword was Windows, the operating system used on about 90 percent of the world's personal computers. In a few months Microsoft

would piggyback the IE 4 browser onto Windows planned 98

—

all

browser with Memphis, aka Windows

to fully integrate the

in the

name

of making

easier for consumers.

life

The government, however, began trying to use

its

95. Microsoft

Windows monopoly

to to

argue that the company was

dominate the Web. The stage

was being set for a showdown.

When

Microsoft previewed

the world saw what

it

was

Windows 98

like to graft a

for the press in July '97,

browser to an operating

Windows 98 would look and work more

tem.

would open

like a browser; users

and navigate on the hard drive

files

in

much

the

way they would surf the Net. Indeed, users would be able

and

display

Web

same

to find

pages by using Windows rather than separate

ware, such as Netscape's browser.

Windows and

its

fire

soft-

conjoined com-

panion Internet Explorer could become a de facto prospect that drew

sys-

Web

device, a

from competitors and government

trust-

busters.

"Microsoft

is

trying to reach out

plained Microsoft

critic

&

Redmond

later resonate in a massive

all this

bunker

the browser market," com-

Rosati in Palo Alto, California, which

represented Netscape and other

As

kill

Gary Reback, the anti-Microsoft attorney with

Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich

would

and

competitors. His remarks

government

antitrust probe.

controversy exploded overhead, team

toiling in relative

and

Chrome was in

the

fortuitous obscurity.

Chrome dovetailed well with Microsoft's overarching Internet mission. The technology would only work on Windows computers, it was

45

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

it was tied directly to the operating system. The paraChrome was controversial for some of those very same reasons. Some familiar with Chrome started calling the project "the Netscape killer." Engstrom, who was becoming increasingly sensitive

Web-based, and

dox was

to

that

internal

and external

quickly doused that

threats,

political

moniker. In fact he and others stopped calling gether

it

a browser alto-

— Chrome became a Windows 98 "enhancement." This

shift

was the result of Microsoft's larger strategy of redefining the operating system to include the IE 4 browser

—

insisting that a

browser was

not a separate piece of software but a part of Windows. Microsoft competitors and the Justice Department, however, were becoming increasingly vocal in their criticism of Microsoft's plans to fuse a

browser to Windows and accused the company of doing so with the sole intent of obliterating Netscape's

"Chrome E-mail.

"It's

is

a

not a 'Netscape

new paradigm

market share.

Engstrom admonished

killer,' "

McCartney concurred: "We never killer.'

set

to

one

out to build a 'Netscape

That was never our mission. Our mission was

Windows ^platform

in

for conveying information."

doing

Web

to

make

stuff."

Engstrom had matured since the DirectX

days.

Where he might

once have sanctioned netscape killer T-shirts, he was now learning play

it

more

low-key. Engstrom's

mellowing was

the weekly mentoring consultations he

Ludwig. But with ket,

rate

and

political considerations also

more diplomacy. Whereas DirectX Chrome's market

Eisler

had had with John

forced Engstrom to advance targeted an identifiable mar-

— high-end computers running — didn't even

of 450-plus megahertz

to

in part the result of

at the superfast

exist yet.

Unlike with

DirectX, he couldn't boast that he was attacking a "FIVE-BILLION-

DOLLAR MARKET."

While DirectX had been about seizing new

ground through brute

force,

Chrome was more

a finesse game. Given

the increasing likelihood of antitrust litigation, Engstrom

toned down the message that Chrome

and

Eisler

was a weapon against Netscape

and other Internet rivals. The two found themselves walking a delicate line. If

they called too

much

attention to the technology, they ran the

46

INVITE TO A "REVOLUTION" risk

of having

it

attacked by

rivals inside

mention

Microsoft, not to

capturing the premature interest of antitrust investigators. other hand,

if

they didn't nurture

it

with

enough

On

the

internal hype,

it

could die before getting a chance to bloom.

bumpy start and the internal dissent, by the end of Chrome had several things going in its favor. Dimension summer X and its Liquid Motion were inside the fort. The Chrome team had a simple standard language, XML, to deploy a new breed of Web content. And Intel was on board to support the technology. Engstrom Despite the '97

and

Eisler, in a

heads

if

move

a DirectX

to boost morale, bet that they

would shave

their

team could produce more working code within a

couple of weeks. The team met the deadline and Engstrom and Eisler

were forced to become "Chrome domes."

What

Chrome needed now was actual product. It's been content is king when it comes to the Web. Eisler and

Project

said that

Engstrom didn't have anyone outside the company building Chrome content.

Chrome

They needed independent software vendors building sites to validate

technology

is,

after

all,

new technology. Wedding

the

another way of tar babying

it.

others to your

The two

Beastie

Boys knew just where to turn. In a scene reminiscent of the Godfather favor, Eisler

and Engstrom

first

coming

to collect

on an old

approached Monolith Productions, a

computer-game company just down the freeway from Microsoft. Monolith was founded at

software firm. Hall

and

lucrative

Beastie Boys

CD

Hall, a

1995 by Jason Hall and a half dozen other Corp., a

his partners

Redmond-based educational-

had wanted

computer-game business and had

multimedia

pler

in

Edmark

former developers

for

CD-ROM

in '95 that

built a

his

more

demonstration

caught the eye of

commissioned Hall and

Windows 95 using

to get into the

St.

John. The

crew to write a game sam-

the then-new DirectX technologies.

former marine, teenage stockbroker, and computer hacker,

used the commission money to seed Monolith.

The arrangement worked ees,

making games such

as

well.

For Hall and

Blood was

47

far

his

Monolith employ-

more fun and

profitable

RENECADES than making educational

THE EMPIRE

OF

CD-ROMs.

had

Conversely, the Beastie Boys

a reliable ally using DirectX.

The

Beastie Boys

had helped Hall become a wealthy man. So when

Engstrom asked, Hall obliged

in developing content for

technology ideally suited for game the

Web

to

showcase upcoming

Web in

titles

development and

fast action,

Games, with

their 3-D

Chrome.

Monolith received $25,000 from Microsoft

demo Web based on

new game, code-named

its

risks.

sites

like to

keep up with new tech-

Karen Burger, one of Monolith's project managers.

"And maybe other companies Yet signing

"Chrome-plated"

Riot.

"The money wasn't that great, but we nology," recalls

to build

Monolith leveraged the contract by building

sites.

use

to give fans

dovetailed well with the potential of

a sort of behind-the-scenes look at production.

worlds and

Chrome, a

Game companies

sites.

on

will

come

to us for creative designs."

Chrome

to build prototype

sites

entailed obvious

Although Monolith was paid for developing Chrome content,

and resources from other

the exercise would siphon time

projects.

would be poorly documented

Because the technology was so new,

it

and contain a nest of bugs. The

Monolith demos didn't even use

first

Chrome, but a patchwork of scripts and

VRML

(virtual reality

mod-

eling language) coding. "It

was a

very flashy to use

little

demo

frustrating,"

—

'cool'

Burger

says.

"Microsoft asked us for a

was the term they used. To do cool we had

VRML."

Moreover, because

Chrome would be

built for

didn't exist commercially at the time, there was cal

mass of

dooming or

Web

developers would embrace the

at least

hampering

it

before

it

computers that

no guarantee

new

had a chance

a

criti-

technology, to

grow

legs.

However, the payoff could be handsome, as Monolith had discovered with DirectX. As early adopters, Monolith and a handful of other

Chrome recruits would have at least a six-month lead on competitors who took a shine to Chrome. In Internet time, six months can be as good ers

as six years.

By working with Microsoft

could get better

at

early on, initial develop-

squashing bugs and advancing the technology's

148

INVITE TO A "REVOLUTION" potential.

And,

if

world viewed the realized that for

Web

—

in 3-D

Chrome could do

Chrome could change

and

the way the

in stereo. In the end,

for the

Web what

Monolith

DirectX had done

Windows.

Or this

widely adopted,

as

Adam

Ketola,

one of Monolith's Web

could ultimately revolutionize the entire

49

artists,

Web

mused, "Hey,

industry."

—

10

MERCENARIES OF THE EMPIRE

and Engstrom would need more than Monolith, however.

Eisler The two

Beastie Boys

needed more bodies

Chrome demos. Reinforcements would source some two thousand miles away. events

would reintroduce

arrive

compelling

from an unlikely

A seemingly random

and Engstrom

Eisler

to build

to

series of

Paul Scholz, a casual

acquaintance they had met years before at computer trade shows. In the end, Scholz

Chrome Web demos

that

and

sites

team would build more prototype

his small

than anyone else inside or out of Microsoft

would impress

Bill

Gates and would eventually be show-

cased at the coming-out party for In the

fall

Windows

98.

of 1997, inside a monastic office carpeted in software

manuals and CD-ROMs, Scholz hunched

at his

keyboard and com-

posed another E-mail. The modern Beethoven tucked gray locks behind an ear and ious to the stain

playfully

on

cheeseburger and

his

fries.

and hazardous device chair was

companion

surrendered to an impulsive muse,

obliv-

jeans from the previous night's meal of a

He

shifted in his rickety armchair, an

that nearly spilled

him backward

at times.

to a folding desk, which, missing a

aged

The

support

beam, bowed under the weight of a seventeen-inch computer monitor.

His appearance and his furniture, though shabby, were a prag-

matist's testimony to function over form.

50

For inside

this

unassuming

MERCENARIES OF THE EMPIRE

workspace, he was linked digitally and contractually to the most powerful software

company on

the planet.

Scholz was owner and president of flashCast Communications Corp., a four-man Web-development firm in Dayton, Ohio. Scholz

autumn of 1996, pleading with banks

for

venture-capital loans never approved. In less than a year, however,

he

had scrounged

in the bitter

had earned the respect of some inside Microsoft and was corresponding with the

likes

vice president of sales

of Steve Ballmer, then the Empire's executive

and support and one of

Bill Gates's

most

trusted generals.

Original Message

Prom: [email protected] [SMTP:[email protected]]

AM

Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 1997 10:09

To: Steve Ballmer Subject: SteveB's Shakespearean Creed

"And we charge, that

in our

marches through the country, that

nothing be compelled from our customers, nothing taken but paid

for,

no one from Netscape or Sun upbraided or abused in

disdainful language. For

when

kingdom, the gentler gamester

The next day came

No one ularly

levity is

and cruelty play

for a

the soonest winner."

Ballmer's two-word reply: "Sounds right."

accused Microsoft of being "the gentler gamester," partic-

by 1997 during the height of the browser war. But that

not the point. That Ballmer had time to respond,

let

really

was

alone read

Scholz's bastardization of the Bard, served as inspiration. After losing

— the decade of decadence, cocaine, — the forty-two-year-old Scholz had achieved more than

precious time during the eighties

and excess

self-made success. "In the browser war, flashCast in Microsoft's army," Scholz

Scholz's tary.

march

In 1975, the

is

the most forward-leading element

boasted in the

late

summer

to battle began, appropriately

same year

that Gates

enough,

of 1997. in the mili-

and Paul Allen had launched

— RENEGADES Microsoft in Albuquerque,

THE EMPIRE

OF

New Mexico, Scholz had enlisted as a cavHe became a commissioned officer and

alry scout in the U.S. army.

was assigned to the Chemical Corps

he calculated combat

casualties

shed army fatigues for

at Ft. McClellan,

Alabama, where

from simulated chemical warfare. He 1981 and spent the next

civilian clothes in

fif-

teen years as a computer consultant for corporations from Baltimore to the

Bay Area. Then the Internet wave arrived, and Scholz,

working for people dumber than me," formed flashCast was going to build

Initially,

and video content

good news was

"tired of

own Web company.

Web sites that delivered audio

via PointCast or other "push" technology.

flashCast received

bad news was that

his

all

too

numerous business

many of those

calls

inquiries.

The The

were from pornography

vendors charmed by the idea of streaming smut to desktops flashCast turned

"I'm

all

them

all

for free speech

down.

and everything, man, but we didn't want

to

get involved in that stuff," says Scholz, a nonpracticing Christian.

"Think of the kind of people you'd have

As a

result, his start-up

to deal with."

company faced

insolvency shordy after

become one

inception in June 1996. Yet within a year, his business had

of only two companies in the world to help build

Chrome. Ask about seen Henry

his reversal of fortune,

right?" referring to the

V,

tation of Shakespeare's play.

initial

and Scholz

its

content for

says,

'You've

Kenneth Branagh screen adap-

No matter your answer,

Scholz briefs you

on Agincourt.

The batde of Agincourt was waged

five

centuries ago

and some four

thousand miles from Dayton. For Scholz, the batde remains immortal.

Outmanned more than Henry V faced

three to one, England's

certain annihilation.

force of six thousand archers

young warrior-king

He had pushed

and men

at

his expeditionary

arms deep into France

in a

highly mobile and up-to-then victorious campaign. His troops had

fought bravely, but a 250-mile return march in just seventeen days had left

the

know,

it

men

fatigued

and

ill.

Morale

hit a wall.

And, wouldn't you

was raining. Aware of the grim odds and wanting

well rested,

Henry ordered absolute

I

silence in

52

camp

his troops

that chilly eve of

MERCENARIES OF THE EMPIRE battle,

October

24, 1415.

Meanwhile, more than twenty thousand

French troops, believing their numerical superiority had frightened off the English, partied

all

night.

men

Henry, dressed in complete armor except headgear so his

could see his face, led a thousand troops onto the sodden battlefield

morning, while

that next

five

thousand of

his archers

hung

Within an hour thousands of French corpses littered the

back.

field.

The

English won.

How? Superior technology and a better

vered the a

plan.

The

English maneu-

enemy into a killing zone then rained arrows from longbows,

weapon the French lacked and one

enough

game

that could launch

ordnance with

velocity to pierce armor.

Scholz

insists

there

is

a parable. In the

summer

of 1996, the

flashCast faced grim odds against a numerically

and

men

of

financially

stronger adversary, Datalytics Inc. In those days, few serious

Web firms

were competing in Dayton. Despite Scholz's technical credentials

C++ programmer, Windows specialist, chemical-warfare analyst, among a long list of others the fledgling flashCast didn't have the client base to make payroll. To pay his troops and get the company off

Visual

—

the ground, Scholz sold his vintage 1946 Globe Swift airplane for $18,000, less than half what

"was doing Web tele,

flashCast built

was worth. His company, as he puts

it

it,

for food." In fact, to establish itself and gain clien-

sites

some Web

sites

Although

for free.

flashCast's initial

struggle for survival was not unlike that of coundess other start-ups,

Scholz blames part of his company's woes on Datalytics, which he alleges

reneged on

its

part of a deal to feed flashCast

Web

business.

Worse, according to Scholz, Datalytics had threatened to use lished presence

and bigger market share

to

end of 1997,

Datalytics

estab-

not

easily

bury flashCast.

But Scholz, who keeps Henry Vat the ready by defeated. By the

its

his

VCR,

is

had folded, Microsoft had

signed flashCast to work on Chrome, and Scholz's accounts receivable

had swelled the largest

to

more than

$100,000. Scholz,

who once helped program

computer war game ever devised

53

for the Defense

Advanced

— RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

Research Projects Agency, frames the world in military terms. That

him

flashCast outlasted Datalytics prompts

to

compare

his

company to

the English at Agincourt.

"Superior technology and a smarter strategy," Scholz ing.

says,

guffaw-

"We're mercenaries of the Empire."

Scholz, in fact,

had

little

to

do with the demise of Datalytics, a com-

pany that once joined former Ohio governor George Voinovich on a technology junket to India, a favored spot for corporate headhunters seeking programmers

who will work for less pay than their American its own grave when it hired

counterparts. Datalytics climbed into

more people than

it

needed, stuffed

expensive furniture

it

compression and other

its

downtown

couldn't afford,

Web

tools

office suites with

and invested

in

data-

no one bought.

Meanwhile, through the remainder of 1996 and into 1997, Scholz laid the

groundwork

that

would put flashCast

in the trenches of the

browser war.

When

flashCast built a

Web

site, it

promoted Microsoft and

included icons with links to Redmond's browser. writer,

Scholz

made

A

always

prolific E-mail

sure field representatives from the Microsoft Site

Developer Network knew about

his

evangelism by firing off flattering

messages extolling his "service to the Empire." flashCast's

home

page, with

signature art deco

its

man emerging

from a radioactive cloud, earned a Microsoft Network Pick of the

Week

in

October 1996. Scholz seized the marketing opportunity and

pasted the award icon that

on the

month one of flashCast's

burger joint The Diner on

flashCast site as a badge of glory. Later sites,

a freebie built for Dayton's retro

Clair,

St.

was

among

fifty finalists in

won More

Microsoft's Activate the Internet '96 contest. Scholz's business

$1,000 in free software, some of which

it

shared with The Diner.

important, his small company's work grabbed the attention of Microsoft officials in

Redmond. The

software giant bestowed

upon

flashCast the status of Level 3 Microsoft Site Builder, the highest

membership ranking within the Network. Level 3 status meant

— I

global Microsoft Site Developer

at least in Microsoft's estimation

54

MERCENARIES OF THE EMPIRE

you were among the best

high-end

at building

used databases, animation, sound, the

were only about two hundred Level 3

October 1996, and two companies in

site

Web

pages, ones that

coding

tricks.

flashCast was only

if

one of

of Ohio to have the designation. Scholz even

persuaded Microsoft to waive the annual $2,500 membership extremely rare,

There

builders worldwide back in

summer 1997

as late as all

latest

fee,

an

not singular, honor.

"Back in those days we were getting so

much

crap submitted to us,"

Ewing, then product manager for the Microsoft Site

says Eric

Developer Network. "Paul's

Although just

five feet

Web

sites really

seven inches

tall,

stood out."

Scholz had a way of stand-

ing out, of grabbing attention in a world of giants. Before leaving a

bar in coat,

New York's SoHo neighborhood one

approached the owner, and

day,

he cinched

his over-

sotto voce, told him, "We're here

for the envelope."

"You could make alotta said,

money doin'

laughing, slapping Scholz

dat round heeah," the owner

on the shoulder. "You could

get

killed, too."

When

Site

Developer Network representatives paid

flashCast, Scholz treated

in a gilded

them

like royalty,

— David

J.

his first batch of

when he

young

who goes who was seven-

Culberston, twenty-four at the time,

by the high school nickname Inky; Dustin Tiemeier, teen

to

$600 tapestry he had bought in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Sometimes Scholz acted younger than employees

visits

sometimes draping them

started at flashCast;

and Geoff

Porter, a twentysome-

thing database programmer. Scott Bateman, former director of

Dayton and the one

in

and other Cox media where Scholz

Still,

adult,"

like?

Bateman

that didn't stop

sites for

Interactive

Media

in

the Dayton Daily News

outlets in the area, recalls a business lunch

started shooting spit

'You know what he's

body of an

charge of Web

Cox

wads

at a waitress.

He's like a twelve-year-old trapped in the says.

Bateman and others from doing business with

Scholz. His growing client

list

included

I

55

Dow Chemical Inc.,

Motorola

RENEGADES Inc.,

THE EMPIRE

OF

and perhaps most important,

Lexis-Nexis,

home

to

one of the

world's largest warehouses of on-line legal documents. In the

months

before he started flashCast, Scholz had worked as a Web-server consultant for Dayton-based Lexis-Nexis. flashCast later constructed

pages for the company and

parent,

its

Reed

Elsevier

Web

PLC, a $30-

million partner with Microsoft. Although Scholz refers to the

British/Dutch-owned Lexis-Nexis as "a real Dilbert

outfit"

because of

management-heavy organization, the work flashCast did there

its

lofted the

company's

star sharply into Microsoft's view.

Based on flashCast's work

at Lexis-Nexis,

and because

and Activate the Internet finalist,

3 Site Builder

invited Scholz's

company and

in

it

was a Level

May 1997 Microsoft

a select group of outside developers to

help fine-tune infant or alpha versions of Internet Explorer

Redmond's answer

to Netscape's Navigator,

4,

then the market-leading

browser. Both browsers featured advanced E-mail capabilities, better

ways to jump back and forth to previously viewed pages, and simple

Web-page-authoring ible versions of

tools.

Both

dle animation faster. flashCast

version of

Dynamic HTML.

a ruse to get out of taking

still

in

showing up

late.

He

emerged

competing, noncompat-

to

named

chew on pens

geography

things can han-

as a specialist with Microsoft's

flashCast's Inky,

acumen and because he used for

also offered

Dynamic HTML, which among other

tests,

till

for his drawing

they splurted ink as

has a deserved reputation

customarily awakes at the crack of noon.

He

didn't have a driver's license at age twenty-three. As tardy as he

much

of his

life,

Inky became one of the

first

ate what's called a collapsible tool bar. Built for

Web initiative,

to use

Reed

is

DHTML to cre-

Elsevier's

RELive

the bar or channel guide was a standard row of links to

other areas of the Reed

Web

suite.

The bar would appear when

the

cursor was pushed to the right of the screen, then would disappear

when moved

off,

saving valuable screen space.

Inky says infighting

among

drove him to create the tool control over the RELive

the eighteen divisions at

bar.

site.

Reed

Inky

says.

Elsevier

But most of the divisions involved

wanted "one hundred percent of the screen trol,"

Reed

Elsevier exercised centralized

"They didn't want

to give

156

real estate in their con-

up any screen

real estate."

MERCENARIES OF THE EMPIRE

Marc Kuperstein, a senior director buffer of sorts between flashCast at

Reed. Yet the heads

the in

site.

Kuperstein,

Chrome's

Microsoft to

initial

it

still

and the competing

on

needs to be mentioned, would soon play a part

content coding, then would later take a job at

become

part of a group opposed to the technology.

upon

After "a lot of pacing," Inky hit

upon by

heads

divisional

called flashCast to jockey for position

the collapsible tool bar. All divisions called

at Lexis-Nexis, served as a

the solution of

Solomon

would disappear from

the user. But that only triggered another

sight until

round of

bickering and backstabbing.

"They were partners but actually got along worse than most ness competitors," Inky recalls. "They

the channel guide.

them on top

We

all

wanted

to

be

busi-

listed first in

were offered bribes by some of them to

—vague insinuations

like 'you'd

list

never be out of work,'

that kind of thing."

Despite the internal conflicts at Reed, flashCast finished the time. Scholz

site

on

and Inky believed the experience, although a headache,

gave flashCast the seasoning

it

would need

to

woo and

capture other

large corporate accounts.

Inky had no way of realizing that his creation would later grab the attention of two driven

men

at Microsoft, forever

tunes of flashCast. Yet, in strange serendipity, had

changing the it

for-

not been for an

experimental mouse project and a chance encounter in a Bellevue,

Washington, hotel room, those ambitious

men might

never have

seen Inky's collapsible tool bar and the history of flashCast might

have been written quite differently.

Few people outside of Yellow

Andrew Junker and Yet in

his small

many respects Junker is

Springs, Ohio, will have heard of

company, Cyberlink Mind Systems

Inc.

responsible for flashCast's ascension in

the Microsoft Empire. Junker invented the Cyberlink Interface,

which he claims as a

is

the world's

first

brain-wave-activated mouse.

Worn

headband, the mouse picks up voltages from the forehead

result of facial gesturing

the cursor

and brain-wave

on the computer

screen.

activity,

which

in turn

Junker needed help with the

mouse's virtual device driver and called upon Scholz in the

"

57

as a

moves

summer

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

of 1997. Scholz had responded to one of Junker's job ads a few years

back and had seen him

at a

computer show

in

Scholz told Junker he was too busy building

Dayton

Web

in April 1997.

sites,

but thought

he might know someone who would be interested in the technology. Scholz E-mailed his Microsoft acquaintances, none other than Eric

Engstrom and Craig

them about

Eisler, to tell

this

new kind of mouse.

Scholz had met Engstrom in 1993 at a computer trade show in Atlanta, while Engstrom was

still

Relations Group. Scholz

an evangelist with Microsoft's Developer

met

Eisler later that year at a Microsoft con-

vention in Los Angeles. Both Engstrom and Eisler recall being

impressed by a technical programming manual Scholz had written and his expertise with Microsoft software tools.

When

Scholz

left his job at

Simulation Technologies Incorporated in early 1994, Eisler and

Engstrom wanted Scholz to

fly

him

to hire

as a

out for an interview.

C++ programmer and arranged

A key personnel man in charge at the

time, however, rejected Scholz, saying "I

for

he "lacked technical depth."

kept talking to them about the Internet, the Internet. But

nobody

fuckin' listened to me," Scholz says.

in Silicon Valley.

'technical depth'

Scholz did

I

knew

on

wound up bumming

"I

the Internet was coming, so

I

wanted

to get

it."

more than bum. He got

a job at

QCS

Corporation in

Santa Clara, rigging what's called computer-telephony systems. Ironically, Bill

Gates's

tive staff a

famous "Internet Tidal Wave"

memo

to his execu-

year later would bank Microsoft's future on the global

network. Scholz would be there waiting.

He had

kept in touch with both Engstrom and Eisler periodically

via E-mail. Last

he had heard, Engstrom and

Eisler

Microsoft's DirectX technology, the stuff that

dows

possible.

He thought the

were involved in

made games on Win-

two might be interested in a brain-wave

mouse.

"They both wrote back Scholz

saying, 'Fuck yes,

we want one

right now!'

"

recalls.

The ambitious

at

Microsoft are always looking for

new

technology,

the next big, multibillion-dollar thing that will capture the masses.

58

MERCENARIES OF THE EMPIRE Eisler

and Engstrom were no exception,

despite, by then, their

deep

involvement with Project Chrome. Junker, excited that the Empire was interested in checking out his

made

invention,

hasty plans to

brain-wave mouse. Scholz,

went along for the

fly to

who

could even get started," Junker

I

demonstration.

says of the

Project

demos sometimes humble even

computer-conference crowd

in

the mighty.

A Comdex 98

Chicago watched with equal parts

horror and joy as a Windows 98 system crashed while his

the

ride.

shot myself in the foot before

"I

Redmond and demonstrate

couldn't resist a trip to Microsoft,

Bill

Gates gave

keynote address. Junker knows Gates's pain.

was a

"It

own

disaster, really," Junker says

installation disks

stuff of Windows.

I

of his demo.

brought

"I just

my

and Microsoft works with the next-generation

had

to

do some quick software reconfiguring

right

off the bat."

His armpits moistened. His awkward attempts at conversation only

heightened his anxiety. Engstrom and eight of his lieutenants watched with growing impatience as the get his "I

mouse

man from Yellow Springs

was nervous," Junker continues. "And

some

pretty high-level people

They

quite right.

struggled to

to work.

said

it

and

I

was in

this

room

with

never got the mouse to work

wasn't a billion-dollar product

going to replace the [conventional] mouse

Engstrom and

I

and

it

wasn't

driver."

his colleagues said the brain-wave

mouse was much

too slow for games, but might have potential for those with severe abilities.

In fact, they

Accessibility

hooked up Junker with

dis-

folks at Microsoft's

Group.

Engstrom and

Eisler invited Scholz to

dinner that night, whetting

the Ohioan's appetite with talk of salmon steaks

More appetizing

and microbrew.

for Scholz, however, was his realization that his

acquaintances had ascended to the managerial ranks at Microsoft. "I

didn't

Scholz

know

they had been in charge of DirectX until that day,"

says.

59

RENEGADES He thought he might be somehow pick

him up

to see that

able to leverage this to his advantage

The

in the future.

Engstrom and

future arrived that evening,

at the

Embassy Suites

men had

in Bellevue. Scholz

Eisler

Web

sites

on

his

was surprised

to

check

Toshiba laptop. Engstrom and

were reasonably impressed by flashCast's work.

that flashCast's site

to

shaved their heads. Scholz quickly recov-

ered from the sight and, ever the opportunist, invited them out some flashCast

when

matching 911 twin-turbo Porches

Eisler drove their

both

THE EMPIRE

OF

It

didn't hurt

had an animated graphic of the Microsoft mar-

keting slogan "Where do you want to go today?" spinning in 3-D, one of the features

laugh

Chrome

radioactive

The two

simplified.

at flashCast's logo,

whose

art

mushroom cloud was

Manhattan Project

logo.

But what

collapsible tool bar. Microsoft

deco

also enjoyed

an inside

man emerging from

a

reminiscent of their original

really

caught their eyes was Inky's

had developed a

similar tool bar for

Chrome, the only difference being the Microsoft prototype appeared

on the

left

and didn't completely disappear

back, like a door

Engstrom and

—

it

just sort of folded

swung open. Eisler

exchanged

a glance.

"Hey, Paul, we're working on a litde project that

Engstrom

may interest you,"

said.

By the time Scholz flew home the next enlisted into the browser war.

i

6 o

day, flashCast

had been

11

BROTHER

BIG BILL VS. BIG

Two

thousand Apple

that

faithful couldn't believe their eyes

and

ears

August 6 morning inside Boston's Park Plaza Hotel. There

was Apple's charismatic cofounder and prodigal interim

CEO

Coast MacWorld Expo

trade

Steve Jobs, onstage at the annual East

show, declaring an alliance with the

returned to Apple's helm the fective Gilbert

Studios,

Amelio. Although Jobs

maker of the

hit

enemy

— Microsoft! Jobs

month before, with

movie Toy

temporary CEO, Apple followers

at

had

the ouster of the inef-

—who headed Pixar Animation —agreed remain only

as

to

Story

MacWorld greeted him with a

hero's welcome.

And he responded in that

Apple had ditched

kind by electrifying the throng with the news its

old board and replaced

it

with a

dream

team of industry leaders, including Oracle's iconoclast billionaire

CEO, Larry

Ellison. Jobs's

appearance

at

MacWorld

recalled the

heady days of 1984, when the Macintosh debuted with a global

TV ad

campaign featuring a trim hammer-heaving heroine shattering the

PC

industry's bland conformity.

return evaporated

when he

But the

initial

euphoria of Jobs's

talked of an alliance with the devil. As he

spoke, a thirty-foot-tall image of Bill Gates's smiling face, satellite,

loomed

to life

on the

stage's screen,

episode of perfect Orwellian surrealism.

161

beamed via

dwarfing Jobs in an

— RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

now awkwardly tried to quiet the chorus of boos from the outraged and by now thoroughly confused crowd. Seemingly taken Jobs

aback by the reaction, a chagrined and angry Jobs spoke over the din, world that the two foes had entered a new era of detente.

telling the

Microsoft would infuse $150 million into

ailing

its

archenemy, acquir-

ing 9 million nonvoting shares of the Cupertino company, plus pay-

ing a rumored $100 million for licensing Apple technology. Gates also

pledged to make software

of Office products

Apple agreed

Windows

to

— including the market-leading

—for the Mac for the next

drop what was

left

lawsuit initiated by former

of

its

five years.

suite

In return,

failed "look-and-feel"

Apple

CEO John

Scullev.

Moreover, Apple would make Internet Explorer the default browser

on

all

Macs

— the company had been using Netscape's Navigator

and would use Microsoft's version of the Java programming

lan-

guage, not the pure version from Java's founder, Sun Microsystems. In this sweeping victory for Microsoft, the

gained more platforms on which to deploy

its

company not only

browser, but put a dag-

ger in the heart of an unofficial anti-Microsoft Java alliance formed

and Oracle.

earlier by Apple, Sun, Netscape,

With Apple's market share declining, and the company bleeding

more than the time "If

$1.5 billion over the previous eighteen months, Jobs said

had come

we want

to

to

put an end to the feud with the

move

demigod in denim

"We have

to win, Microsoft has to lose.

Apple executives would

had coerced ening

its

to stop

Apple

.

.

.

to let

to let

go of a few

things," the

go of this notion that for Apple

We need

later utter

all

the help

we can

get."

dark accusations that Microsoft

struggling rival into inking the browser deal by threat-

making software

faithful

company's

we have

forward,

said.

Redmond giant.

may not have

common

for the Mac.

liked the deal, but Wall Street did.

The

stock surged 33 percent to close at $26 that day,

adding nearly $830 million

to Apple's stock value.

For many, the battle between Apple and Microsoft had been a holy war.

To them, Microsoft was the

Evil

Empire, imposing

its

proprietary

standards on the world by quashing or assimilating competitors.

Apple represented a rebellious

alternative

162

— the innovative company

BIG BILL VS. BIG

made

that

pricier computers, as Jobs

BROTHER

once

said, "for the rest

of us."

Apple and Microsoft had locked horns since nearly the inception of

among the more storied and definMany believed the "Great Satan" Gates

the information age. Theirs were

ing battles in the

PC

industry.

had filched the concept of Apple's point-and-click operating system,

had done a better job of pricing and marketing plowed Apple under.

made

(In truth

Apple was

its

inept business decisions and chose to

computers even

if it

meant higher

tured market share with a

less

prices.

it,

and had nearly

own worst enemy. It manufacture its own

Meanwhile, Microsoft cap-

elegant but a lower-priced operating

system running on commodity PCs.)

Others saw the deal as a way to soothe Justice Department regulators,

who were itching Windows to

oly with

to

prove Microsoft was using

attack

its

near monop-

and control the Internet and other

markets.

"This

is

antitrust insurance," said Chris

Dataquest in San Jose.

"It

allows Microsoft to stand

we're supporting alternative architectures.' Yet at

its

other in newspapers, partners.

made

up and

say,

at

'Hey,

"

core, Apple's deal with Microsoft reflected the

of the computer industry

reality

LeTocq, an analyst

complex

— despite what they say about each

many competing companies

are simultaneously

Most of the software written for the Mac, for instance, was

at Microsoft.

ring camps, Apple

And

contrary to the notion of two constantly war-

and Microsoft routinely conducted meetings and

negotiated deals far removed from the glare of public scrutiny.

Meetings such as the one Eric Engstrom attended in Apple's Cupertino headquarters in August '97 that

would

and

historic antitrust lawsuit.

later hurl

The same month Jobs dropped moted ing

list

his

series of

— aside from

meetings

chilling orbit of a massive

bombshell, Engstrom was pro-

manager of DirectX multimedia. Among

to general

of duties

— one of a

Engstrom into the

nurturing Project

Chrome

his

grow-

—was to

advance Microsoft's Internet multimedia technologies, including ActiveX Animation, DirectX3D Retained Mode, DirectPlay, and ActiveMovie, later

renamed DirectShow.

63

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

DirectShow formed the core of the subsystem

Windows

in

for the

playback of audio and video content using a variety of formats.

DirectShow and the

rest of the

DirectX media were collectively

referred to as the "multimedia runtime" for Windows, the technol-

ogy that allowed playback of multimedia delivered

via the Internet.

DirectShow's counterpart was NetShow, back-end server technology that piped content to desktop computers.

pitcher on the

mound, throwing

catcher and was in charge of the client software that appears

on

NetShow was

to the catcher.

Windows Media

a user's

PC and

like the

Engstrom played

Player, the so-called

looks like a combina-

of a videocassette recorder and a television, with "play,"

tion

"rewind," "fast-forward,"

and

"stop" buttons

and a viewing

screen.

DirectAnimation, which had not yet been released, would allow developers to combine sounds, movies, 2-D and 3-D images, and text for the

Web and

events. Click

on

time them with mouse clicks or other user-initiated a picture of Mozart, for instance,

plays Requiem. Craig Eisler, the

more

and the computer

cautious and low-key Beastie Boy

whose involvement with Chrome was increasingly on the wane, had

been providing guidance on DirectAnimation. DirectShow, the

new entree

for Engstrom, was Microsoft's

move

to

and progressive video and audio feeds over the

play back streaming

Web. Instead of waiting for an

entire

sound or video

file

to

download,

which could take minutes or even hours, streaming technology played back a to a

file

as

it

arrived without the

computer's hard drive. Streaming

name

downloading, which, as the while

it

downloads

Player, Apple's

to the

QuickTime

is

file first

being downloaded

the cousin of "progressive"

implies, begins playback of a

file

computer. Unlike the Windows Media at the

time only supported progressive

downloading, not streaming. In any event, the

video feeds

Web was

still

too slow to

accommodate

real-time

— the images were grainy and jerky and the sound was

often out of sync. Like silent movies of old, multimedia delivery over

the Internet was in

its

infancy. Nonetheless, even 28. 8K

modem

hookups could stream or progressively download audio reasonably

164

BIG BILL VS. BIC

and many radio

well,

BROTHER

were beginning

stations

to broadcast via the

Internet.

Engstrom and

no

manager, Chris

his trusted business

were

Phillips,

QuickTime and DirectX were

strangers to Apple's headquarters.

competing technologies. Overall, Apple no longer represented the threat

ment chief

it

once did

to Microsoft.

scrutiny, Microsoft did rival.

And

given the intensity of govern-

not want to be seen burying

once-

its

Within days of the announced groundbreaking deal with

more

Apple, Microsoft directed Engstrom to redouble efforts to cut deals

where Apple was

strong

still

— multimedia.

The multimedia fortunes of Apple and Microsoft became more intertwined with the development of delivering video the

Web, and media

and audio over

players represented a growing market.

own streaming multimedia

Apple

And

was said to be developing

its

just days before Jobs's big

announcement, Microsoft had purchased

player.

a 10 percent stake in Progressive Networks Inc., later

RealNetworks,

Rob

which was founded

by

ex-Microsoft

known

as

executive

Glaser.

RealNetworks produced RealAudio and RealVideo, the most popular streaming software in cyberspace.

had been Microsoft's

It

third

major media acquisition

in six

months, including investments in

VDOnet and VXtreme

Inc.

The investments complemented

Redmond's own nascent NetShow and Windows Media Player

tech-

nologies, but they also

drew more attention from the Justice

Department, which vowed

to investigate.

In August, Engstrom

and

Phillips

—a former Hewlett-Packard pro-

grammer turned marketing whiz and Engstrom 's eyes, times

mouth

Apple

to

within Microsoft

— traveled

to

ears,

Cupertino

to

and somepersuade

swap codecs, a contraction of the phrase for the software rou-

tines that

compress and decompress

Because of their large

size,

multimedia

compression/decompression process

digital files

to

images and audio.

need

to

go through

be piped through the

this

Web

efficiently.

From Engstrom 's

perspective, he was

65

on

a simple technology-

RENECADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

sharing mission, paved in large part by the remarkable truce between

Jobs and Gates.

went down there

"I

could play could play

all

all

to sell

of their stuff [on

Windows Media

and

it's

and they

Player]

a nuisance for our customers

you didn't have our player or

if

can't use the other player.

What

I

their

wanted

QuickTime

you look

their right

our

at

shitty

codec and their

mind would use any of that

you

player,

do was swap them our

to

codec that causes problems with their QuickTime and vice "If

we

so that

of ours," says Engstrom. "The codec we're talking about

are six years old or more,

because

them on swapping codecs

shitty codec,

versa.

nobody

in

anyway," Engstrom adds.

Streaming and progressive-downloading multimedia was a morass of incompatible formats and protocols

multimedia creators use to organize a

— defined

set of data.

as the

faced a Hobson's choice of developing content to support mats, which

is

multimedia software

all

Apple's QuickTime player didn't use

and

all

will

Some

users

what motivated Microsoft

the formats

would be apt

to

Windows it

sup-

could

blame Windows, which

Engstrom

to dispatch

sin-

be able to run.

as a result the player didn't function as well as

or should on PCs. is

all file for-

expensive in terms of production time, or using a

gle format that not

ported,

methods

Multimedia authors

to

engage

in talks

with Apple.

Engstrom likened the

situation of file-format incompatibility to a

world where consumers had to buy one kind of television to receive

UHF broadcasts, still

another type of TV to view

VHF programming,

and

another to view cable channels. Unless there was agreement on

common

standards that permitted

all

multimedia content

to

be

played on a variety of media players, the desktop computer would

remain a poor substitute for radio and TV. Engstrom saw the way

improvement was

to

widespread cross-licensing of codecs, a move

in

Apple termed "codec detente." Despite Jobs's jaw-dropping truce with Microsoft, however, Apple

saw Engstrom as an enemy. In

Engstrom seemed

to

fact,

be pushing Apple

media-player market in an act

to executives in Cupertino, to

help Microsoft carve up the

more of collusion

166

rather than of coop-

BIG BILL VS. BIG

eration.

An

act,

it

must be noted,

that

BROTHER

would add

fuel to the govern-

ment's attack on Microsoft.

RealNetworks and Apple media players worked with various computer platforms and servers. Microsoft's

Windows Media Player at

time, however, was proprietary technology in that

NetShow

Microsoft

and Windows-based PCs. Although

servers

Microsoft and RealNetworks

the

only worked with

it

— but not Apple —were

among

those

working with the industry to standardize around an Internet streaming

file

format known as ASF

2,

that didn't stop

Apple from raising a

make cyberspace

dark question: Was Engstrom actually plotting to

place where only those using Microsoft products could explore

a

and

use the riches of the Internet?

The August 1997 meeting included Apple's Tim

Schaaff, director

of QuickTime engineering, and Peter Hoddie, senior QuickTime

According

architect.

that

them, Engstrom said Microsoft was troubled

to

QuickTime was being used on Windows,

allegedly viewed as trespassing

edly told Apple that

Microsoft would for

let

if it

says

he asked

a transgression

turf.

he

Engstrom report-

got out of the media player market,

Apple have free reign

making multimedia content

Hoddie

on Windows

to forge software tools

used

— a much smaller piece of the action.

Microsoft was proposing that Apple "knife

if

the baby," referring to QuickTime,

and

that Chris Phillips said yes.

Engstrom denies that exchange ever took place and counters that he and

Phillips

were only exploring the

possibility of

Apple and

Microsoft developing a unified multimedia runtime or playback tech-

nology for Windows certain

—based on DirectX, of course, and incorporating

QuickTime technologies. Engstrom

also

acknowledges that

Microsoft was considering creating a version of DirectX for the Mac.

During

this

and other

discussions,

Apple

officials

were

telling

Engstrom that Microsoft should drop various parts of DirectX and adopt QuickTime instead

— an absurd request considering the high

body count the Beastie Boys had racked up building DirectX, not

mention

its

credential as a technology that

had

to

shifted the entire

computer-game industry and that was now plugged into Windows.

Engstrom always had problems taking no for an answer. He

167

RENEGADES resumed

his quest for

codec swapping again in September, when

Microsoft hosted a meeting off its

THE EMPIRE

OF

at the

Fairmont Hotel in San Jose

new Advanced Streaming Format, technology used

pany's

new Windows Media

to kick

in the

com-

Player.

Engstrom and Apple's Tim Schaaff slurped

diet

Coke and again

talked about developing a unified multimedia player technology.

Engstrom reiterated that

would have

it

be based on DirectX.

to

Windows

Microsoft was burrowing DirectX deeper into basic part of the operating system. stitute,

Engstrom

money

could make "I

said.

The two

to

QuickTime would be

also

make

it

a

a poor sub-

brainstormed about ways Apple

QuickTime.

off of

suggested that Apple consider developing a video editing tool,"

Engstrom

arguing that Apple's massive brand recognition cou-

says,

pled with the growth of digital cameras

Engstrom

he was just trying

says

to

made

Again, Apple's Schaaff has a different take. ing that

if

Apple refused

to

for a lucrative venture.

work cooperatively with Apple.

He

recalls

Engstrom

stat-

abandon development of its QuickTime

media player and didn't concentrate only on the multimedia authoring market, Microsoft would assign 150 engineers to

make media

authoring tools and run Apple out of the market.

"He assured

.

.

.

that

if

make an investment in

Microsoft needed to

providing authoring tools in order to push Apple out of the playback market, then Microsoft would devote

accomplish

this goal,"

Schaaff

Engstrom acknowledges he

all

the necessary resources to

recalls.

said "Microsoft

would compete against

any software that sought to duplicate the multimedia functionality in

Windows," but denies trying

QuickTime

for

to strong-arm

As the summer of '97 gave way to

worry about. Government

to

fall,

officials,

were

in a feeding frenzy

IE

4, its

bundling with Windows 95, and

upcoming Windows

Microsoft's

Web

Microsoft had other things

industry competitors, and

ics

the

Apple from making

Windows.

crit-

because of the anticipated giveaway of

98.

Many

effort as a brutal assault

business tactic to satisfy customer desires.

168

its

tighter integration with

of the Empire's

critics

saw

on Netscape, rather than a

BIC BILL VS. BIG

BROTHER

new

In late September, two days before Microsoft released the

consumer

browser,

savior

Ralph Nader and

Consumer

his

on

Project

Technology watchdog group circulated an on-line petition urging the Justice

Department

to investigate Microsoft for allegedly engag-

ing in "predatory pricing" by giving

away

its

browsers and

illegally

bundling the new version with Windows. Bad news for Naderites Microsoft,

who

still

had nader for president bumper

at

on

stickers

their cars.

The to

petition urged the

DOJ

to protect

consumers by "taking action

prevent Microsoft from using anticompetitive practices to

olize the

monop-

market for Internet browsers."

Gates and his

allies

wondered why consumers needed protection

from free software. Trouble brewed on other fronts. Attorneys general in California,

New York, and in

Connecticut joined those of Texas and Massachusetts

pursuing accusations that Microsoft might be violating federal

antitrust laws.

Capturing some of the anti-Microsoft sentiment

res-

onating in the land was computer-industry columnist and pundit Nicholas Petreley: "I'm not one of those devil.

I

simply suspect that

if

who

Microsoft ever

think

Bill

Gates

met up with the

is

the

devil,

it

wouldn't need an interpreter."

Undeterred, Microsoft released IE 4 for download over the

October

1,

1997.

The company claimed

that

more than

1

Web on million

copies of the browser were downloaded within forty-eight hours.

The

day of the launch, members of the IE team punctuated their celebration by rolling a giant, blue, lower-case

e,

IE's logo,

Netscape's Mountain View, California, headquarters.

onto the lawn of

The plucky crew

from Microsoft even posted pictures of their handiwork on the Web.

The

On

celebration was short-lived.

October

20, the Justice

Department rolled out

its

anticipated

antitrust lawsuit in federal court, accusing Microsoft of illegally

bundling IE 4 with Windows 95 in violation of the 1995 consent decree. install

The government

IE 4 with

hibited the

Windows

said that by forcing 95, Microsoft

company from imposing

169

computer makers

to

broke the provision that pro-

anticompetitive licensing terms.

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

Much of the argument turned on a clause in

the 1995 agreement that

said Microsoft could not tie the sale of products such as to the

purchase of another product, such

ambiguous clause

new

as a

Web

Windows 95

browser. But the

also said Microsoft retained the right to integrate

functions into

its

Web

browser was a

declared

Bob Herbold,

officer. "It

was a browser

software. Microsoft said

its

feature set of Windows 95. "Internet Explorer

is

not a browser at

Microsoft's vice president at

one

all,"

and chief operating

time. Sure, there's a separate icon for Internet Explorer

computer desktop. But the browser

really

is

on the

an operating system, not

a stand-alone application." U.S. attorney general Janet

"Microsoft

is

oly to protect

Reno

didn't buy

unlawfully taking advantage of

and extend

choice," she said. "The

that

it.

Windows monop-

its

monopoly and undermine consumer

Department of Justice

will

not tolerate that

kind of conduct."

Reno demanded

that Microsoft stop requiring

to accept IE 4 as a condition of receiving

pany

tell

PC makers how

PC manufacturers

Windows

to uninstall the IE 4 logo

95; that the

com-

from the Windows

95 desktop screen; and that the court authorize a record fine of $1 million a day until Microsoft complied. Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein

advanced the government's

case at a press conference by saying, "While trying to play catch-up

here, Microsoft went over the line

power

in

Windows

to coerce

when

it

chose to use

computer manufacturers

its

monopoly

to also take

its

browser."

Reno and Klein sort of

also hit at Microsoft's nondisclosure agreements,

an industry code of silence that required those who signed

to

inform Microsoft in the event they were subpoenaed by the DOJ. Klein said such agreements did not apply to the Justice Department

and encouraged those who had complaints against Microsoft

to

come

forward. Klein and

Reno

didn't rule out probing other Microsoft business

practices, including the

impending integration of the IE 4 browser

70

BROTHER

BIG BILL VS. BIG

Windows 98 and, though not revealed

with

sorties to

Engstrom's

at the time,

Apple.

Spurring on the inquiry was Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican

from Utah and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department.

The same day

the

DOJ

unveiled

its

complaint, Hatch said he planned to go forward with the committee's

broader examination of Microsoft's business practices.

Hatch

he applauded Microsoft's achievements, yet added,

said

"Success in the operating-system market does not entitle

manent, unchallenged monopoly, nor should a

monopoly over desktop

Microsoft, in the

entitle Microsoft to

it

access to the Internet."

The government had fired air.

to a per-

it

mood

its first

shot.

The

vowed

to fight,

smell of war was in the

to "vigorously

defend"

who had

recently

itself.

Meanwhile, Alex

St.

John, the

cast-off evangelist

returned from spending time with his ex-wife and children in Maine,

was in the

mood

to party.

He

was writing

columns and

kiss-and-tell

hosting a forum called AskAlex for Boot, a computer-industry print

and on-line trade magazine. Although he enjoyed side agitator

who

his role as the out-

ridiculed Microsoft bureaucracy,

not he defended his former company

more

often than

like a protective sibling

and

thought the government's case was a foolish campaign. "[Microsoft]

is

a monopoly, sure, but

more

American international monopoly!" he stated cussion. "I'm not

the

money

.

.

tries to us. I'd

more

.

an economist, but

[Microsoft]

makes

I

think that

actually

it's

one on-line

means

that

an dis-

most of

comes from other coun-

think those would be the kind of monopolies we'd want

of."

His departure from Microsoft did nothing to extravagance, an appetite whetted

Christmas party back in

'92.

his appetite for

when he'd crashed

St.

the Microsoft

John orchestrated another

landish Halloween bash reminiscent of his

time at his

dim

Despite no longer having access to

Microsoft's bottomless checkbook,

this

specifically

in

Judgment Day

I

own expense. He spent more than $12,000 and

17

I

out-

party invited

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

hundred game developers and

a couple

famous Showbox nightclub. The

friends to a party at Seattle's

of

likes

Duke

Ellington, stripper

Gypsy Rose Lee, and more recently Pearl Jam had strutted upon that

Now

venerable stage.

man

depicting a giant spilled out the

was

it

St.

He had

John's turn.

agape face morphed onto a

tions printed with his

postcard invita-

fifties

movie poster

hoisting a bus above his head. Passengers

bus windows and military guns trained their sights on

the menace. "The Towering Terror from Hell! Starring: Alex

John

.

.

.

St.

Party of the Colossal Beast," the invitations read.

Headlining the evening's entertainment was the now-defunct

United States of America,

Seattle rock trio the Presidents of the

known

for

celebrities.

its

upbeat, irreverent tunes about cats, fruit,

That would probably have been enough

chanalian tastes of most of the guests, but

and he was compelled

Draped

add shock

to

in a toga, St.

John took

that we're adults, sition.

many

and monsters

how do we

How many

to feed the bac-

was a

St.

John

"When we were

to frighten us

confront some

would volunteer

event,

value.

to the stage that night

a challenge to the inebriated crowd:

ghosts and goblins

this

and seminude

to

and issued

children,

we had

on Halloween.

new fear? I have

a propo-

do something insane?

of you are willing to come up here and do whatever

planned without knowing beforehand what

it

is?

Who's

Now

I

How have

willing to

take a real risk?"

A crowd, including several game-company executives, soon packed the stage.

"Okay," a smiling

St.

John

"We're going to go streak

said.

GameWorks!" Sega GameWorks was a struggling, multistoried video-game arcade in

downtown

helping an St.

sine.

the computer-game

John handpicked the

company

executives,

Then he

was

Seattle. Streaking

ally in

first

St.

John's inimitable way of

industry.

group, including several game-

and sent them out the door

revealed a secret.

advance team, sent ahead

second group, whisked

to

The

first

to a waiting limou-

group was merely the

occupy the arcade's bouncers while the

to the scene of the

I

72

crime in a big black

BROTHER

BIG BILL VS. BIG

Suburban, would do the dirty deed. To in the second group agreed cellulited revelers

tumes.

St.

who had

St.

John's delight, everybody

even some of the more

to streak,

trouble squirming out of elaborate cos-

John had accounted for slow-moving runners. The advance

team of handlers was armed with trench coats

who happened GameWorks crowd.

less streakers

the

St.

paid

The

throw over any hap-

to

stumble or otherwise got caught in

to

John's reconnaissance of off.

hefty,

GameWorks and

streak was an unqualified success.

careful planning

St.

John's streakers

broke through the unsuspecting crowd, which out of curiosity closed

naked runners had whizzed by and blocked any would-be

in after the

pursuers.

A

who had

few Monolith employees

staked out positions

before the advance team arrived took pictures of the show and

Web

posted them on the company's

Nobody got streaking,

nobody ran

The same,

prove

it

had happened. after the

afoul of the law.

could not be said at Microsoft, which was gearing

alas,

for the biggest legal battle in

About a week responded

site to

Although police showed up ten minutes

hurt.

its

twenty-three-year existence.

after St. John's streak party, Microsoft officially

to the Justice

Department, claiming that the browser was

an integrated part of the operating system. As such, the company could require computer manufacturers to include

it.

The DOJ had

noted that Microsoft used to distribute the browser separately from the operating system

only as a

means

to

and accused the company of bundling the two

torpedo Netscape and other Internet competitors.

But Microsoft countered

in

gration of the two products

Gates said the

response on

had been

company had decided

meeting on April cial

its

5,

1994

in the

November works for

10 that inte-

years. In fact,

bundle the products

at a

— two days before Netscape became an

offi-

to

company.

Nonetheless, presiding U.S. district court judge Jackson, the same judge

who had

decree, dealt Microsoft a blow

porarily, forcing

Penfield

signed the famous 1995 consent

on December

liminary injunction ordering the

Thomas

11

company

computer makers

•73

when he

issued a pre-

to stop, at least

to install the Internet

tem-

Explorer

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

browser with Windows 95. Not only did the judge assume the role of software engineer, he played a zealous one

ernment hadn't even requested the

—

at that time, the gov-

injunction.

Jackson tabled the government's request to impose a daily $1 million fine, but assigned a "special master" to the case, Harvard

Law School to act as

professor Lawrence Lessig.

The

an impartial reviewer of technical

professor was supposed

issues

and render an opin-

May

ion on the merits of the government's case by the end of

1998.

Jackson wanted Microsoft to remove IE from Windows, but the

wording of

his ruling left his

Microsoft responded

meaning open

literally to Jackson's

to interpretation.

orders by ripping out

all

of

IE and underlying code from the operating system. Instead of merely

removing the logo from the desktop screen, Microsoft offered computer makers browser-less Windows 95 operating systems in two unpalatable flavors: a two-year-old version or one that didn't work.

Microsoft had been warning the government that removing the

browser would disable the operating system as

"The court ordered us

it

was then configured.

to build a car without

an engine," opined

Microsoft spokesman John Pinette. Microsoft, of course, installing

to

imbue

ham

offered computer makers the choice of

still

Windows 95 with IE 4 and argued its

in court that

operating system with any features

it

saw

it

had a

right

including "a

fit,

sandwich."

DOJ's Klein was indignant and accused the company of mocking the judge's orders.

He

petitioned the court to declare Microsoft in

contempt and renewed Furthermore alike

— to

his call to slap

on

a $l-million-a-day fine.

the astonishment of Microsoft friends and foes

— he wanted the court

to require the

company

to

submit any

future operating-system upgrades or browsers to the government for

approval thirty days before release.

What, one wonders, would Klein have made of Chrome had he

known about

it?

"If the U.S.

software,"

government

is

going

to

decide what features go into

Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's technological

74

seer,

was

BROTHER

BIG BILL VS. BIG

quoted,

"it

means the end of the software

of us doing this

if

we

business. What's the point

can't put the features in?"

Later that month, Microsoft also challenged special master Lessig as biased,

noting that he had once likened downloading Internet

Explorer to "dealing with the

An

irate

Jackson had

little

devil."

On December

sympathy.

19 he had a

court technician use Windows' add/remove function to "uninstall" IE 3.02.

The demonstration removed

without breaking Windows

The judge wanted

—a

the IE icon from the desktop

feat that took less than two minutes.

Microsoft's IE logo off of

Windows.

Microsoft declared that the add/remove function inside the operating system, it,

as the judge

and while

it

disabled IE,

A

defiant

left IE's

didn't

it

code

remove

had ordered.

As the fireworks exploded between the government and the world's largest software

company, Engstrom was dealing with explosions of his

own. Morris Beton, general manager

at

Microsoft's Developer

Relations Group, continued to balk at evangelizing

Chrome,

in part

because the superfast computers needed to handle the new technol-

ogy weren't even on the market. Moreover, word had

it

that Developer

Relations suspected Engstrom was dragging his feet

enhancements

to

on

finishing

DirectX in retaliation for not getting evangelist sup-

port for Chrome.

The

suspicion was unfounded, but nonetheless

posed another unnecessary internal the pattern of friction Engstrom

In addition, another

political hassle

had had with others

and continued at Microsoft.

company reorganization was

in the works,

driven this time by savage top-level infighting and by a need to shelter against the

brewing antitrust storm. Jim Allchin, the senior exec-

utive in charge of Windows

Silverberg, the

pany's

first

It

to finish off rival

Brad

oversaw Windows 95 and the com-

Internet group. While Silverberg was

moved Windows group.

Allchin

NT, was in position

man who once

to consolidate Internet

on

leave of absence,

development under the

was well known that Microsoft planned to eventually replace

Windows 95 and 98 with consumer versions of Windows NT,

75

the oper-

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

ating system initially targeting businesses. Allchin

had made a con-

Windows migra-

vincing case that he should be the one to guide the tion.

Now

stir

making good on

that Microsoft was

browser to Windows

— the very

— the company decided

it

tactic that

Allchin's

antitrust

was a convenient time to align the two argue that the two technologies

divisions. Microsoft couldn't credibly

were the same

threat to fuse a

its

had triggered the

the two were under different administrations.

if

argument

that the two technologies

one command, namely

his,

needed

be under

to

carried the day. While Silverberg vaca-

tioned, Allchin took control.

He

now

was

lord over the company's

operating-systems and Internet groups. Silverberg

announced he would extend

time with his family,

coup

Allchin's

Silverberg

or, as

word had

it,

his hiatus to

spend more

until a suitable

job opened.

had far-reaching consequences

also

had given the green

for Engstrom.

DirectX

light to

at a

time

when

others inside Microsoft wanted to derail the project, and he had sup-

ported the purchase of Dimension

X when

Engstrom wanted

dethroning of Silverberg would leave Engstrom with one executive

"I

it.

The

less crucial

ally.

someone

"Brad

is

would

like to

I

have tremendous respect

for," says

Engstrom.

be a cookie-cutter version of him."

Silverberg would not be the only ally lost to this latest reshuffle.

David Cole would replace John Ludwig as vice president for Microsoft's

Web

Client

and Consumer Experience

Division. Cole

would be responsible for consumer-oriented Windows and multimedia development. Ludwig would move

Media Group

to

Express E-mail software, and Microsoft's

an opportunity

to

home

page. Eisler, sensing

move out from Engstrom 's shadow and work on

Internet-related technology

Microsoft

to Microsoft's Interactive

work on combining the Microsoft Network, Outlook

— decided

— among the marquee assignments

to follow

Ludwig.

door

to Engstrom's, later relocated

drag

at Microsoft, to digs inside

X-shaped buildings

at the

Eisler,

whose

from Building

Building

9,

office

30, off the

amid the

main

cluster of

campus's epicenter and near Gates's

"76

at

was next

lair.

BIG BILL VS. BIG

BROTHER

With Ludwig's imminent departure, Chrome's future became cloudy.

"There was a big discussion about the future of Chrome when

it

was learned John would be leaving," says McCartney. "We were losing a guardian vice president in John."

To top disks

it

Engstrom's back was killing him. Two ruptured spinal

off,

had ended

fear of doctors

his

weight

lifting at

New York

tion to

mouse

clicks

city,

Center did

programmers

and other user

events.

his

he '97

DirectAnimation API,

to time It

So,

World

sound and anima-

was a dismal December

and the packaged excitement inside the Jacob

little

to

lift

Tech trade shows,

on

flight to the Internet

debut of

for the

the technology that allowed

day in the

months ago. But a

had deterred him from seeking treatment.

endured the pain of a cross-country conference in

the Pro Club

Engstrom's

like

bad rock concerts, are

far too long. Inside the Javits

K. Javits

spirits.

far too

loud and go

Center blared the incessant drone

of techno noise, with software and hardware companies clawing for notice

and a

sale.

Noticeably absent on the trade show floor, however, was Netscape.

The company would announce more than $115 dicted. Netscape

million, far

layoffs

and report

losses for

more grim than what

analysts

blamed Microsoft, of course. But

edged that longer time-to-market

cycles

with

it

its

1997 of

had

new

line

corporate-enterprise software as well as competition from others

slowed expected trade shows,

sales. It costs

and by December

for trade-show per

Engstrom could care battling with

before he

left

for

Chrome and

Windows

had

presence at major

Netscape's budget had no

money

less.

His

Chrome developers were in

revolt.

He

McCartney and Heddle over DirectAnimation

New York. Engstrom wanted establish

— a strategy that

Windows'

'97,

to establish a

of

diems and related expenses.

had been

in

money

pre-

also acknowl-

ability to play

the fit

to use

new technology

DirectAnimation

as a standard in

into his larger mission of improving

back multimedia and thus compete against

Apple's QuickTime.

77

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

But using DirectAnimation for Chrome was more complicated and time-consuming. McCartney wanted to use the simpler, more established, fits

and

Mode. The bene-

better performing Direct3D Retained

associated with DirectAnimation, in McCartney's estimation, were

not worth the complexity of implementing

had

to

it.

In the

end McCartney

spend countless hours coding DirectAnimation for Chrome,

delaying the project and creating residual tension between Engstrom

and

his team.

"DirectAnimation was more theoretical rather than practical,"

McCartney

"DirectAnimation

says.

basically a language.

is

wants to learn a new language. Eric wanted and

still

multimedia runtime on Windows that everybody games, but for

all

larger mission to

Our

multimedia.

Nobody

wants a single

uses,

not just for

mission was Chrome, not

make DirectAnimation

this

the single multimedia run-

time and attack QuickTime."

Engstrom would acknowledge

that

he wanted Apple

a single DirectX-based solution to play

and

that

QuickTime duplicated

would

insist that

baby."

He

ities,

he wasn't trying

reiterated that

to help build

back multimedia on Windows

a lot of Microsoft's efforts. But he to "attack"

he wanted

QuickTime or

"knife the

to erase technical incompatibil-

which hurt the playback of multimedia on Windows and

frus-

trated consumers.

This message of putting the consumer

changes Engstrom had undergone

program manager

to general

in

first

reflected

some of

manager of multimedia. He no longer

wrote specs and oversaw development of one project, but

charge of many, including Player.

The mentoring

responsibilities tives,

the

graduating from Beastie Boy

Chrome and

aspects of the

now was

in

Windows Media

sessions with Ludwig, coupled with greater

and having

to

compelled Engstrom

answer more directly

to

to senior execu-

sharpen his diplomatic

skills

—

to a

Gates was en route to look over an early

degree. Once, while

Bill

Chrome demo, one

of Engstrom 's worker bees tapped the wrong

sequence of

keys, causing a crash

puter and reinstall the

demo

and forcing her

—a delay 78

that

to

reboot the com-

consumed twenty minutes.

BIG BILL VS. BIG BROTHER

agony of the reboot.

Fortunately, Gates was late, minimizing the

Instead of screaming, Engstrom told her

it

was his fault for entrusting

her with the task and stepped outside to bang his head against the

But Engstrom 's mellowing and desire for a

approach

wall.

unified

single,

running multimedia on Windows weren't major con-

to

cerns for McCartney.

"Our reviews and stock based on

if

Chrome was

allocations

a success.

I

and money were going

to

be

didn't see DirectAnimation help-

ing that," McCartney adds. "Developers don't want to be told what to

They just want

use.

Engstrom now

make

to

calls his

the most efficient technology."

decision to force

Chrome

to

be built on

DirectAnimation "the greatest mistake" of his career. "I

should have

tion for the

chess

game

let

too

many moves

to the letter, rather

them

[as] I

At any

Apple

team

to

Colin and

Bob

pick the best technological solu-

immediate mission," he

says. "I

in advance.

I

was worried about the

chose to follow

my

orders

than stopping at a results-based interpretation of

have always used in the past."

rate,

Engstrom, who earlier that year couldn't convince

swap codecs, was now having trouble convincing

to use DirectAnimation.

with the government's

Coupled with

now wanting

his

his

own

aching back and

sign-off approval of

any forth-

coming operating-system upgrade and browser technologies

Chrome

classified

schmooze

under both

— Engstrom was thus

and play booster

yet another day

in little

mood

to

an annoyingly loud

at

trade show. His return flight to Seattle could not depart soon

enough. Engstrom had been discussing Chrome with Paul Scholz, the

Web designer from Dayton, and another potential Chrome

ner when he glanced of those with

whom

at his

watch and decided

it

was time to go.

he had been holding court said he'd

arrange a meeting and would E-mail to iron out

hauled himself

round

to his feet

and pushed

logistics.

part-

One

like to

Engstrom

his thin-wire glasses to his

face.

"Sounds good," he

admonishment. "But

I,

said.

Then he wagged

his finger in gentle

uh, don't like a lot of data in

179

my E-mail."

12

THIS

John

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

IS

former chief executive

Sculley, the

officer of Apple,

prowled

the indoor courtyard of Bellevue's Embassy Suites, as shards of Pacific

Northwest

sworn enemy of

Bill

light

lanced the vaulted glass ceiling.

Gates and an international icon

with movie stars and presidents, Sculley

Web

the crowd of

now drew

who

little

Once

held court

notice from

developers, programmers, and corporate repre-

and

sentatives gathered here at the invite-only request of Microsoft Intel. It

the

was the week before Super Bowl XXXII, and the two com-

panies were hosting the

first

technical design review of

Chrome.

"Who's the old dude?" someone asked. Many of those grabbing free Danishes

were

in the

and coffee were too young

presided over a

computer

company

industry.

That was

that

know or

care that they

man who

for ten years

to

presence of a fallen king, a

had revolutionized the personal-

fine with Sculley.

Anonymity has

incalculable comfort. Sculley, a corporate turnaround artist

mer president

of Pepsi-Cola Co.,

tossed out the very Jobs. Sculley's

headquarters,

man who had

history in 1985

hired him

karma materialized

when

made

the Apple board

met

and

own for-

when he

— none other than Steve

summer

in the

its

in a

of 1993 at Apple

conference room a few

doors away from his office and scripted his humiliating overthrow. Sculley

had been

at the

helm when Apple

i

8 o

filed

its

famous "look-and-

THIS

IS

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

Once

feel" lawsuit against Microsoft.

Sculley was

now

a quiet

a pesky thorn in Gates's side,

ally.

Half a decade removed from those torturous days

at

Apple,

when

revenues were plunging swifter than the knives to his back, the

appeared

eight-year-old Sculley

at ease in his light

hunter-green corduroys. Gray streaked his

showed rounds

mind

that his

still

Inc., a

making

his

walked from group to group of

in the hotel's riparian lobby, diving into

He

out of conversations.

but his darting eyes

raced. Like a gaunt professor

at a liberal arts college, Sculley

young people huddled

hair,

fifty-

wool sweater and

and

was representing his company, LivePicture

Web-based photo and imaging

service,

and was serving

as

tor to two other high-tech start-ups invited to the design review.

men-

Some

members of his team were programmers he had handpicked while on a talent safari in Israel

occasion. Unlike ing, Sculley

— high-IQ techies he had nurtured for

some who

years, Sculley

"I've

this

very

Embassy Suites that morn-

was confident about Chrome, not only as a technology, but

also as a business-model

Chairman

strolled into the

component. Having battled Microsoft for

had switched allegiance and was playing

Bill's

ball with

team.

been doing a lot of the work under the radar screen

two years betting that Microsoft would do something Sculley confided the

first

day of the design review.

to decide

it

for the last

Chrome,"

"We knew

only way multimedia would happen on the Internet

and Intel would have

like

is

that the

that Microsoft

was important. The platform can only

be developed by those who can get out to the tens of millions, and no start-up

can do

that."

Sculley's feelings for Microsoft to

work with

his

had

same could not be

said of the

He was willing Web strategy. The

clearly softened.

former foe and eagerly embraced

its

government and Judge Jackson, who

were growing increasingly annoyed with the crew from Redmond. At a hearingjust days prior to the

Chrome design

review, Jackson rejected

Microsoft's claim that the court's "special master," Professor Lessig, was

biased and should be removed. Microsoft, recall, had questioned Lessig's credibility

because of E-mail correspondence he had had with

18

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

Netscape, including one where he had likened using Internet Explorer to selling his soul to the devil.

Jackson called Microsoft's accusations "both

trivial

and altogether

nonprobative."

"They

are, therefore,

were not made

made

in

a

good

in

defamatory and the court finds that they

faith,"

he

said.

more formal manner,

"Had

[the accusations]

been

might well have

[Microsoft]

incurred sanctions."

Moreover, the judge was enraged by the way Microsoft had handled his order to temporarily unbundle IE from the operating system

and

grilled

David Cole, Engstrom's soon-to-be boss and Microsoft's

vice president of "It

seemed

Consumer Platforms

Business.

absolutely clear to you that

entered an order that

I

required that you distribute a product that would not work. That's

what you're

me?" Jackson asked Cole.

telling

"In plain English, yes," Cole replied.

wasn't

my place

"We followed

that order.

It

to consider the consequences of that."

Cole showed that the add/remove procedure the court had

demonstrated earlier only removed twenty-six

that access

files

Internet Explorer, leaving the browser's basic program within

Windows

Microsoft's tough stance did

columnists,

files intact

95. little

to help

its

image. Letter writers,

and even employees were questioning the company's

hard-line position. Microsoft's rank

and

file

had always been aware of industry hostility;

competitors had been firing barbs at Microsoft virtually since tion in 1975. Yet antitrust battles with the Federal Trade

and the Justice Department general public taking Microsoft had told

its

earlier in the 1990s

much

notice.

employees

During

to just

all

its

incep-

Commission

occurred without the those earlier battles,

make software and not to worry

about government probes. Gates himself dismissed the investigations as by-products of

the marketplace

complaints from competitors

and ran

to the

government

Microsoft's conduct in the market

82

who had

failed in

for help. Ironically,

had compelled competitors

in

THIS

Silicon Valley

game

IS

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

and elsewhere

to play the political lobbying

game

—

Microsoft had stayed out of until the attacks began drawing cor-

porate blood.

By 1998 the

public's

computer consciousness had expanded with

the growth of the Internet software, hardware,

and the

and bits

society's increasing

and bytes

that were

dependence on

once the cloistered

province of geeks. Microsoft commercials regularly aired on television.

Nine out of ten personal computers Microsoft the brand had the U.S.

become

government was

in the

as well

world

known

now

ran Windows.

as Coca-Cola,

and now

people that Microsoft was bad for

telling the

them. The message started to resonate in the press and the public.

America

traditionally celebrates the

on

dog, only to turn

it

when

it

becomes

up-and-comer or the undersuccessful, particularly

demonstrate the requisite humility.

successful

fail

to

celebrities,

and

sports figures

endure

this

American

and the magnitude of the

Microsoft's turn,

rite

criticism

if

the

Politicians,

— now

it

was

caught some

employees off guard. "It's like I

said

don't even want to

tell

people where

I

work anymore,"

one Microsoft contract worker.

Microsoft executives found themselves alternately apologizing and

defending the company's response

Chrome

days before the

to

Judge Jackson's order. Two

design review, Brad Chase, Microsoft's vice

president of Developer Relations

Group and Marketing, appeared on

National Public Radio's Talk of

the Nation. If

Chase was hoping

score a public-relations grand slam, he struck out.

He seemed

to

out-

flanked by hostile callers and guests Jamie Love, director of Ralph

Nader's

Consumer

Project

on Technology, and Paul

Gillen, editor in

chief of ComputerWorld magazine.

"Customers

.

.

.

are not

all

convinced that the browser

is

part of the

operating system," Gillen remarked.

An

unapologetic Chase toed the company

"The reason we're being firm principle here.

And

is

that principle

is

tures in the operating system."

83

line.

that [there's] a very important

our

ability to integrate

new

fea-

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

Trouble brewed overseas as well. About the same time Chase was on the

air,

Japan's Fair Trade Commission raided Microsoft's offices in

Tokyo and searched more than

six

was violating Japanese antitrust

laws,

hours for evidence that Microsoft mirroring the company's prob-

lems with U.S. regulators. The Japanese were looking into whether Microsoft was violating the Japanese Antimonopoly Act by integrating the Internet Explorer browser into

probing to find

if

Windows

95. Moreover,

it

was

the software giant was pressuring computer makers

into bundling Microsoft applications, including

Word and

Excel.

Although Microsoft was having tough going inside Judge Jackson's

courtroom

smiling for the better.

Engstrom was

as well as in the court of public opinion, first

And just

time in weeks. His bad back was feeling a

little

two days before the design review, he and Morris

Beton, the manager at Developer Relations Group, had reached a truce. In a savvy political

move, Engstrom had forwarded

and Applications Paul

Maritz,

to

Beton

Group Vice President of Platforms

mail from Gates, Myhrvold, and

who

all

gave

Chrome

the thumbs-up.

Faced with these all-powerful endorsements, Beton relented and said

he would evangelize Chrome. Still,

the two-day technical design review would prove to be a cru-

cial

litmus test for the project. Defeating rivals inside Microsoft was

one

thing. Recruiting external allies to support the cause was another.

Microsoft was asking

Web

designers to build

would only be

sites that

viewable with a Microsoft browser on computers running Intel processors,

and high-speed ones

lesser extent, Eisler

at that.

—who was by now just orbiting the periphery of

the project in preparation to join

review

Ludwig and didn't attend the design

—would gauge potential market

and corporate representatives

success. If the

programmers

at the review didn't at least

concept of Chrome, there was let

This was where Engstrom and, to a

litde

hope

it

embrace the

would gain momentum,

alone commercial success.

Engstrom had stayed up most of the night preparing slides

and organizing

Monday, January

19,

his

his

PowerPoint

keynote talk for the next morning. At 9 a.m.

some 130 people,

84

all

under

tight-lipped non-

THIS

IS

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

disclosure agreements, picked

up

their silver binders

— the

"Chrome Microsoft CONFIDENTIAL" emblazoned on the and

Diplomat and Ambassador conference rooms.

filed into the

Two words normally not

Diplomat. Ambassador.

who

Engstrom,

struggled to

down

live

"Eric can be extremely

Bill Gates's payroll.

charming and he has extraordinary

more known

up

for blowing

Engstrom was on

at people."

his best behavior at the design review.

was the largest group ever assembled to preview

Microsoft's plans for the technology. trees

social

Chris Phillips, Engstrom 's business manager. "But he's

skills," says

palm

associated with

his well-earned reputation for

being one of the most cantankerous people on

it

words

covers

Some

At the time

Chrome and hear

of those queued under

near the Embassy's indoor river had heard whispers about

Chrome's troubles with Developer Relations Group. (Executives Monolith, aware of the ers

rift,

morale.)

Some

also

wondered

Web, or Microsoft's

the

Chrome might just be

Web

develop-

would do

to troop

took pains to shield their

from knowing the truth for fear of what if

it

the world really cared about 3-D

flavor of

Still

it.

at

on

others remarked that

a cynical way to lure people into buying Intel-

based computers, that the technology was a contrivance to justify the

production and marketing of expensive If

Engstrom was nervous, he didn't show

A picture red

letters

—shadowed

and absorbed

to

that. Its

in

it.

appear in 3-D

its

— scrolled the words, "This

Is

spotlight glaring off his glasses

in the fibers of his black shirt, the

Chrome began by asking still

office PCs.

of a biplane flew across an overhead screen, and in bold

Not Your Mother's Browser." With the

was

home and

the audience to "dream a

Dark Prince of

little bit."

Chrome

alpha stage, just an infant and a temperamental one at

performance was buggy. Programmers were

While Chrome could render some 3-D objects

had a long way

to

still

writing code.

well, the

technology

go and Engstrom reminded everyone of that.

Perhaps reflecting the "new Eric," Engstrom's presentation was part motivational speaker, part counselor, part vintage evangelist. told the audience

Chrome was

He

tooled for high-end computers that

185

RENEGADES didn't yet exist, but that Intel

them

and computer makers intended

in the stores for back-to-school

morning, an ule.

THE EMPIRE

OF

start at

or better, about half again as

market in December half of '99

The

'97.

'98.

Later that

about $1,500 and run

fast as

at

350

most high-end PCs on the

Intel rep also revealed that

by the

first

— or sooner— the world would see the rollout of the com-

pany's

new superpowerful Pentium

Katmai

after the

processors,

III

code-named

Alaskan coastal wilderness.

The Katmai would be

installed in

and come loaded with standard

machines costing about $2,000

sixty-four

megabytes of

eight gigabyte hard drives. These super-PCs of the time

be targeted

tially

have

would outline the product sched-

Intel representative

The new computers would

MHz

and Christmas

to

at

Chrome's

and ini-

corporate purchasers and an upscale demo-

graphic. Guys, mostly, with lots of disposable

themselves. People

RAM would

much

like

strategy, then,

income

to

spend on

Engstrom.

was

risky,

La

Intelligence, a research firm in

since according to

Jolla, California,

Computer

personal com-

puters costing less than $1,000 accounted for nearly 40 percent of sales

during the 1997 buying season.

Engstrom softened portions of his message by making those

room

feel they

were part of Microsoft's team

and by inference,

—

part of

in the

Bill's family,

entitled to a portion of the imperial treasure.

"The whole point of this

is

to

show you where we're going over the

next three to four years ... so you can provide feedback and help us

"We

with our vision," Engstrom said.

can't

make

this successful with-

out your help." His overview included Intel's role in Chrome's development.

Chrome would advance

in concert with

production of

Intel's

more

powerful microprocessing chips, the brains under a computer's

hood. Not since deployment of the Windows operating system had the symbiosis between these two companies been so pronounced.

computers. Intel needed a reason to make

Chrome needed

fast

computer

Chrome

chips.

Microsoft

knew

satisfied

both

interests.

that initially only a relatively small

i

86

fast

number of con-

THIS

sumers would be able

IS

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

computers equipped with Chrome. Yet

to afford

Engstrom argued that was one of Chrome's greatest

Web developers could target an identifiable niche. Law dictated

that prices of fast

because

assets,

Moreover, Moore's

computers would drop, meaning more

people would eventually be able to afford Chrome-capable machines.

According

to

Engstrom 's game plan,

as those

machines became more

ubiquitous, developers would increasingly author

because the 3-D enhancements would generate more

Chrome

sites

and, thus,

traffic

boost revenue. Engstrom quoted International Data Corp. figures estimating that by year 2000 there would be 2.5 billion

more than January

1,

five

sites,

1998.

"Making your Web pages stand out he

Web

times the estimated 351 million in existence as of

going to be a big challenge,"

is

said.

Most everyone

Web. In

surf the years he

"I

fact,

room missed

the irony. Engstrom did not

he knew remarkably

had thought the

body, the World

Would

in the

Internet's

about the Net. For

little

independent standards-setting

Wide Web Consortium, was property of Microsoft.

that Gates could

make

it

so.

hate browsing the Internet," Engstrom has confessed before, yet

here he was, talking about improving the

Web

experience using

game-foundation technology he had helped conceive and develop.

"The

Web

is

an extremely limited place for delivering high-quality

multimedia," he told the audience. ple images,

"It

does a great job for

and animated GIFs. But Monday Night

text, sim-

Football graphics

would almost be impossible."

Endowing the Web with

many of those

television-like graphics

seated before him. Heads

nodded

tering screen transitions, or navigation bars that

ads or to expose

more screen

real estate.

endless as they were novel. Already,

Millennium

The

New

was alluring for

at the idea

swung back possibilities

of shat-

to reveal

were

as

Jersey-based KaTrix

RUSH was developing a little 3-D cartoon man similar to

one of the characters

in the

movie Toy

Story.

The

figure

would almost

have intelligence. He'd be able to talk to users, lead them around

87

RENEGADES Web

sites,

and

react to

mouse movements.

cursor, the character could

one too many

complain and

times, he'd walk

If

tell

you

you

hit

him with your

watch

to

around the Web page with

and

sort of interactivity, if perfected lar

THE EMPIRE

OF

well marketed,

it.

Hit

him

a limp. This

would be popu-

with any demographic. Computer-illiterate housewives and family

members of

the

Chrome team who saw

early 1998 said they

Better

still

a

demo

of

this

character in

wanted Chrome-enabled computers.

was that

Chrome

didn't penalize those

Chrome-enabled machines or browsers. a Netscape browser,

If

who

didn't have

someone using a Mac with

upon a Chrome-plated Web site, the Chrome instructions and display an alter-

say, hit

browser could ignore the

native, conventional static page.

More

impressive for those at the design review, however, was

Engstrom's announcement that Microsoft was going to ship

Chrome

aboard Windows 98 machines. Except for minor improvements and tighter integration with the Internet Explorer browser,

didn't have a lot to differentiate itself sor,

Windows

Group that.

didn't want to evangelize

new operating

NT

5,

Windows to

98.

Chrome changed

be one of the

to ship

Chrome

with

all

star features

Windows

was enough to persuade many

(Windows

review to embrace the technology.

Windows 2000 before

its

NT

98,

and

at the design 5,

renamed

launch, marked Microsoft's phaseout of

Windows 95 and 98 operating to ship

ubiquitous predeces-

system.

That Microsoft promised

Windows

its

was a major reason why Developer Relations

95. This

Engstrom was positioning Chrome

in the

later

from

Windows 98

systems. Eventually, Microsoft

planned

nothing but annual or biannual versions of the NT-based

operating system.) Engstrom indicated there might even be a

Macintosh version of Chrome

at

some

"There's no doubt anymore that

asked about the

reality

it

point.

will ship,"

said

when

of Chrome's run to market. "That wasn't true

two months ago or one month ago. All In fact, approval to integrate cial until

Engstrom

Chrome

I

had was

with

a videotape."

Windows 98

wasn't

offi-

two days before the design review, something Engstrom

didn't see the

need

to share.

(88

THIS

"Like

But

I

all

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

IS

new products

have E-mail from

at Microsoft, there's always a certain risk.

Bill,

only thing I'm worried about

and

that carries a certain

"It

may be

the

As reassuring

last

from Nathan, from Paul is

that

it

amount of risk,

thing

I

do

when

won't ship

[Maritz].

said

I

it

will ship."

words were now, Engstrom had

as his

promised a new world of

possibilities

computer industry

"is

also

users to upgrade their systems,"

computers become,

at

and

earlier

Chrome

on the Web.

functionality

running out of reasons for end

Engstrom

some point

Jim Hoffman, chief executive

The

would,

too.

here," he added, "but

expressed a thought that could feed the cynical. True,

But, the

it

said.

"Because the faster

they're as fast as

you need them."

officer of Bigfoot, a

New York-based

E-mail directory service, didn't think Engstrom was confessing a dark

computer-industry secret. "He's being honest," says Hoffman, his

employees

who had

to the design review at the

Scholz, the Dayton

Web

designer. "Three-D

are the last frontiers of processing speeds. is

down

to the last

dispatched one of

urging of friend Paul

and voice recognition

The computer

industry

couple of things that can make you jump up to

the next level."

Like a pitchman selling juicers on late-night TV, Engstrom was mak-

ing a convincing case.

He

cited

demographic

showing who

studies

would buy the new Chrome-equipped computers, outlined shipping schedules,

and demonstrated some of its

his favorite if

uses.

not more ethereal aspects of

Then he

Chrome

browser." Engstrom envisioned a day when people tures instead of words to

there

.

.

.

,"

communicate.

late in his talk,

and

illustration

the crowd's interest

an opportunity Later, while

the

don't

would draw 3-D

know quite how to

pic-

get

he admitted. "But we believe pictures work better at remov-

ing ambiguity from the description of

draw an

"I

got to one of

— the "knowledge

as

how something

he explained how much

easier

works." it

It

was

would be

to

of an apogee rather than describe one in writing,

seemed

to

wane. Hands went up as people sensed

to ask questions.

an

Intel representative outlined rollout schedules for

upcoming crop of superfast computers, Engstrom

189

sat

under the

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

canopy of indoor palms and elaborated on

his

notion of a knowledge

browser.

Chrome was

Engstrom's greatest aspiration for

on the theory of the one another where

origin of language

ultimately based

— that we started talking

to dig for the

plumpest grubs or how

to

pursue and

slav

to

know

for survival, to let our fellow knuckle-draggers

woollv

mammoths. "Like, 'The beast

Engstrom

said.

how

realized

a

is

to the left,' instead of 'Ugghh,'

little

"Maybe we wouldn't have invented language

miserable

it is

to talk to

if

"

we

each other sometimes."

While everyone broke for lunch, he continued

his discussion with-

out fortifying himself at the buffet table. "Sixty

things

7

percent of your cerebrum

— throw a rock and

devoted to the visualization of

is

hit a target

We've been talking for very

—

that's

time. If

little

what kept you

you were

alive.

to redesign the

brain, you'd put in another twenty percent just to deal with text. But

we don't have

that, so

can deal with more

"Chrome little

green

is

like

— but

—

it's

we should modify

easily, I

which

don't

is

the text into something

know how

You can make

[the

computer] draw pictures for you instead of writing

The

future will prove

7

one way or another

stopped there to

let

who was

his voice rising

of clanging dishes and lunchroom chatter. as the

WTiat were

all

programmers

and

St.

John had

'You don't know

7

Engstrom room, the

filed

in.

He had

above the din

The cacophony was dim-

back into the conference rooms.

Would they and the companies Chrome and procreate the seed Engstrom,

these people thinking?

they represented nurture Eisler,

all this text.

right about this."

the impact of his words sink

spoken nonstop for about half an hour,

ming

sounding a

to sav this without

almost an attempt to go back to what's more com-

fortable for the ape without throwing away polyester.

He

we

images and audio.

said.

walls

so fiercely germinated?

how

"People

come

these things go over until the second dav"

tell

back.

me It

I

can melt

takes a

little

walls,

while

but

when

I

leave the

." .

.

Paul Scholz had been in a slow smolder, circling for a chance to

90

THIS

IS

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

The

snatch Engstrom's attention.

flashCast president was irked

because Engstrom had not used any flashCast

demo

pages during

Chrome's inaugural presentation. Microsoft had sent Scholz terse

typically

but flattering E-mail a few weeks before, saying that flashCast's

demos were some of the

best

produced

to date. flashCast

was one of

the smallest companies represented at the design review. Having

demo

its

pages featured during Engstrom's opening remarks would

have been an invaluable networking and marketing entree. Scholz

and

his

four-man crew from Dayton had

Monday

sat in the

back row during

morning's briefing, giddy with expectation.

"When's he gonna show our

stuff,

man?" Scholz had groused. His

when Engstrom ran through demos blood-and-guts game firm from nearby Kirkland.

pride suffered further injury

from Monolith, the

A

rivalry

Each was

of sorts had developed between Monolith and flashCast. feverishly curious

and

critical

referred to Monolith's 3-D robots as

Chrome man, Spencer

of the other's work. Scholz

"little

cartoons." Monolith's lead

Maiers, irreverently called Scholz "Johnny

flashCast."

Engstrom, in his new role

spanning the lobby's that

river.

as diplomat,

He

consoled Scholz on a bridge

explained that he meant no slight and

he had grabbed a handful of demos from

his digital filing cabi-

net and stuck them in his presentation without malicious intent. "I'm not very good with names or whose

Engstrom

said while holding court with the

that afternoon.

It

was the

first

the absentminded but bright

demos

artist

should show,"

men from flashCast later

time Scholz 's band

Web

I

—including

Inky,

— had ever met Engstrom.

was then Marc Kuperstein, the former Lexis-Nexis programmer

had helped Scholz produce Chrome demos, walked had just been hired duced him ward

to

at

over.

Kuperstein

Developer Relations Group, and Scholz intro-

Engstrom. Kuperstein found himself in a

situation. Just

two days before he was saying

socially awk-

how Engstrom was

"screwing himself by failing to deliver what's owed," namely the est

enhancements

It

who

to DirectX. Kuperstein,

echoing earlier suspicions

from Developer Relations Group, was convinced Engstrom had

91

lat-

retal-

iated against

RENEGADES OF THE EMPIRE DRG by diverting manpower and money

from other already scheduled and evangelized While

it

Chrome

projects.

was true Engstrom had pulled resources from DirectX,

motivation had far

do with

less to

Microsoft's previous reorganization

only of

to

Chrome but

his

retaliation than with survival.

had threatened the existence not

of Engstrom 's team.

Chrome was

and

in peril

required Engstrom's immediate attention. Engstrom had delegated authority over DirectX to competent lieutenants battle the

imminent

threat.

Kuperstein did not

and forged

know

off to

that the very

day he had predicted that Engstrom's days were numbered, man-

Group had spun an

agers at Developer Relations

about-face and

decided to evangelize Chrome. Scholz showed Engstrom a doodle Inky had drawn on a paper napkin that

morning depicting the Internet Explorer

e

logo squashing

Netscape's Godzilla mascot. Engstrom, allowing himself a levity,

moment

of

put on a small show of bravado for the flashCast crew and

Kuperstein. "I

would have

nothing

invited Netscape here,"

But

to fear.

I

Engstrom boasted.

"I

have

wouldn't have invited [founder and vice presi-

dent of technology Marc] Andreessen. He's an asshole. I'm the

test

when

me

it

comes

to assholes.

and he just blows

hard

It's

to

be a bigger asshole than

right past me."

Engstrom excused himself a short time cealed a certain anxiety.

Chrome

this day.

He

He was

later.

thinking about

His smiling face con-

how well he had

could take comfort that some,

sold

like Sculley,

Chrome was worth the investment. "Someone who thinks out carefully what this additional

already believed

power and eventual bandwidth can be used tecture right back in 1998 has a

a break in the design review. electronic

for

and

huge advantage," Sculley

commerce, entertainment, on games,

ficult as

it

said during

"[Chrome] has huge implications all

four or

five years later

is

for

kinds of services

that can be offered over the next four or five years. If stuff wrong, trying to fix

processing

gets the archi-

you get that

horrendously

dif-

Microsoft found out with DOS."

Sculley applauded Microsoft's

modest

192

initial

goals for the tech-

THIS

IS

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

and the

relatively simple-

gets better, as the processors get bigger

and the software

nology, such as the flapping navigation bar to-use 3-D animation.

"When

it

gets

more robust and more people

will

probably be one of the biggest areas

tainment and E-commerce," he

That night

Intel hosted

are doing things with content,

down

it

the road in enter-

said.

dinner and drinks

at Jillian's, a

former

downtown-Seattle warehouse converted into a yuppie pool hall

lacquered white oak, the works. Intel issued everyone two

ferns,

red, rafflelike tickets,

beer, this

which didn't

on,

it

redeemable

satisfy

at the

bar for well drinks and tap

everyone. "If Microsoft had been putting

would have been an open

grumbled one

bar,"

Microsoftie.

But there was nothing stopping people from running up their own tabs,

and most surpassed the two-drink minimum. Just

made

those invited to the design review

sprang for a

fleet

as

it

arette haze. Pearl Jam tunes

Engstrom,

among

dolls,

hall largely bereft of cigballs.

chrome — fast and flashy trick shots. The winners got lit-

miniatures of the neon-space-suit-clad

disco dancers popularized in the

Pentium

The buzz around some of the pool Was

didn't

do many young

cranked over the crack of billiard

a group shooting

"Bunny Man"

technology.

be sure

dressed in his black

still

was

tle Intel

"We

so happens, so

As a consequence Jillian's was a pool

techies.

to

for day two, Intel also

of shuttles to ferry people to the Embassy Suites.

Computers hate smoke, and

T-shirt,

it

if

Red Hook

pints of

it just

know

tables

II

television commercials.

was that

Chrome was

cool

talking?

there would be a market for

Chrome and we

were skeptical about 450-plus megahertz machines," said Kevin Guyton, a twentysomething founding partner of CyberDesign, an Internet firm in Orchard Park, say

it

will ship

New York.

"But to hear Eric Engstrom

with Internet Explorer, that's what sold me." Little

beads of sweat clung to his nose. "We see where people hardware.

Some

Chrome

will

define the

offered cautious,

if

very clear

buy the

Internet."

not more sober, assessments in the days

and weeks following the design "It's

modern

will

review.

we don't know what we're going

193

to

do with

— RENEGADES Chrome,"

THE EMPIRE

OF

said Joel Truher, vice president of Wired Ventures Inc., the

parent of Wired magazine and the Wired.com

many

Chrome's

others, was intrigued by

would be able

do

to

later in

site.

potential, in the things

pump

it

it

big pictures quickly over the

Internet to personal computers with relatively slow

January 1998,

Truher, like

development. Wired was particularly

its

interested in being able to

Web

Chrome was just

modems. But

in

too young. As far as the public knew,

didn't even exist, so there wasn't even a market. Moreover, Truher

remembered

all

how

too well

his

company had blundered

experimentation with Internet Explorer

4.0.

Wired had sunk untold

numbers of man-hours and cash on prerelease 1997. Like flashCast

and

a couple

received early versions of IE

enabling

it

to build

W eb 7

4,

versions of IE 4 in

hundred other companies, Wired

giving the

sites for

into early

the

company

new

a sneak peek

browser. But Truher said

Wired spent an inordinate amount of time chasing down bugs Microsoft discovered and fixed on Yes,

its

own

and

that

anyway.

Wired got the jump on some competitors by building Web

sites

that took advantage of the browser's greater functionality. But the

experience playing with the new browser also proved to be a colossal waste of

money

for Wired.

Truher said the company was gun-shy of

pouring more resources into an unproven,

"W e worked on 7

albeit cool, technology.

IE 4 without any cost-benefit analysis," Truher said.

"We're in a situation

now where we'd

like to

make some money."

Eric Rudolph, a video producer at Asymetrix Learning Systems Inc.,

an on-line education firm

in Bellevue,

of many fence-sitters. Asymetrix would use slick transitions

Washington, was

Chrome

and fades between pages and the

yet betting the future of the

Rudolph noted

that

company on

VRML,

like

Microsoft's

— but

new

set of

"All the

authoring tags and

Web

authors

and not getting

it,

I

know

frankly,"

wasn't

technology.

He

also questioned

Chrome's supposed ease of use, which required developers

new

it

the 3-D virtual reality modeling lan-

guage, had failed to take the Internet by storm.

a

typical

in doses at first

to

master

tools.

are just learning [Dynamic

he

said.

94

"This whole

HTML],

mishmash of

THIS

IS

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

DirectAnimation and tags seems done.

It

Still,

like too

many ways

to get things

seems pretty complex."

Chrome's immediate payoff was

mated graphics. And anything "would be a

hit,"

Rudolph

faster

download time for

that delivered faster

ani-

downloads

said.

Other developers would evoke the chicken-or-the-egg dilemma.

Which comes ers?

first

— Chrome content or Chrome-enabled comput-

Without content, computer makers would be loath

to

pay for

Chrome technology in their PCs. But without Chromecapable machines, why would developers spend time and money and

install

making Chrome-plated Web

sites

no one could

see?

"People don't need to upgrade appliances, unless you're a techie geek," said Bigfoot's Hoffman.

According of

Chrome

to

1.0

Hoffman, Bigfoot would wait out

and see what the market

1.0.

observed,

"It

It

Hoffman

New York when

the day in 1985 at the Plaza Hotel in

Windows

dictated.

early incarnations

recalled

Gates unveiled

was a weak operating system. Or, as Hoffman

didn't

do a fuck of a

lot."

But Hoffman figured

where the market would eventually migrate and he wanted position to take advantage of

that's

to

be in

it.

"Microsoft nearly always gets things right, but usually not the time,"

BOB,

he

said,

overlooking instant market flops such as Microsoft

the cartoonish user interface that was supposed to

puters easier to use. Shadowboxing,

want

to see

first

where the moves

Hoffman

are." His

make com-

called his strategy

company would

likely

—

"I

deploy a

version of Chrome to give people a different way to view search results

on

his sendee.

But not for a while.

spare in early 1998

to, as

Moreover, he disliked

He

manpower

didn't have the

how Chrome could be used

to take advan-

tage of lag time or network latency to slip ads between pages.

When users click a hyperlink to a new Web page,

a delay as the next page loads. sages

to

he emphasized, "play" with the technology.

Chrome could be used

new Web

there's always to insert

mes-

from Madison Avenue.

"Aren't

we supposed

to

be delivering pages

"95

really quickly?"

he

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

asked. "This interstitial advertising concerns me.

We'd be doing clever

things that change the user experience, but not in a positive way."

The danger of Chrome, and many emerging technologies, Hoffman saw it, was that it could be masturbatory a plaything

as

—

to

please the digital desires of closeted techies, rather than a useful

product to

satisfy

consumers.

Bob Heddle, Chrome's lead program manager, issue as the

bluntly tackled this

second day of the design review drew

"We're out to make money," Heddle

said.

to a close.

"Microsoft makes

when people go out and buy computers. Intel makes a too. That's how we make money here, by pushing

lot

money

of money,

new

sales of

computers."

And

Microsoft believed people would buy these

they understood that, for the

first

would be capable of displaying Web machines.

Up until now,

well as the

computer

new computers

if

time in history, high-end machines sites

better than low-end

Web was the great equalizer. Your mom's 486 PC running Windows 3.1 could view, say, the Porsche Web site as the

that sat

on

Bill

Gates's desk. But

Chrome

is

"not

your mother's browser." Chrome gave you speedy downloads and mated, 3-D graphics

much

better than anything ever before seen

To use an automotive

the Web.

ani-

analogy, you

no longer had

on

to drive

your dad's Cutlass Supreme, you could drive Engstrom's Turbo 911.

And

if

you didn't have a Chrome-enabled machine and called up

a Chrome-plated

Web page, so what? Animations could appear as still

images, just like on a conventional

But clear

as the design review

Chrome would have

came to

site.

to a close

overcome

on the second

day,

it

was

timidity in the developer

community. Microsoft and

its

mercenaries had tried to evangelize a roomful

of Web developers, and

mixed

it

was clear Chrome's message had received

reviews. Paul Scholz

afternoon

Chrome

— 3-D

tion bars,

had delivered a presentation

demonstrating real-world

business

earlier that

applications

of

probability distribution graphs, collapsing naviga-

and multiple Web pages mapped

96

to spheres, cubes,

and

THIS

IS

NOT YOUR MOTHER'S BROWSER

own

other shapes. Using his

business as an example, he

admon-

ished his contemporaries that they would achieve a significant competitive

advantage

if

they were

among

the

first to

work with

this

new

technology.

But Scholz was followed

to the

podium by

the boys from Monolith,

whose presentation, while visually interesting, was a bit too laden with ums and ahs and not up

to toastmaster standards. Moreover, the two

Monolith presenters gave in their

Web

impulse to exhaustively promote

to the

and games, a protocol lapse

site

that elicited muffled

groans from those in the back rows. Chris Gibbin, a partner with

Web firm

DNA

Studio, a Los Angeles-based

that builds sites for the likes of Sony

himself put on the spot in the waning

men wrapped up

of Engstrom's in the

sell.

He

reluctantly,

also

for example, still

questioned

wondered

if

session.

One

the meeting by singling out Gibbin

back of the room and asking

somewhat

and Paramount, found

moments of the

his thoughts.

if

the

new

Gibbin candidly,

iiber

the market would embrace

had much more momentum

if

computers would

Chrome. Java,

at the time,

and Gibbin

couldn't convince customers to buy fully enabled Java

sites.

Moreover, half his clientele used Macintosh computers. Not only was

Chrome divisive

elitist

technology built for the high-end demographic,

because

it

it

was

would only run on Intel-based computers running

Windows 98 or Windows NT. Chrome was unproven technology. Although he didn't say so

Chrome could make

publicly,

the personal

Gibbin and others had joked that

Web

site

get a whole lot uglier.

They evoked the scenario of college sophomores mapping their faces and other body

Chrome

parts onto 3-D spheres. Rather than revolutionary,

"could be dangerous," some wryly said.

Gibbin 's company would Sure,

Chrome

the Empire

as a

had

initially

walk the middle of the road.

concept was exciting.

invited his small,

And he

was flattered that

nine-man company

to play with

emerging technology. But he had a monthly $50,000 payroll

He had more doubt

to meet.

than desire. There were no guarantees with

Chrome.

97

RENEGADES The

THE EMPIRE

subtext of his remarks was, "If the market moves to

embrace

it,

we'll

it."

Scholz, as if in

OF

who had

swiveled in his front-row chair to listen,

nodded

agreement, then issued a challenge:

"The Germans have a saying that I think applies here. kein Eisenkreuz,

'which means, 'No

balls,

198

no Iron

Cross.'

'Keine Hoden, "

13

SQUEEZE PLAYS

touring the nation's Capitol squealed

Schoolgirls

when

they

caught sight of computerdom's emperor and his courtiers of handlers and home-state politicians. Bill

On Tuesday, March 3,

1998,

Gates had returned to the same building where he had once

served as a page and took his rightful place in the Senate Judiciary

Committee's hot

seat.

History was in the making. Even Patrick Leahy,

the esteemed senator from

committee,

felt

compelled

Vermont and ranking Democrat on the and an unprece-

to take snapshots of Gates

dented gathering of high tech's most powerful

figures.

Senator Orrin Hatch finally had his prey inside the colonial-brown lair

of political power

Building.

and

— Room

216 of the Hart Senate Office

The room was one of the few

all his

billions

seemed

belatedly doubled

with Gates for

more than an hour

would be

its

lobbying

Hatch had met

the day before to reassure

him

that

dubbed "Market

in the Software Industry," signaled that

the beltway was fitting a noose for the as

efforts.

impartial. Yet the proceeding,

Power and Structural Change

saw the hearing

on earth where Gates

strangely impotent, despite the fact his

company had the hearing

places

Redmond

giant.

Indeed,

many

mortar for a larger antitrust lawsuit under con-

struction at the Justice

Department

rope a Beastie Boy.

199

— a case that would eventually

RENEGADES Hatch soft

said the inquiry was necessary to

was exploiting

its

hegemony

— anathema

would prove

operating-system market

an unchecked monopolist could

more unsavory prospect of

It

determine whether Micro-

PC

in the

and other markets. The senator repeated

to control the Internet failure to corral

mittee

THE EMPIRE

OF

establishing an Internet governing

to the libertarian spirit of the

to

be an exhausting,

futile

Barksdale, the

market abuse

CEO

at the

CEO

com-

Web.

day for Gates,

who found

himself seated before hostile senators and flanked by bitter Scott McNealy, the toothy

that

later lead to the

rivals

of Sun Microsystems, and James

of Netscape and the industry's poster child of

hands of Microsoft.

Gates fended off accusations he lorded over a monopoly and stressed that Microsoft

had done more than

computer revolution and the masses with

part to supply the

its

affordable, innovative soft-

ware. Yet his rhetorical swordsmanship was

no match

for the big guns

of government and the theatrics of Barksdale.

At one point, Barksdale stood with

his

back to the standing-room-

only crowd. "I'd like a this

show of hands," Barksdale

percent of the shipments. this

said.

audience use PCs? Not Macintoshes, now;

How many

"How many people

in

about three

that's only

of you use Intel-based PCs in

audience?"

Nearly

"Of

all

that

raised their hands.

group who use PCs, how many of you use a PC without

Microsoft's operating system?"

Everyone who had been holding

his

hand

Without turning around, Barksdale delivered "Gentlemen,

that's a

his

punch

tion here that there it

is

it.

line:

monopoly."

Hatch needed no such demonstration. "There

and

dropped

aloft

a monopoly,

may be being used

is

enough

and the monopoly

is

indica-

being used

in violation of the law," the senator said

after the proceedings.

Gates never lost his cool before the senators. Never flashed his

famous temper. But he was

clearly

2

weary of the hearing and looked

SQUEEZE PLAYS

forward to boarding his jet

home

— the world's richest man had long

since stopped flying coach aboard

Even

moment

as this

commercial

airliners.

of dread for Gates was ending, another was

beginning for one of his most ambitious soldiers

Engstrom missed the were

literally

televised proceedings. His

mind and body

thousands of miles away, aboard a plane returning to

he had arrived just hours before Gates. Engstrom had

Seattle. In fact,

been

— Eric Engstrom.

sailing off the British Virgin Islands, fittingly vacationing in the

had been buoyed by the

very waters once plied by pirates. Engstrom

upbeat feedback he had heard from the design review in January and by the Developer Relations Group's agreement to bang the pots for his pet project. to leave

it

"When

on I

He had

felt

confident enough in Chrome's progress

autopilot.

left

everything was fine," Engstrom recalls. "Marketing

and development was brought

agement

'We're

said,

Engstrom flew was

alive

and

We had

a plan. All the senior

man-

set.'

Caribbean with assurances Project Chrome

to the

well.

his project lay

in.

"

His optimism was misplaced.

When

he returned,

prone on a gurney.

"They're canceling Chrome," Heddle told Engstrom.

David Cole, the

man who had

helped

tion

and had replaced John Ludwig

dent

— had

Chrome

pilot

Windows 95

— Chrome's guardian

to

comple-

vice presi-

taken the opportunity of Engstrom 's absence to place

in a

holding

cell,

where imprisoned technologies

at Microsoft

Members of the Internet Explorer team and Chrome were lobbying Cole, who reportedly now

typically await execution.

others hostile to

deemed Chrome an "unacceptable launch schedule of IE 5

risk" to

Windows 98

as well as the

—a spurious argument given that IE

5's roll-

out date was a fleeing target somewhere in the future. Cole said he was

pushing back Chrome's release from June to

Chrome would

at least August.

only be available through computer makers,

who

would assure that the technology was loaded on the proper types of machines.

Chrome needed

least sixty-four

the fastest computers, equipped with at

megabytes of random access

2

I

memory (RAM),

the best

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

3-D graphics cards of the time, and the newest advanced graphics

Chrome through computer makers had quality-control decision. By keeping Chrome off store

ports (AGPs). Releasing

become

a

and unavailable

shelves

nated the chance

for

download

someone would load

via the

Web, Microsoft

the technology

elimi-

on a lesser PC,

reducing the likelihood of problems and thus keeping cosdy techsupport

calls to

a

minimum. To

get a technology loaded

and deployed throughout the market

Chrome school

more

in

August meant

sales.

it

on machines

takes about six weeks. Shipping

would miss the threshold

for back-to-

mean Chrome would

Further delays would

miss the

lucrative Christmas season.

"Cole said 'unacceptable

one Chrome member

but I'm telling you

risk,'

The

was

political,"

team had pushed for Chrome's

Rivals inside the Internet Explorer

derailment.

it

says.

Chrome was

IE team was enraged that

slated to pig-

gyback on a modified version of IE 4 and feared that the new tech-

nology would cause computers

to freeze or break. IE's

didn't want their proven product adulterated with nology. Bitter mail flew between the

Chrome and

"They didn't want another team releasing

engineers

unproven

tech-

IE camps.

HTML

technology that

was at the core of the browser," says McCartney, Chrome's Scottish bulwark.

"It

God knows how many

could break

concerned about our timetable for

release.

machines. They were

They

didn't believe

we

could ship on time.

Many

of these were legitimate concerns, but

maybe not expressed

in the

most cooperative fashion."

Some

of the IE team's wrath was

territorial.

"People on [the IE team] whose code we were enhancingjust can't deal with

which

body that's

to

Engstrom

it,"

me

takes

I

said at the time.

find really funny.

something

I

The

"They just can't accept

highest compliment

make and does something

what an engineer should

is if

else with

it.

it,

some-

To me

live for."

Engstrom was a man of contradictions. Here he was shown embracing the the free

utilitarian

philosophy of a Linus Torvalds, inventor of

and open operating system known

the world's

programmers were

as Linux, a system

invited to help

2

2

add and

where

refine. Yet

SQUEEZE PLAYS

Engstrom jealously guarded he believed

ects

to

his

be threats

own technology and

— internal Microsoft

attacked proj-

initiatives

Surround Video, and iHammer, among others, had Engstrom's hit

list

at

one

settled

sion of IE

made

4. It

after returning office, telling

from the Virgin

him

in conjunction with the rollout of Windows

mistake.

The conversation went something

it's

Islands,

that failure to ship

Chrome

bad for Windows 98 and

ver-

Now Engstrom felt angry

was a gesture of compromise.

Engstrom stormed into Cole's

because

a tactical retreat

on shipping Chrome with IE 5 instead of a modified

and betrayed. The Thursday

"It's

WinG,

been on

time.

Before leaving on vacation, Engstrom had

and

all

98 in June was a

like this:

Chrome

useless for

August

in

too late for the Christmas machines," Engstrom argued.

'You're overreacting," Cole said.

"I'm just telling you what

Chrome.

save

All the

my

people

team's telling me.

who

are trying to

It's

kill it

up

to

work

you

for

to

you

now."

Cole scheduled another meeting with Engstrom the following

morning. Engstrom should have stayed in bed. "I

think you should go look for another job now," Cole began.

Engstrom's days at Microsoft's Building 30,

it

appeared, were num-

bered.

Engstrom's office was next to Hostility Suite.

Eisler's,

who had dubbed

taped a doctored photo from that week's Senate hearing. In

was glancing two

his the

On the small window that faced the hallway Eisler had

at

it

Gates

McNealy and Barksdale and muses about having the

CEOs killed, while McNealy and Barksdale

plot to roll Bill for his

billions.

McNealy: "You grab him. Barksdale:

"He keeps

it

I'll

grab the 40 billion ..."

on him??"

Engstrom sought counsel with

Eisler,

who was

himself leaving

Building 30 under entirely different circumstances. While Eng-

strom was momentarily down, Eisler was on the

moving

to Building 9 soon, literally a stone's

He would

throw to Building

Gates's executive office. After earning nearly a

203

rise.

be 8,

dozen patents and

— RENEGADES years of toiling as an Eisler

THE EMPIRE

OF

unsung hero

in Microsoft's

multimedia arena,

was being lofted to general manager of NetShow. Eisler would

be in charge of the server side of the technology, the pitching

ware that

pumped

match

a neat

to

streaming video and audio to PCs via the

who was working on

Engstrom,

what was now called Windows Media

engaged

known he

to

be married

as KT.

As upset

said at the time

to

and was

fallen in love

Kathryn Kaufman, a leggy Malibu blonde

Engstrom was over

as

the client side of

Player.

had more good news. He had

Eisler

soft-

Web

he was elated with

his professional setback,

newfound personal

Eisler's

happiness and professional success.

During the previous reorganization, when Allchin had displaced Silverberg

and consolidated

and Windows

his control over Internet

development, Eisler was handed the opportunity of working with either the operating-system

group or the Internet team. He

chose to follow John Ludwig to work on Microsoft's

home

Web

essentials,

readily

such as

page, E-mail software, and other related tech-

nologies.

had labored with Windows technology

Eisler

in

one way or

another for most of the decade. Extenders, editors, hardware

name it, when it came to Windows, He felt no challenge in standing sentechnology. Now was a time for something

abstraction layers, drivers, you Eisler try

had done just about

over an established

new.

The

Internet, an

emerging and

ous choice for someone position for general

opened

for

Web

Beastie

who

manager

—a

Boy

knew next

to

frontier,

was an obvi-

new ground. When

the

rung below vice president Eisler

jumped

at

it,

nothing about server and stream-

did.

dominant competitor

Apple had been

and

new

technology. Conquering the unknown, however, was what a

NetShow provided new ground lished,

vast

savored seizing

NetShow (now Windows Media).

despite the fact he

ing

all.

to

to take and, better

— Rob

still,

an estab-

Glaser's RealNetworks.

What

multimedia, RealNetworks was to streaming audio

video. RealNetworks

owned almost

audio player market share, and

its

all

the streaming video

technology

204

and

set the standard. Since

SQUEEZE PLAYS

Glaser was an ex-Microsoft executive with licensing agreements with

—

Redmond firm Glaser's player would ship as part of Windows many on Eisler's team wondered how they could effectively com-

the

98

—

pete. Eisler discovered that his

an

inferiority

complex, and he intended to cure

'Yeah, RealNetworks

created angst for

"One of the

my

it.

share," Eisler recalls. "Glaser's his player in

Windows

98.

It

team.

things

I

demon

as this holy

One

owned market

and we were shipping

a very smart man,

Rob

new NetShow team was suffering from

instilled in this

group was that they not

treat

avenger who's so smart we can't compete."

of the things Eisler also didn't want his

compete where the enemy was

strong.

Among

new team

to

do was

other things, Eisler

was training his team's energy on creating NetShow Theater, code-

named into

video-on-demand technology that was

Tiger, a

Windows Media. The company envisioned

later folded

the technology being

deployed in airplanes, airports, homes, or wherever people found themselves cooped up for hours at a stretch.

Despite Eisler's growing banquet of responsibilities, he carved

time for Engstrom

when

his friend's

back was against the

wall.

The

regular mentoring sessions with Ludwig had paid dividends. Like

Engstrom, Eisler had matured and had learned a

counseled his friend to

try to

His advice was the same as said

it's

better

on the

it

St. John,

had been

outside. Evoking

Engstrom found himself alone with

popped

He grabbed it

prowess, he

a frozen pizza

in the microwave. still

since

John boomed, "Freedom!

in Braveheart, St.

Sunday.

he

left

Microsoft.

St.

Mel Gibson's dying cry

Freedom!"

his troubled

thoughts on

from the downstairs fridge and

Despite his computer engineering

for

one of his ever-present packaged frozen

Engstrom was a big-picture guy who eschewed

him how

With the

the fallen Beastie Boy.

struggled occasionally to achieve the right cooking time

and temperature

taught

about corpo-

work things out with Cole.

The next night Engstrom met with John

little

For Engstrom 's sake and for that of his team, Eisler

rate diplomacy.

to

program

his

single-serve pizza

entrees.

details. In fact, Eisler

VCR to stop flashing "12:00." cooked and consumed, Engstrom

205

RENEGADES snatched a cigar from his

THE EMPIRE

OF

wood humidor, poured himself two

fingers

of Macallan single-malt Scotch, and strolled the boat dock of his

Holmes Point house on the shores of Lake Washington. Save

for the

of goose feces, the dock stretching into the steel-blue water was

piles

an ideal peninsula of

solitude.

He

talked bleakly of his future at

Microsoft and that of Chrome. believe

"I

longer

break lying

will

it

when

I

have an identity

apart.

The

go

it

he

as a distinct product,"

XML part will

multimedia part of

tools will

such a way

leave, they'll reorg in

go

Chrome no

said. "They'll

and the under-

to the IE team,

join the foundation team, and the

will

to [Microsoft] Office."

The prospect of Chrome's being ripped

apart was too cruel a

dream

project, a stand-alone

thought for Engstrom. This was

his

hoped

Internet product that he and the Beastie Boys had

would

millions

use.

Alternating between self-pity and resolve

lamented the

loss

to

stay,

Engstrom

of Chrome's "vision," his idea of turning a

Web

browser into a means of communicating with others in real time using a blend of text and 3-D pictures.

"There are two people on the planet who understand the

and those two people are now not working on

on Monday," he

said. "That's

kind of funny.

it,

assuming I'm off

What

it

build something that everyone loves in the executive get in this

argument with your boss about when

decides he doesn't want you working on process

is

zine.

spirits

lightened as he

press leak, which appeared

Mark

Pesce,

one of the

beloved

staff,

to ship

it,

is

it

you

and you

and he

anymore. The birthing

March 18

it

mused about Chrome's

in Feed,

an on-line maga-

fathers of virtual reality

guage or VRML, had written an alarmist claiming

means

so amazingly fragile."

However, Engstrom 's first

it

vision,

article

modeling

lan-

about Chrome,

was a threat to Internet standards, not to mention his

VRML. He argued

that Microsoft

and others

were delivering too many proprietary means

to

in the industry

author for and read

content on the Internet. Chrome, which could only be used on a

206

fast

SQUEEZE PLAYS Intel-based

computer running Windows with an Internet Explorer

browser, was bad because

it

didn't

march

in step with his egalitarian,

homogenous notions of cyberspace. "Just as

Europe has suffered through two thousand years of

language-driven conflicts, we're about to see Balkanization of the Web, as

breaks into the parts that you can read versus the parts

it

Pesce wrote. "Soon enough,

nothing

— no

text,

launch into a

you'll

no images, no sound

Web

can,"

—and not just because you're

when you should be using

using Netscape Communicator

I

and find

site

Internet

Explorer (or vice versa); but rather because your browser simply doesn't

know how

XML tags

it's

to translate the forty or fifty

encountered into anything

Engstrom smiled. He was

it

new and

can render

unintelligible

visibly."

concerned about the press leak

far less

than his squad of marketing people,

who monitored

the

Web and

print world daily for "unauthorized" reports.

"Mark's a hoot," Engstrom said, pulling the adjective deep from his

country-boy roots. "Here's one of those things I'm just not smart

enough the

to figure out.

You read an

article that says that

huge company with too much market share and

Microsoft

that's the

is

reason

they don't innovate.

"Then we come up with Chrome and they say, 'They're innovating! Those Well,

fuckers!'

People always say Microsoft doesn't want to innovate.

we may be bad

at

it,

but the desire to innovate

is

in every fiber

of our existence."

Engstrom was scheduled

to talk

about Chrome before thousands

at the

annual three-day Windows Hardware Engineering Conference

at the

Orange County Convention Center

that

in Orlando, Florida, later

month. Programs had been printed. Schedules were locked

Engstrom 's face and biography even appeared on the

list

in.

of speakers.

Despite the impending implosion of Chrome, the show had to go on. In the end, after weighing the advice of his two friends

inner voice, Engstrom resolved to see Microsoft to either keep "I like this

project

him or

enough

fire

Chrome

and

through, to force

him.

that I'm going to try to stay,"

207

his lone

he

said.

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

"Which disturbs

me

not me. But

got to consider the people who've been killing them-

on

selves "I'll

I've

So

this.

I

because

still

morgue by

wanted

to

if

"We had made

begging and

that's just

I'm looking for another job."

Chrome and Engstrom. He had told that Chrome might be He asked members of his team if they

well be

Friday.

removed and

remain with the

soul-searching, to a

like

pivotal for

team that he might

sent to the

much

go beg.

will

know on Monday

That week proved his

so

it's

project. After long discussions

man and woman

significant progress

Colin McCartney. "We

felt

all

agreed to

on Chrome

we should just see

stay.

at that point," says

through.

it

and

And we

kind

of believed in the project, too."

That was testament

to

Engstrom 's leadership. While Heddle and

others sometimes argued with Engstrom

— indeed,

Heddle and

Engstrom were not on speaking terms for much of 1998 respected him. Engstrom had by people, a

little

a force of

keep morale

aloft,

Chrome when

some 250

he told some of

his

priority.

To

crew they were helping with

they were in fact working on lower-priority missions.

wanted them

to feel they

was the coolest project

says. "It

all

more than 100 of whom were working on Chrome, or

thought they were. Chrome was Engstrom 's top

at least

"I

now amassed

— they

were part of [Chrome]," Engstrom at Microsoft.

I

didn't want

my

people

to feel alienated."

Chrome out of loyalty to the project. Others under Engstrom's command had been with him during the

It

worked. They clung to

chaotic "It

and heady days of DirectX and were willing to stick by him now.

seemed

Phillips,

like

Chrome was

getting canceled daily," recalls Chris

Engstrom's business manager

ing to convince the team that Eric "It

was always

multimedia

like that.

was happy and things were

always have been groups that have

how

gunned

it

seemed. Yet there

for

our technology,"

was in meetings where people have

said,

trol DirectX.'

"I'd say, 'Yeah?

hav-

okay.

There's never been any major support for

at Microsoft, at least that's

Phillips adds. "I

remember

at the time. "I

Does Eric know?' They'd back 2

o 8

off."

T

will

con-

SQUEEZE PLAYS

Engstrom was

as loyal to his

"They were extremely

employees

as

he was

loyal in return," Phillips adds.

Engstrom received words of encouragement Engstrom 's

to his technology.

perspective, things

still

seemed

via E-mail.

But from

bleak.

From: Eric Engstrom

March

Sent: Tuesday,

10,

1998 10:02

AM

To: Paul Scholz Cc: Craig Eisler

Subject: RE: Keep your chin

I

am

up

1pm

going skiing from Friday

night.

on.

will

I

be back Sunday

Have you ever read Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, Paul?

am

If so, I

feeling

very much

Howard Roarke

like

at the

moment.

From: Paul Scholz

March

Sent: Tuesday,

10,

1998 12:48

PM

Engstrom

To: Eric

Cc: Craig Eisler

Subject: RE: Keep your chin

up

Let's get together

on Monday.

Fountainhead

saw part

wanted

.

.

to build

couldn't build

it

.

.

.

.

never did read the

Howard, as

I

a building *his* way, and no other, so his way, he chose to build nothing at

hope you haven't decided stuff

I

of the movie.

to give

up building

recall, if

he

all. I

cool

that would be a mistake.

Paul

As Engstrom girded for an uphill battle with

ments stormed

in

his

from outside the company.

Chrome for possible know why the projcompany had invested

phaseout, raised a loud protest. Intel wanted to

209

boss, reinforce-

Intel representatives,

tipped to the fact Microsoft was deemphasizing

ect was being delayed. Intel explained that the

new

RENEGADES and money

time, personnel,

THE EMPIRE

OF

into the

had written the portions of code

new

technology. In

Chrome

for

that

fact, Intel

handled some of

pond

the TV-like page transitions, such as shattering effects,

ripples,

and waves.

Chrome was to be one of the key selling points for Intel's faster line II and new Pentium III microprocessors. Computer mak-

of Pentium ers

had been sold on the

idea.

Promises had been made. Contracts

had been signed. Derailing Chrome was not Microsoft's

— best

detail

—

it's

Although

interest, Intel argued.

Microsoft alerted Intel clear that

— and Engstrom refuses

Engstrom 's

in Intel's it's

— therefore

unclear

who

at

to discuss the issue in

early partnership with the world's

leading chipmaker triggered an unintended reward. Cole relented

and agreed

to

keep Chrome

Microsoft would

afloat.

the technology would roll out the

first

Engstrom 's team was shooting for a to

still

the public

half of 1999, but in reality

late-July

computer makers. That would be too

but

tell

or early-August release

late for back-to-school sales,

in time for Christmas.

Cole and Engstrom also worked to patch up their shaky relationship.

With the release date of Chrome

could talk about

more

in

common

how

The two discovered

than either had originally thought

ultra-intelligent, type

of going in for the

to get along.

Engstrom and Cole

settled,

kill

A

corporate warriors

who knew

they had

— both were

well the rush

and delivering industry-changing technology.

Cole appreciated Engstrom's passion for making technology.

Engstrom identified with Cole's aggressiveness. Engstrom would later say

Cole was shaping up to be "one of the best bosses

I

ever

had." That sentiment would be short-lived. Yet the

Chrome team was not about

rescue by Intel nor

Concerned

that

its

legal battles with the U.S.

to

its

eleventh-hour

recently healed relationship with

Cole.

Chrome's message had been drowned out amid the

conflict with Cole, the chaos to ship

team decided

to rest after

do a

little

Windows

98,

and the ongoing

government, Engstrom and the Chrome internal evangelizing

and embarked on a

technology tour of Microsoft vice presidents. Engstrom and his team

2

I

SQUEEZE PLAYS

demonstrated Chrome for Nathan Myhrvold, Paul Maritz, Jim Allchin,

and other higher-ups and apart from so

many

reiterated the ideas that set this technology

others in development at the company.

"This was for Chrome's survival," McCartney recalls. "To get upper

Chrome would not be killed." demos pretty damn fast," McCartney says. Myhrvold was the first stop on the VP tour. "This is the kind of stuff we should be doing more of," Myhrvold management on our

side to ensure

The team knocked out "some

said,

pretty cool

according to McCartney. "We don't want to shit on international

standards, but

we want

content. Nothing

The

rest

to

make Windows

wrong with

the best for viewing

Web

that."

of the presentations to other executives went just as well.

Senior managers and others were particularly impressed that

Chrome could download images

three to a thousand times faster

than conventional graphics formats. After a near-death experience,

Chrome was up and on

its

feet again.

Shortly after, Engstrom

and other general managers met with

David Cole to review head-count status and requests. Head count

is

the true barometer of executive opinion. If a veep doesn't like your project,

you won't get more personnel. Engstrom watched

as

Cole

rejected the requests of other general managers.

"You don't need that many," Cole would two

say.

"You can get by with

less."

Then he got

Engstrom 's numbers. Cole noticed Engstrom had

to

cut thirteen software testers from his team

Chrome

developers to rush

"You don't have enough "I

testers,"

know," Engstrom replied.

more

developers.

I

"I

Cole

cut

for

said.

my number

can always find a way to

"You put the thirteen

and swapped them

to completion.

testers

because

I

needed

test it."

back in there.

I'll

go get them

all

for

you."

Engstrom smiled. He knew what the next "You just got

all

my

GM in line was thinking:

people."

Chrome's resurrection showcased the Darwinian nature of

soft-

RENEGADES ware development competitors often

Survival of the fittest it's

is

or kidnap sick or newborn technologies.

systemic to the

doubtful Gates designed

one responsible Gates, after

all,

where opportunistic predators and

at Microsoft, kill

THE EMPIRE

OF

Redmond organism. Although

matrix on a white board, he's the

this

for creating a corporate culture of conflict.

who demanded

It

was

that Microsoft hire only the brightest

and most competitive. Far from creating a Utopian climate where

competed toward common

these bright minds harmonically

all

goals,

hiring hypercompetitive people with high IQs led naturally to the for-

mation of competitive groups that often battled one another fiercely as they did outside foes. Internecine backstabbing did

evaporate in the presence of great intelligence and wealth,

more

became

Engstrom demonstrated Gatesian bloodlust when he

brutal.

iHammer, Tod Nielsen's attempt

lunged

to kill

media

special

effects

with the browser

—a

at

marrying multi-

one of the most

Silverberg was

on

at all levels

to

of

examples being Jim Allchin's con-

visible

solidation of operating systems

threat

potential

Chrome. That kind of ruthlessness could be found Microsoft,

it

as

not

and Internet technologies while Brad

vacation. (Silverberg returned in 1999 as a part-

time consultant.)

weak ideas began with Gates and

So, too, the practice of culling

became

a technique

most Microsoft managers employed. Gates has

always challenged ideas, often with "That's the stupidest thing I've

ever heard," articulate

if

for

no other reason than

to see if the presenter

and debate a proposed technology's

merits.

could

Those who

sputtered got to leave the room, taking their stillborn technologies with them. As in nature, those

Engstrom was gate.

For

if

who could defend

a master at defense

themselves

—were generally allowed

—and

to propa-

your technology could survive inside the cutthroat world

of Microsoft, chances were

it

could survive in the equally cutthroat

high-tech market.

2

I

2

14

"THE OPERATING SYSTEM THE

GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO HAVE"

an army of three

smoke Blue thousand media geeks and technology freaks stormed the dark lifted

confines of Hall

from the platform stage

D

as

inside Orlando's oversize

Orange County

Convention Center. Eager Japanese writers and photographers

clus-

tered near the stage like mantis, oblivious to the green laser-beam

daggers slicing overhead. Van Halen's "Running with the Devil" blared from the digital sound system, a curious prelude to the arrival of the master of ceremonies,

Bill Gates.

This was March 26, the second day of

WinHEC,

the annual

Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, and Gates was deliver that morning's

Desk."

WinHEC

case platform

some of the

was

all

— keynote "Beyond

a

to

Computer on Every

about "advancing the platform," and in

this

meant Intel-compatible PCs running Windows, and

biggest

were on hand

—

names in semiconductor and computer hardware

Intel, Digital

Texas Instruments

—

all

Nearly a half hour

Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard,

the usual suspects.

late,

Gates, clad in a red, short-sleeve shirt

khaki Dockers, strode onstage to a rock

213

star's

and

welcome. Eschewing

— RENEGADES any

talk

THE EMPIRE

OF

about the company's growing legal woes, Gates played to the

computer-hardware makers and chipmakers

consumers and the industry needed

all

in the audience, saying

memory storage and

the

pro-

cessing speed that innovation could deliver. That message resonated

with Engstrom,

who was

waiting in the wings. Chrome, at least

would require the

tially,

PCs money could buy. Gates

fastest

ini-

also

spoke about the problems of delivering affordable, high-speed Internet access, a

ing via the

Web

theme he juxtaposed with the promise of

digital

TV and video

fied by consumers. In short, lifestyle,"

deliver-

broadcasts that could be modi-

he discussed

his vision of the

communicating and become

as

ubiquitous as the telephone.

While Gates told the audience that the world needed bigger, better PCs,

it

was Engstrom and

his sidekick

Although Jim Allchin, Microsoft's powerful

demo

it

Chrome

dur-

was Engstrom and Heddle

who

would take the technology out for a

real spin.

The demo would be tame compared ple

John had schemed up

— those on Engstrom

's

with the type of extravagan-

in the past.

staff in

of Chrome.

vice president in charge

of Windows and Internet development, had mentioned ing his keynote the day before,

Chrome's marketing peo-

charge of enticing software and

Web-site developers to build plug-ins and Chrome-plated

lacked the chutzpah of since

St.

John,

adrift

St.

from the Empire, was dabbling with day trading

the

if

the whole crew had been aboard for

three would

have found themselves confined.

Engstrom was sharing the tives.

event's billing with Microsoft's top execu-

There was no place for the vomitoria, vagina monsters, and

faux-alien spaceships that this arena, dier,

the former DirectX code monkey,

Eisler,

was piloting NetShow. Even show,

sites

John. Moreover, Engstrom was flying solo

on the stock market, while

this

faster,

Bob Heddle who showed

why. This was the largest crowd to date to see a

zas St.

"Web

where the Internet would mature into a mainstream way of

Engstrom had

and the

had served to

rules called for

as

props to boost DirectX. In

behave more

him

to stand

a high-tech, albeit staid, slide show.

2

i

k

like a

on

good corporate

a stage

sol-

and preside over

— WANT YOU TO HAVE"

"THE OPERATING SYSTEM THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T

Like Gates and his minions, Engstrom and Heddle wore identical red, short-sleeve shirts

and khaki Dockers, a symbol of unity

just this side of disingenuous.

on speaking

terms. Heddle,

Chrome team

Engstrom and Heddle were

still

irked that Engstrom

that was

still

barely

had forced the

use DirectAnimation instead of the simpler

to

Direct3D Retain Mode, believed the Beastie Boy was a meddling

micromanager. Despite the

rift,

Engstrom took pains

to

inform the audience that

Heddle and Colin McCartney, who was back workhorses behind

new

this

in

Redmond, were

the

technology. Engstrom rewarded loyalty,

differences with his team leaders notwithstanding.

Heddle handled most of the hour-long general strating

what were by now

to

him

session,

demon-

Chrome

familiar examples of

3-D fish swimming in a Windows screen "aquarium"; a hot-air balloon touring across a sample sites;

Web page; a cube mapped with multiple Web

and a flashCast-made mock news

site

that hurled the viewer

inside a granite sphere.

Engstrom and Heddle exchanged scripted banter: author

Chrome

stripped-down word processor

that's

people actually use Notepad to author their

Engstrom soon took over and "to

said

this

thirty-eight

Web

Chrome's

percent of

pages." initial

goals were

make normal Web browsing faster." This would be done

by using an entirely new species of

That

you can

standard issue with Windows.

found that

"That's right, Eric, because we've

— modest

"So,

using Notepad?" Engstrom inquired, referring to the

new

digital

information for the Web.

of information needed faster computers played

class

well to the partisan crowd,

which was looking

to their counterparts in

the software industry to give consumers reasons to upgrade PCs.

Chrome would ers

target the

and continue

to

upcoming

aim for

faster

line of

350-megahertz comput-

computers

as they rolled

out

through the new millennium. This was possible only because

Chrome

sat

on top of and took

advantage of DirectX, which was being fitted to Windows 98 and

upcoming Windows

NT

operating systems, to be renamed

215

Windows

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

2000. DirectX, the once parasitic technology, was

now endemic

to the

Windows organism. Engstrom used the podium

to share his vision of

where Chrome would change the look and

Web

3-D not only to the

He

cations.

feel

Chrome's

future,

of Windows, bringing

but to Microsoft's long line of software appli-

also seized the opportunity to share his vision of the

"knowledge browser," where people used Chrome-enabled browsers

communicate

in 3-D

Delusional? Not nearly as

much

as Jay

Torborg, Engstrom 's multi-

media nemesis who had proceeded him onstage still

to

images in real time from anywhere in the world.

that day.

Torborg

entertained ideas about resurrecting Talisman, the 3-D chip ven-

ture that

had collapsed months before.

"Talisman wasn't even supposed to be up there," Engstrom said after his presentation, referring to

one of Torborg's

slides.

Although Engstrom and Heddle received loud applause before the crowd broke for lunch, a few were skeptical

of,

even cynical

about, Engstrom 's plan.

"That technology

demo was

embarrassing,"

said

computer-

industry writer Jerry Pournelle, author of Byte magazine's popular

column "Chaos Manor." "Obviously

this

putting 3-D into [Microsoft] Office, which

up

Microsoft was

"But less

think

I

and read

What's

this

to for a

is is

the

first

what

been saying

long time.

rather chilling that Engstrom said

it's

step toward

I've

less often,"

we could read

Pournelle said. "I'm sorry, I'm a writer.

whole business about authoring

in pictures?

I

thought we

wrote."

Chrome to "hiding a nailed fist inside the velvet cool as Chrome might be, Engstrom had said the

Pournelle likened glove," because as

technology would only run on the yet-to-be-released Windows 98 and

Windows 2000 operating "I

think

it's

me wrong on it

creates

die.

You

5.

great they're trying to push things forward, don't get

that,"

more

will

systems equipped with Internet Explorer

fear

Pournelle said before heading off for lunch. "But

and uncertainty and doubt. You must upgrade or

be assimilated."

2

!

6

— GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO HAVE"

"THE OPERATING SYSTEM THE

Which

is

exactly

what the government and Microsoft competitors

feared.

The

new

very day Engstrom talked about his brave

vision of

com-

municating through 3-D images, Senator Hatch and others on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote Gates requesting that Microsoft allow

its

business partners to release contract documents. Netscape

and Sun Microsystems had already

respective contracts.

dealt with providers.

mering

The

told the

committee they would

government snoopers have a look

allow their partners to let

senators wanted to examine

computer makers and Internet

The request was a companion

at the Justice

service

at their

how Microsoft and content

to a larger antitrust case sim-

Department.

Microsoft began taking

fire

from

all

directions.

Throughout the

ensuing seven weeks, speculation mounted as to when

— not

if

Attorney General Janet Reno and her antitrust warriors would launch the broader antitrust attack.

The DOJ was

from computer makers and others

already taking depositions

in the industry.

Ammunition

also

arrived via Microsoft competitors. In late March, Netscape stated in its

annual 10-K report

to the Securities

that Microsoft was using

Web

its

and Exchange Commission

market-share muscle to strong-arm major

content developers to build

sites

only viewable with Internet

Explorer browsers. "Netscape believes that Microsoft

and other inducements

to have

may be

Web

sites

using co-marketing funds

developed exclusively for

may

Internet Explorer or using technology that Internet Explorer," the

company wrote. "Such

only be accessed by

actions

may materially

adversely affect Netscape's business, operating results, or financial condition."

Rumors of war began Wall

Street Journal

wanted

to file a

in earnest the first

quoted unnamed sources

week of April, when the

as saying the

broad lawsuit before May 15

government

— the day Microsoft was

scheduled to ship Windows 98 to computer makers. The paper said the

government believed

illegally

it

had enough evidence

maintained and extended

its

217

to prove Microsoft

monopoly with Windows and

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

had violated the 1995 consent decree by bundling

its

browser with

the operating system.

The

article

damaging tion

was

among

the

internal Microsoft

first

many

of what would be

memos

outlining ways to

kill

quote

to

competi-

and leverage the market share of Windows. The Journal piece segments from a confidential 1996 strategic plan, which

lifted

directed managers to gain exclusive licensing deals for the IE

browser with the nation's

Internet service providers,

five largest

including America Online.

"You should be able to break most of Netscape's licensing deals

and return them the plan stated.

to

our advantage because our browsers are

"We should have

absolutely

free,"

dominant browser share

in the corporate space."

Microsoft said

it

was unfazed by the Department of Justice probe

and would ship Windows 98 on schedule. Nonetheless, Microsoft's latent political lobbying cranked into gear.

Democratic senator Patty Murray, the once-celebrated Seattle

"mom

in tennis shoes," publicly

uments and

denounced the DOJ

trying the case in the media.

victory during the so-called year of the

for leaking doc-

The euphoria of Murray's

woman

in

1992 contrasted

with her anemic senatorial record. She had authored no major pieces

of legislation to date during her term and was largely quiet on con-

temporary controversies and

issues affecting

her

home

state, includ-

ing trade imbalance with other nations and salmon protection. Yet attacks "It is

on Microsoft

stirred

her maternal

ire.

inappropriate for the Department [of Justice] to leak infor-

mation regarding

this investigation

and

to prosecute in the press

of America's most inventive and creative companies," Murray

The Twenty

state attorneys

holes.

general were lining up with the Justice Depart-

ment, sharing and subpoenaing company documents mirrored the successful multifront attack on California, Texas,

said.

come from any number of

leaks could, however, have

one

New York, and

move

that

Massachusetts were technology-rich

states interested in diving into Bill Gates's wallet.

2

in a

the tobacco industry.

i

8

Even

states

on the

"THE OPERATING SYSTEM THE

GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO HAVE"

periphery of the software industry were climbing over the transom. Chris Davey, a spokesman for

Ohio attorney general Betty Mont-

gomery, said in early April, "We don't have plans at

this

time to take

any antitrust action in Ohio against Microsoft."

Ohio did an about-face

in a matter of days.

and consumer

Multistate antitrust

rewards in the form of damages. Moreover, there was

on

risk in piling

for

many

higher

political

little

Microsoft. This combination proved too irresistible

attorneys general,

office.

huge

cases can potentially pay

There

is

many

whom

of

a reason, after

all,

lusted for reelection or

wags refer to the attorneys

general national organization as the National Association of Aspiring

Governors.

The noose was met

tightening.

Hoping

for three hours with DOJ's antitrust chief, Joel Klein,

April 10. Yet any credibility Microsoft

undermined the

to avoid a lawsuit, Microsoft

that very day

company was poised

when

to

had going

on

Friday,

into the meeting was

the Los Angeles Times reported that

launch a "grassroots" letter-writing cam-

paign to influence state antitrust investigations. Microsoft planned to pay freelance writers to pen letters of support,

then plant these "spontaneous" testimonials in major newspapers and magazines. Microsoft's the scheme. As

if

PR

firm

Edelman Public Relations was

spokesman Greg Shaw denied any knowledge about the Astro turf campaign, but reversed himself fact his

name appeared

in confidential

State attorneys general

"When

it

comes

in

to

so-called

when confronted

documents

with the

detailing the plan.

were not amused.

knowledge of computer technology,

I

take

hat off to Mr. Gates," one attorney general was quoted. "But

wants to enter the field of political intrigue, world, Mr. Gates, I'm ready to

As

it

had

on

that weren't embarrassing enough, Microsoft

do

I

say

welcome

to

my he

my

battle."

in the days before the Senate Judiciary

Committee

March, Microsoft dropped contract provisions with some of

company freed more than two dozen

I

9

in

its

part-

officials.

The

national and international

Web

ners before meeting with Joel Klein

2

if

and other DOJ

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

content providers from requirements that they promote and

distrib-

ute the Internet Explorer browser exclusively. But Microsoft was

more ground and

unwilling to give

between the two

the

DOJ

continued after that

sides

was not

first

satisfied. Talks

meeting

Meanwhile, the Software Publishers Association

to

no

avail.

— of which Micro-

—

member fired off a letter to Klein suggesting Redmond company. The association wanted the government to split up Gates's Empire much as it had the old Ma Bell soft

was a proud

"remedies" to

fix

the

phone monopoly, with one company and

its

Microsoft's operating-system group forming

applications division forming another.

wanted the government

ciation also

ing away products as part of the

As

if all

American

Windows operating

opened an

Money

asso-

from

giv-

itself

under

investigation into Microsoft's South

company

subsidiary, pursuing allegations the

dled Microsoft

The

system.

enough, Microsoft even found

that weren't

attack overseas. Brazil

to prohibit Microsoft

unfairly bun-

— a financial management program —with an

application called Microsoft for Small Businesses.

Despite the foreign and domestic skirmishes and speculation that the Justice

of

Department might seek an injunction

Windows

98, Gates told his

the legal noise, that the

on schedule.

It

was

full

employees not

to

to delay the

new operating-system upgrade would

steam ahead. The

launch

be distracted by roll

all

out

Chrome team took the mes-

sage to heart.

"From a developer's point of view, the government probes didn't affect us," recalls Colin

McCartney.

Indeed, despite having an antitrust target painted on their backs, Microsoft and Engstrom continued their aggressive march for market share. In early April, for

CEO

Engstrom phoned Apple and

Steve Jobs. Microsoft

moting a new multimedia streaming Authoring Format

(AAF)

left

to

be

file

format called Advanced

announced

at

the

Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas the April.

a message

and seven other companies were pro-

But Microsoft had received panicked

calls

National

first

week of

from Avid, a

soft-

ware company that had helped develop AAF, requesting the

2 2

GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO HAVE"

"THE OPERATING SYSTEM THE

announcement be Gates's playbook,

intosh computers

delayed.

seems Apple, tearing a page from

It

had threatened if

to cut off Avid's supply of

Avid supported the

AAF initiative.

Mac-

Avid received

high-end Macs from Apple and resold them after installing authoring software

and hardware products. An Apple embargo could

Engstrom called Jobs to join the

to see

what he was up

AAF cause. Jobs asked Phil

to

Schiller,

crip-

AAF announcement,

ple Avid. With just days before the scheduled

and persuade Apple

Apple's vice president

of worldwide product marketing, to deal with Engstrom.

While having lunch with business manager Chris strom got a page from the table

Schiller.

and stepped outside

sion about

how

The

Beastie

Phillips,

Eng-

Boy excused himself from

to return the call. After a brief discus-

the two companies could work together, Schiller says

Engstrom issued another

stark

warning urging Apple

keep

to

its

multimedia playback technology away from Windows. "I

ing.

don't want you to misunderstand," Schiller recalls Engstrom say-

"We're going to compete fiercely on multimedia playback, and

we don't

let

anybody have playback

in

Windows.

We

consider that

part of the operating system, so you're going to have to give

up

multi-

media playback on Windows." But

if

Apple was unwilling, Microsoft could throw more than a

hundred developers software for

Windows

at

improving DirectX multimedia authoring

—software that might not be compatible with

Apple's QuickTime for

Windows and

thus potentially bad for devel-

opers creating content for QuickTime and consumers

who

tried to

use Apple's playback technology.

Engstrom doesn't remember the discussion quite that way. He

says

he reiterated that Microsoft was willing to work jointly with Apple to incorporate elements of QuickTime into an enhanced-version multi-

media playback based on DirectX. If Apple its

hand.

was offended by Engstrom's tone, the company didn't

Its

would be inscribed

true feelings, however,

tip

in the public

record in but a few short months.

Meanwhile, Engstrom swiveled

his attention

2 2

back to Chrome.

It

RENEGADES

was business as usual on April 15

where

Arts,

THE EMPIRE

OF

San Francisco's Palace of Fine

at

Intel officially unveiled

long-awaited 350- and 400-

its

MHz Pentium II processors, the very chips that would enable the first version of

Chrome

to run. Microsoft

ners such as Monolith

and

and flashCast had

Chrome-content

its

for

part-

months been using pro-

totype computers equipped with the superfast chips.

Now

it

was the

world's turn. Microsoft vice president Paul Maritz and Engstrom

appeared

in a video together

for faster PCs. Intel

ingly

demonstrated Chrome

The Chrome demo

shown

at the event

and trumpeted the

and Microsoft marketers, of course,

need

later that

morning.

more oohs and

elicited

oblig-

aahs.

The same could

demo Bill Gates put on for Windows 98 less than a week Comdex computer trade show in Chicago, a machine run-

not be said of a later.

At the

ning Windows 98 collapsed when an unfortunate Microsoft employee

plugged in a scanner. to

complete "I

guess

his

we

A red-faced

Gates

moved

to

another computer

demonstration.

still

have some bugs to work out," he

be why we're not shipping Windows 98

The same day

Gates's

demo

fizzled,

said.

"That must

yet."

former Supreme Court nomi-

nee Robert Bork, former U.S. senator Bob Dole, and an assortment of Microsoft competitors formed an unlikely anti-Gates lobbying alliance called the Project to

Promote Competition and Innovation

in the Digital Age. Bork, a self-described free-marketer, said

he joined

the alliance because he believed Microsoft was violating Section 2 of

the

Sherman

Antitrust Act. As

so

it

happened, he

also was

on

Netscape's legal-team payroll.

"Microsoft has

.

.

.

overwhelming market share, and

conditions on those with

whom

it

imposes

deals that exclude rivals without

any apparent justification on the grounds of in letters to

it

efficiency,"

Bork wrote

newspapers and magazines. "There are many documents

in the public

domain

that

make

clear that Microsoft specifically

intended to crush competition."

Bork complained Microsoft prohibited original equipment manufacturers

— computer makers— from altering the 2 2 2

first

display screen

— "THE OPERATING SYSTEM THE

of

Windows and forbade

any non-Microsoft is

Web

GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO HAVE"

promote

service providers to "advertise or

browser or even mention that such a browser

available."

But the Sherman Act of 1890, and

its

cousin the Clayton Act of

1914, which bans anticompetitive mergers

and the

and some predatory

tac-

such as discriminatory pricing contracts, targeted the railroad

tics

oil

barons of the smokestack age. Regulators historically hunted

dominant company or companies

that conspired to raise prices

the telltale sign of an abusive monopoly. But

puter prices had

advanced.

plummeted or remained

How then

most software and com-

stable even as technology

could regulators apply the nation's nineteenth-

century antitrust laws to the information age? If

Microsoft and antitrust observers were hoping for an answer to

that question at a federal Appeals

disappointed.

The hearing was

to

Court hearing April 21, they were determine Microsoft's request to

permanently remove Professor Lawrence Lessig

Department had

the case the Justice also

filed in

as special

October.

master in

The company

sought to overturn Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's ruling that

Microsoft provide

PC makers a version of Windows 95 without the The Appeals Court, however, failed to

Internet Explorer browser.

reach a decision on the Lessig and browser issues that day and put off ruling until June.

More

fruitless talks

between Microsoft and Assistant U.S. Attorney

General Joel Klein ensued amid more scandalous reports of alleged Microsoft misdeeds.

The DOJ confirmed it was investigating a June Bill Gates and Netscape executives Marc

1995 meeting between

Andreessen and James Barksdale, where Gates allegedly suggested the two companies carve

up

the browser market. Andreessen

and

Barksdale claimed Gates suggested Netscape stop making a browser

and in return Microsoft — which had not yet released —would grant the California company special access to

for Windows,

own browser

certain application

its

programming

interfaces in

other technologies.

Andreessen and Barksdale refused.

223

Windows

to

develop

RENEGADES "It

was

meeting.

like a visit

by

Don

OF

THE EMPIRE

Corleone," Andreessen said about the

expected to find a bloody computer monitor in

"I

my bed

the next day."

Microsoft called the accusation unfounded and would later counter-

punch with damaging documents of its own.

who primuscle that company

Nonetheless, the claim echoed those of Apple executives,

Boy Engstrom of trying

vately accused Beastie

to

out of enhancing QuickTime in the Internet multimedia market.

Those accusations, weapons

Netscape meeting, would become key

like the

Department's escalating war against Microsoft.

in the Justice

At the same time Apple and Netscape were grumbling about

Apple

Microsoft's business practices, former

defending

CEO John

Sculley was

former Northwest nemesis. In interviews prior

his

to

addressing the Washington Software and Digital Media Alliance's

Online Advantage '98 conference, Sculley called the government's case against Microsoft "absurd"

pany would

and predicted the Redmond com-

coming from the man who once accused

prevail. This

Gates of stealing the point-and-click graphical user interface idea

from Apple and who authorized consuming, and Sculley,

that

company's

pricey,

time-

ill-fated "look-and-feel" lawsuit against Microsoft.

who had

a lot riding

on Chrome and, hence, Windows

said any antitrust action by state attorneys general

would be

98,

"political

harassment."

He cial

cited

America Online and

management

Intuit,

maker of the personal

software Quicken, as two companies that had

meled Microsoft when

it

had

"What the government

is

tried to

market doesn't mean

they'll

pum-

compete with them.

do

trying to

Sculley said. "Just because Microsoft

finan-

is

is

completely unjustified,"

brilliant in

one part of the

be able to dominate in another

part.

.

.

.

Microsoft won't always be the winner."

The next

day,

group of about

May

fifty

5,

Gates took the offensive.

He and an

invited

computer-industry executives said at an hour-long

news conference that the government could cripple the national

economy

if it

blocked or delayed rollout of Windows 98. The new

224

"THE OPERATING SYSTEM THE

GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO HAVE"

— the — and the Justice Department waffled

operating-system upgrade tightly integrated browser technology

two would be inseparable

how or if it should force

as to

company

the software

to

modify Windows 98.

Gates argued that integration was the mother of innovation. "In America, innovation

growth for the declared at

is

nation," Gates

the midtown-Manhattan news conference. "Holding up

the release of a major software innovation like like telling

means economic

progress and progress

PC industry, for consumers, and for the

Windows 98 would be

General Motors they can't come out with new cars

or telling Paramount they can't

this fall

come out with any new movies on July

Fourth."

Technology was the tonic fueling 25 percent of economic growth, Gates said, adding that the computer industry employed millions and

was growing faster than any other segment of the economy. Pull the plug on Windows 98, he argued, and the government could "retard" innovation and create profound

unemployment and economic

catas-

trophe across America. Critics,

and Innovation, derided the conference

tition

relations extravaganza"

and an elaborate plug

stark contrast to the trainloads of

Windows

95, Microsoft

pronouncements

The

merely a "public

as

for

Windows

money dumped

had spent next

all

its

new

that innovative, despite

to the contrary.

favorable paradox, from Microsoft's vantage, was that Red-

mond's heretofore low-key rollout of Windows 98 led as to

98. In

into hyping

nothing promoting

to

operating-system upgrade, which was not Gates's

Compe-

including the newly formed Project to Promote

what the DOJ might do and generated news

to speculation

stories

— a free

source of advertising.

Even

fallen Beastie

Boy Alex

St.

John,

who took

a decidedly jaun-

diced view of Gates's "song and dance," fed the hype. "There's nothing like the opportunity afforded by a captive audi-

ence expecting real news about the

Windows site. "I

98," St.

think

it

John wrote

DOJ to use as a forum

in a posting

was also an effort to

set

225

to

promote

on the Boot magazine Web

up the

stock market for a

lit-

RENEGADES high-tech crash

tie

if/

when

lawsuits are

portfolios take a hit because the soft, they'll

be

less

THE EMPIRE

OF

announced.

When

people's

government opened up on Micro-

inclined to be supportive of their representatives

persecuting the empire." St.

John, a hyperactive day trader

fering portfolios.

He had

at the time,

tried to profit

on

knew

Gates's

all

about

suf-

Manhattan per-

formance by hoarding Microsoft stock during a momentary

downturn and

selling

on an upswing. Although

John had

St.

a

love/hate relationship with Microsoft, he had no such equivocations or

had

it

qualms about making money off his former employer. And

not been for an overly conscientious broker, he would have

made a killing that day. From his Kirkland, Washington, home Microsoft's share price

Gates would

padded

say,

would drop

as

into his corner office,

wood

Wall Street fretted about what

news conference.

St.

John watched

become

a wealthier

high

—valued

had ever placed.

when

St.

Gates's

seemingly bottomed.

raced to the keyboard and ordered Charles Schwab

sell

man. As

moments before

as the price

buy 100,000 options of Microsoft

the largest order he

He

where dragon and gargoyle figurines

expected, Microsoft stock dipped in the

would

that

bookcase, and fired up his computer, giddy

with the certainty he was about to

to

John predicted

but that the price would rebound in short order.

stood sentinel in a

He

St.

at

& Company

about $300,000 and

John had bought low and

the market regained

its

senses

and pushed up

Microsoft's stock.

Sure enough, as Gates spoke, Microsoft's price crawled up and

John again pulled the

trigger, this

time instructing Schwab to

sell

St.

for

a tidy profit the shares he just purchased.

As

is

often the case in a yo-yoing market, Microsoft's stock price

John had already

sold ... or so

he thought. As he counted dollar signs, the phone rang.

On the other

started

dropping south again. But

St.

end was a concerned broker from Schwab sell

order.

St.

calling to confirm the large

John was stunned. Precious moments were

share price was dropping and his order was

226

still

lapsing.

in limbo.

The

— "THE OPERATING SYSTEM THE "Just sell,

too

you

idiot! Sell!" St. John

receiver. It

was

below what St. John had paid. Instead of pocketing millions,

dipped

to

he

more than

On

screamed into the

By the time Schwab sold the order, Microsoft stock had

late.

lost

GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO HAVE"

$70,000,

May

Friday,

all

within the narrow span of ten minutes.

15, Microsoft

was ready to ship Windows 98 to

computer makers. The new operating system would be consumers June

25.

But Gates and Klein agreed

available for

huddle for

to

eleventh-hour talks to stem antitrust action against the company. Klein and his

DOJ

major concessions, such 98

at a

make of Windows

colleagues were expecting Microsoft to as selling a browserless version

cheaper price or including Netscape's competing browser

well as IE 4 with the

rospect,

new operating system. Those

as

expectations, in ret-

were astoundingly naive. Microsoft's position was that the

browser had become an integral feature of the operating system. Selling a browserless operating system contradicted the position. Moreover, Microsoft

peting product with So,

it's

company's

would never voluntarily bundle a com-

Windows without

not surprising that the

licensing payments.

talks collapsed

before they really

began. Microsoft shipped Windows 98 to computer makers on

Monday, May

18.

That very day the U.S. Department of Justice and twenty poised for weeks to strike

—

what would become one of the most riveting antitrust century.

The

feds

and the

states

filed lawsuits against Microsoft, setting trials

up

of the

accused Microsoft of illegally tying a

states

— a browser—

its

dominant Windows operating

system to gain control of the Internet.

The governments also charged

separate product

the

company of

illegally

to

colluding with partners and strong-arming

weaker competitors. The cornerstone of these allegations was the infamous June 1995 meeting Gates had had with Netscape the meetings Engstrom

and other Microsoft

Apple regarding QuickTime.

officials

Finally, the federal

and

ments accused Microsoft of maintaining and growing

as well as

had had with state its

govern-

monopoly

by coercing partners and competitors to sign exclusive licensing deals

and prohibiting computer makers from

227

altering the

Windows

RENEGADES start-up screen

THE EMPIRE

OF

— important because a company that controlled what

viewers saw could influence where on-line viewers "traveled" or

made

purchases in cyberspace.

The

and the

feds

states

argued that unless steps were taken

to level

the digital playing field, consumers would ultimately suffer because

Microsoft would gain control of the Internet increasingly did everything

— a place where society

from post pornography

to

buy

cars

and

theater tickets.

Microsoft, the governments were saying, must be stopped

now

before Gates seized a chokehold on the Internet.

Gates called the lawsuits "a step backward for America, consumers,

and

for the personal

economy Yet

all

computer industry

talk

leading our nation's

Windows

Retailers reported

that

98,

shows and the featured attraction

front pages of daily newspapers

Consumers seemed convinced

for the

is

that free publicity kept feeding interest about

which was the topic of business

on the

that

into the twenty-first century."

and business

Win98 was

publications.

a must-have product.

an unexpectedly huge number of advance orders

new operating

system.

"The government has created more demand for Windows 98 than could ever have been generated by a marketing program," declared

Lawrence Mondry, an executive

vice

president of

CompUSA,

America's largest chain of computer stores. Justice

"We

DOJ

Department

told

official

Rob

when asked about

the inadvertent marketing bonanza.

a "huge opportunity" to set sales records because of

the lawsuit hoopla. 'This

have.'

could only shrug.

Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group, predicted

Windows 98 had

as,

officials

you we wouldn't wreck the U.S. economy," quipped one

is

"I

suggested that Microsoft market the product

the operating system the government doesn't want you to

"

228

15

SISYPHUS ON A ROLL

Judge

Thomas

Penfield Jackson wanted to prove he could

the speed of software development. Within a

fusillade, the

would clear

judge

set a trial date for

September

8,

move

at

antitrust

He

1998.

docket that month for the Microsoft case, which he

his

estimated would take but three weeks or

seven-month

week of the

delay.

No

dice, said Jackson,

so.

Microsoft pleaded for a

who was

already

on record

as not trusting the eclectic collection of Microsoft attorneys, includ-

ingjohn Warden, a stout and commanding Southern orator; Michael

handsome

Lacovara, a smooth shark in a

Microsoft's chief in-house counsel

company

to

wear bow

suit;

and William Neukom,

and maybe the only

fellow in the

ties.

This case, Jackson said in effect, would not be a replay of the fated, thirteen-year

government inquisition of IBM. That

ill-

case,

which focused on IBM's alleged monopoly in the mainframe computer market, ended in a stalemate industry

—

led, ironically

when

the personal computer

enough, by Microsoft

— took off in the

late

eighties.

The Microsoft

case underscored the futility of Gates's belated

political palm-greasing.

1997 and 1998

The

$1.3 million Microsoft

— two-thirds of

what the company had given appears, to

no

it

to

Republicans

handed out

in the previous election cycle. All,

avail.

229

in

—was three times it

RENEGADES Gates conceded that the pleasing the beltway as

it

THE EMPIRE

OF

company should have done

had done pleasing Wall

admit, there was a naivete here about spending time talking

"I'll

to the politicians in D.C.

about the PC industry and the benefits

"We think of ourselves

creating," Gates told Fortune magazine.

ing to

good a job

as

Street.

move

very

fast,

some point we got

and

woes, Eric Engstrom was trying to

He and

his

where that was a

little

at

naive,

price."

While Gates was distracted with

ahead.

as hav-

we can just focus on the products;

that

to a level of success

and we're paying the

it's

his

mounting

move

Project

legal

and

Chrome

political

full

steam

DirectX team had released some sort of new or

updated product every Christmas for four years running. They didn't

want

to

break that string of successes. His marketing people had been

Chrome would be

telling the press that

machines by mid-1999. In

fact,

available for high-end

Engstrom and lead developers Bob

Heddle and Colin McCartney were busy jettisoning

ming Chrome's Christmas tive

'98.

hopes of hitting the market by

capability in

One

features, trim-

of the abandoned features was Spice, the primi-

Chrome authoring tool formerly dubbed first version of Chrome would merely

The

Caffeine. offer quick

downloads

of cool 3-D graphics. Succeeding incarnations of the technology

would be able

to offer data visualization for business applications

and

would eventually earn' Engstrom 's promise of a "knowledge browser" that enabled people to

communicate on the Web

via interactive

3-D

objects.

To get to

show

ences.

there, however, to Microsoft

Engstrom needed updated Chrome demos

managers, marketers, and trade show audi-

McCartney and other developers were constantly refining

Chrome's coding

— necessary

to

advance the technology. But the

inevitable effect was that previous

Chrome-plated

demo

pages

wouldn't work with the updated coding. Faced with the contradictory forces of constantly changing code

and

a fixed deadline,

Engstrom agreed that Paul Scholz should relocate Dayton-based flashCast to

Redmond.

230

SISYPHUS ON A ROLL

Now

a six-person operation, flashCast

had become a de

facto

Chrome shop. In fact, the company had produced more prototype Chrome content than any other independent content provider under Engstrom's command. Microsoft had tapped Scholz to produce high-profile demos for the executives, including Gates. efforts

was the Lost

ated for

New

Chrome and

in Space

likes

One

of Porsche and top Microsoft

more impressive

of flashCast's

motion-picture demonstration

site cre-

Line Cinema. Engstrom's marketing team believed motion-picture

Web

sites

made

for a natural pairing.

Microsoft, with the help of flashCast, Chrome-plated sites based studio's

own

own motion

familiar

bill

pictures, in essence trying

on

Hollywood

a

its

of goods.

But the selection of Lost ried a buried

to sell

in Space was particularly intriguing

germ of irony. The movie,

Oldman, and Mimi Rogers, flopped with But the computerized special

effects

and

starring William Hurt,

Gary

box

office.

were eye-popping. Those

effects

critics

and

car-

at the

were created on SGI workstation computers using OpenGL, the 3-D rendering engine fallen Beastie Boy Alex it

competed with DirectX

in the

opening

act.

A

in the

PC game

St.

John had battled because

market. SGI received a plug

commercial voice-over

family's Jupiter Mission to

says that the

Alpha Prime was made possible by the army

and SGI. "SGI," the announcer intones. "Saving the At times Microsoft put flashCast's future in his

band pumped out Chrome-plated Web

Microsoft's accounting

Robinson

department sat on

peril.

future."

While Scholz and

sites at

a dizzying pace,

invoices. Scholz sent plain-

tive E-mails.

From: Paul Scholz Date: Monday,

May

11,

1998 5:18

PM

To: 'Eric Engstrom' Cc: 'Craig Eisler'; '[email protected]'

Subject:

Ammo

Report

We have enough ammunition

to sustain offensive operations

through the end of next week, after which

23

I

I

must turn

my

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

time and attention to the problem of keeping

my

troops fed

and housed without re-supply from your headquarters. Our stocks have dwindled from our pre-Chrome hoard of

$40k to about $6k. After our next invoice to you, the total amount due will stand at well over $100k. I estimate that we will require at least $20k to meet the double threat of midmonth payroll and end-of -quarter/year tax obligations. Paul Scholz

Commander, Microsoft Mercenary Forces North American Theatre of Operations

Once, while Microsoft's accounting machine slowly turned, Engstrom quietly mailed a personal check to Scholz for $25,000. The gesture further

cemented

Engstrom and the Chrome

Scholz's loyalty to

on

cause. Scholz easily decided to trade his windowless office

Dayton's run-down

Wayne Avenue

for three third-story, windowless

offices at Microsoft's Building 30. Scholz

developers and,

more important,

would be closer

to

Chrome

business contacts inside Gates's

kingdom. "We're

Scholz said, referring to the

like the Visigoths,"

barian tribespeople to loot the Western to point us to It

where the gold

didn't take Scholz

and

selves in the Seattle area five

going

young charges long

to establish

them-

inside Fortress Microsoft.

employees were provided orange badges, standard

visiting contract workers.

The badges opened

throughout the Empire and allowed the hallways, very lested

much

like

aboard enemy Borg

bar-

first

"Eric's

Empire.

is."

his

and

Roman

He and

his

issue for all

the card-activated locks

visitors to

away teams on Star

move Trek

freely

can

through

stroll

unmo-

ships.

Within weeks Scholz was speaking

his

mind about performance

problems plaguing Chrome. flashCast was building Chrome

demo

pages for the Windows 98 launch scheduled for June 25, and Scholz

was nervous. By

now Chrome had problems even rendering

Chrome browser was

text.

The

displaying aliased or jagged-edged letters, unac-

232

SISYPHUS ON A ROLL

ceptable even in the most primitive of graphics and word-processing applications.

Chrome

also

had

significant

software that told the hardware

cards

—what

to do.

—

problems with

in this case

drivers, the

hardware accelerator

Hardware accelerators were primarily designed

to

enhance computer games, not to speed the download of Web content. "We're using drivers for something they weren't designed to do," explained Engstrom. Scholz understood the problem, but the stress of building a for Gates, less,

and

for a "major" product launch such as

caused Scholz's blood pressure to

big time," he wrote Engstrom.

"Performance

boil.

could not, in

"I

all

demo

Windows 98 no

truth,

still

sucks

recommend

any commercial customer that they expend funds to build stuff

to

Chrome.

with

"Take what you've got, pare

make

it

it

down

to the bare essentials,

perfect," Scholz added. "Otherwise,

flames amongst commercial designers.

way too much for Chrome

1,

and

You

quality

is

you

risk

going down in

are trying to accomplish suffering as a result."

Scholz wasn't acclimated to the Microsoft ethos, where able to release primitive

and

for

it

He

accept-

it's

less-than-perfect software with the

understanding that performance eration.

and

will usually evolve

by the third gen-

wasn't rewarded for his candor, but he wasn't punished

either.

"Paul has never been through a design-one release before,"

Engstrom would explain. "We won't be perfect

this release,

but you

can do some pretty cool things." Scholz's angst

echoed that found on Microsoft's Chrome beta

newsgroup, where would-be

Chrome Web

designers

initially

fumed

about lack of technical support and the dearth of documentation for the

new

technology. Developers were having a hard time getting

Microsoft to answer questions. "Hellloooo," read one repeated posting.

The unresponsiveness was due

"Is

anybody there?"

in large part to the lack of resources

Microsoft allocated to Chrome.

Despite the success of mainstreaming DirectX into Windows,

233

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

Microsoft decision makers largely paid

Developer Relations Group's pledge

to

multimedia,

lip service to

And

despite Microsoft

Chrome,

that support failed

according to those in Engstrom's camp.

to materialize.

"Multimedia has never been a high priority with Microsoft executives,"

muttered Chris

Phillips likened

king

Engstrom's trusted business manager.

Phillips,

Engstrom

who offended Zeus and was punished

enormous boulder up

a steep

hill

roll

an

roll

back down and Sisyphus

to restart his futile task.

"We launched DirectX and said.

by being forced to

for eternity. Every time the boul-

der reached the top, the rock would

would have

Greek

to Sisyphus, the mythological

it

became

this

huge

success," Phillips

"And now we had Chrome and everyone w as saying how cool

was, but

r

it

good deed

"Like Eric always says, 'No

Chrome was temperamental

shall

Group

mating objects

evangelist criticized

on

his

One

Microsoft Developer

Chrome because

it

was only ani-

DRG

pace of one frame per second.

at the glacier

complained that Chrome was too to turn

"

go unpunished.'

technology, requiring the latest com-

puters configured in just the right way. Relations

it

was terribly hard getting support.

raw.

But the evangelist had

failed

computer's hardware accelerator and didn't allocate

enough memory' User foul-ups

to the browser.

easily

hampered Chrome's performance, which was

a primary reason Engstrom wanted

Chrome deployed

only through

computer makers who could ensure the technology rode on the

right

types of machines.

In addition,

Windows 98

also

needed some modifications

accommodate Chrome and make Engstrom knew. Fortunately, those in the

it

perform more smoothly,

his relationship

had improved with

Windows operating-system group and was much

better

than the one he endured with the Internet Explorer team. In relations with the IE

group

—

to

already strained

fact,

— soured again when

Engstrom persuaded Cole that Chrome should ship with a modified version of Internet Explorer

4,

instead of waiting until the release of

234

SISYPHUS ON A ROLL IE

5.

Plumbing Chrome with IE 4 would position the technology

for

the Christmas '98 retail season.

Performance and internal

political

problems notwithstanding,

Chrome was making headway on other fronts, particularly with thirdChrome product managers Leslie Evans and

party vendor support.

— a former administrative assistant for — lured more than a dozen multimedia and Web-development

Audra Gaines-Mulkern Gates

companies plug-ins

Bill

embrace Chrome. These companies were building

to

and other software

ments of the software

buffet,

Chrome.

tools for

add

Plug-ins, the condi-

special effects or

enhancements

to

programs. MetaCreations Corporation, for instance, a major player in

computer-imaging software, was making Chrome transition such as

effects,

curled

up and

Web

pages that drained away

like

water in a

toilet

or

rolled away like a scroll.

Chrome's architecture allowed other companies

Microsoft product

to set

up shop

to yet

another

more vendors

inside the technology, thereby tying

— an aspect that Gates's technology sorcerer Nathan

Myhrvold and other executives found particularly delicious. Looking for other ways to deploy to again

Chrome and

pressed by Microsoft executives

persuade Apple to agree to a deal in the multimedia playback

market, Engstrom, Phillips, and DirectX veteran Cristiano Pierry

arranged a meeting with Apple's top brass for June

Apple had

15.

insisted that a ranking Microsoft executive also

appearance. Vice President David Cole

initially

make an

agreed to join the

cussion, but pulled out at the last minute. Instead of canceling, said the

dis-

Apple

meeting could take place anyway.

On hand

from Apple were Avadis "Avie" Tevanian Jr., the senior

vice president of software engineering; Phil Schiller, vice president of

worldwide product marketing; and Steve Jobs, the long-term interim

CEO. QuickTime

executives

Tim

Schaaff and Peter Hoddie also were

present.

Jobs kept Engstrom and his entourage ference

room

small talk.

sitting in the executive

for forty-five minutes while Schaaff

The meeting was scheduled

235

con-

and Hoddie made

for only

an hour, and

RENEGADES Engstrom grew frustrated that

THE EMPIRE

OF

his time

shouldn't have been sitting there at

from the

start.

had been eroded. But he

This was a

all.

doomed

mission

Schaaff and Hoddie had already finked to the

Department of Justice.

Weeks

before, they

had

told investigators

Engstrom was

trying to

strong-arm Apple to abandon QuickTime for Windows. Moreover, they suggested that Microsoft had put coding into

Windows

that dis-

abled or sabotaged the Apple multimedia player. Schaaff also

recounted conversations about the antitrust case he had had with Phillips,

who

most

said

at Microsoft believed that technological

changes and realignments

and render the "I

would outpace

litigation

case moot.

was sort of surprised

at the

open expression of this kind of cyn-

and arrogance

icism about the process to get

in the industry

that Microsoft

would be able

away with these things," Schaaff told the government.

Schaaff also said Phillips confided

was

it

common

practice inside

Microsoft to destroy E-mails because "those create a paper

can be used against you in many of these

he had learned early on

Hoddie had

cases,

and

trail

that

that was a lesson

in his time at Microsoft."

also spilled his guts to the

DOJ,

Engstrom

stating that

"was bent on killing QuickTime."

Again,

Microsoft

the

trio

reportedly

didn't

descend

upon

Cupertino on June 15 with just happy thoughts of selling Apple on

Chrome. Apple executives would previous meetings

Apple for

to cease

—was

later

contend that

this

—

like the

another attempt by Microsoft to compel

deploying QuickTime on Windows and to clear the way

NetShow or Windows Media Player,

the streaming audio

and video

technology where Beastie Boys Engstrom and Eisler were at the helm. Recall that unlike Microsoft's

QuickTime ran on Macs

Windows Media

as well as Intel-based

Player, Apple's

computers. So could

media players from market leader RealNetworks. Moreover, the International

QuickTime

file

Standards Organization had recently adopted a

format

and video over the

as the industry

standard for

Internet. Microsoft

236

now had

pumping sound

to fret

about two

SISYPHUS ON A ROLL

when

competitors

it

came

to delivering

audio and video

Time and RealNetworks. So Apple believed Engstrom's another attempt by the Internet

Redmond

to derail

and carpet the Web

— Quickvisit

was

QuickTime development on

wall to wall with proprietary

Microsoft technology.

Although Engstrom sure the

says his mission

was to discuss ways to make

QuickTime and Windows media

Apple again didn't see

it

that way.

They

players were compatible,

say

Engstrom proposed

that

the two companies combine DirectX and QuickTime and that

Microsoft would control multimedia playback for Windows, while

Apple could have the meager Macintosh and editing-tools markets. Apple executives say Engstrom outlined a four-point

and Microsoft would codecs; Apple

"deal":

and collaborate on

cross-license

Apple future

all

would adopt Microsoft's DirectX technology for

Windows; Apple would adopt Microsoft's proprietary streaming technology;

and

finally,

Apple would adopt the new Advanced Authoring

Format that Microsoft and a half dozen other companies were advocating.

Apple thought Microsoft's technology was inferior and was

not about to abandon QuickTime, one of the company's most popular

products.

Engstrom for the

says

he offered

Windows Media

aged Apple DirectX.

He

to

to share source code,

work with Microsoft

offered to have such a

QuickTime logo whenever a video the two companies to set users could

up

a

modify

and acknowledged

Player,

to

make

a

that

file

formats

he encour-

media player based on

Windows Media Player display the file

Web

played.

site

called

Engstrom

Codec

also

wanted

where

Central,

download new codecs from either company.

Yet Apple had already knifed Engstrom in the back. to cut a deal with

It

wasn't about

him. Moreover, Apple's deeply held suspicions

made Engstrom's other

task

—

to sell

Apple on Chrome

—

all

but

impossible.

In late 1997, the Cupertino fast

G3

company had unveiled

its

new

super-

microprocessors, chips designed by Motorola and IBM.

third-generation chips

— thus the name G3 —were nearly twice 237

The

as fast

RENEGADES

money. The chips were

and gave

directly responsible for Apple's

now

lost

more than $2

targeted

run for their

amazing turn-

billion over the

posting profits. Once-despondent Apple

stockholders were watching their fortunes

among them.

The G3

processors.

Intel's fastest chips a

around. The company, which had past two years, was

THE EMPIRE

PowerPC 603e

as their predecessors, the

the publishing industry

OF

rise.

Alex

St.

John was not

Since leaving Microsoft he had hitched a ride on Wall

Street's then-strong bull-market run.

He

spent mornings

lifting

weights in his downstairs gym, day-trading technology stocks while

watching the market's play-by-play on CNBC. As a self-described expert on Apple, one of his investment strategies was to "short" Apple stock

—

essentially

wager that the company's stock price would drop.

Given Apple's dismal performance and eroding market share, a

sound game plan

.

.

until the

.

G3

surfaced.

John

St.

and

lose

still

more.

St.

He would

was

lost tens

thousands of dollars in January after Apple announced '97 fourth-quarter results.

it

its

of

surprise

continue to bet against Apple

John simply underestimated

the

new G3

chip's

market potential.

Engstrom did not want

to

make

the

same mistake. Although

Macintosh operating systems did not house DirectX and could not immediately

utilize

Chrome was

Chrome, Engstrom believed

a

—

if

possible with the

new G3

chips

Mac

version of

Apple adopted

DirectX.

The meeting and

a half.

(a)

to see the

Jobs had played

$150

make

and

Engstrom put on

cofounder that

wanted

with Jobs

million,

his best show, trying to

the world

Web

his lieutenants lasted

about an hour

convince Apple's

needed a "codec detente" and

(b)

it

in 3-D.

ball with

Gates the year before

dropped Apple's "look-and-feel"

— taken Microsoft's agreed

to

Macs and

to

lawsuit,

Internet Explorer the default browser on

all

deploy Microsoft's version of the Java programming language. But

Jobs had seen his company's fortunes change for the better since the previous summer's historic deal. For the

pany was now turning a

profit, fueled

238

first

time in years the com-

by the hot sales of Macs with

SISYPHUS ON A ROLL

G3

new, speedy believed

it

processors. Jobs

competed too

drew the

line with

Chrome. He

with QuickTime.

closely

not interesting," Jobs said of Chrome. "Not interesting."

"It's

Jobs also countered that not only should Microsoft abandon the

AAF

format

file

With

sit

to

happen.

Engstrom and

that,

who

smiling Schaaff, structive

but scrap DirectX in favor of QuickTime.

initiative,

That was never going

because

it

his

said Jobs

was the

first

two comrades

left,

ushered out by a

must have found the meeting con-

CEO

time he had seen his brooding

through an entire presentation.

But Schaaff s smile was Beastie

Boy had struck

as

bogus

preceding meeting. The

as the

out.

By June, Apple had begun advertising

its

upcoming iMac, an

one multimedia-capable, Internet-ready computer

(that's

stands for) that looked nothing like any personal

before

The

built.

all-in-

what the

computer and monitor were housed

art-piece

cream-and-translucent-teal casing shaped kind of like the

Volkswagen Beetles unveiled the two products

earlier that year. In fact,

and complimented

VW

i

computer ever in a

new

Jobs likened

designers for "getting

it

right.-

Despite the iMac's technological shortcomings disk drive, a

DVD

drive,

equipped with an inferior

came

it

lacked a floppy-

CD-ROM

drive

— the iMac, which

later

in different colors, was destined to sell well.

But while Jobs had a cute nasty

—

had underpowered speakers, and came

chrome

VW, Engstrom would have

little teal

a big

Harley.

Engstrom had grown increasingly frustrated by the lack of marketing for Chrome. Microsoft's slinked out of boosting this

longer at

many of

DRG

St.

to

siphon funds to benefit his friends. Moreover,

DRG

John's

Tod Nielsen had moved self to

blame.

own Developer Relations Group had technology, and St. John was no

new

allies in.

In

had scattered

many

ways,

He made no secret that he

for the worse.

As a

result,

after

Engstrom had only him-

thought

DRG had changed

Chase wanted nothing

239

Brad Chase and

to

do with sup-

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

porting any multimedia marketing efforts associated with

this

Beastie Boy.

Unlike

on the

Engstrom

Eisler,

outside.

maintained close contact with

still

The former games

John

evangelist enjoyed spending time

Engstrom 's waterfront home, which was constantly

at

St.

in disrepair.

Engstrom fancied himself a carpenter and was forever remodeling the interior. Exposed wires clung to ceilings; duct tape slapped the floors

mapped

puter parts,

tools,

lined the walls.

and other metal flotsam

From

from tabletops and

spilled

the looks of the place,

on

and com-

the location of a future spiral staircase;

one might have thought

an amphetamine addict, not a Microsoft millionaire,

lived here. St.

John was amused by the way Engstrom would cock

head back,

his

sip

expensive Scotch, and imperially sweep his hand to gesture where the marble staircase his

and

exquisite banisters

would go,

the while

all

voice was echoing off exposed concrete floors and bare

walls.

Conversations invariably turned to his troubles at Microsoft, and

he told

St.

John he was

"Let's see," St. John fat, slow, it's

St.

mused during one

American made

.

.

.

discussion.

You know,

Eric,

John may have been removed from

core he was

still

He

a renegade evangelist.

chrome-plate a few pieces here and there. dip the entire cycle in chrome

stern. Like a crazed Laslo

John advised Engstrom to

St.

"Chrome

Chrome

is

is

big,

a Harley."

Microsoft, but at his

suggested Engstrom

chrome-plate his 1997 Harley-Davidson Springer

ally

more

Chrome.

press about

Alex

casting for a quick recipe to generate

Softail.

John

told

— chrome-plate

But not just

him

to virtu-

from stem

to

counseling Hunter "Gonzo" Thompson,

St.

it

that everything that was rubber or didn't have

be black metal for heat transfer should be chrome-plated. That's not

all else,

all.

The

cycle should be

souped up somehow and, above

should be able to shoot flames

.

.

.

twenty

feet, at least.

This would be no ordinary cycle. This would be the ultimate, potent symbol for Project

embodied

"fast,

flashy,

Chrome

— the testosterone machine that

and functional." Engstrom could

onstage at various events, delighting press and public Yes,

Engstrom agreed. This was a good

240

idea.

alike.

ride

it

— SISYPHUS ON A ROLL

At Engstrom's behest, a Seattle detail shop chrome-plated

virtually

every surface of the bike. Mechanics turbocharged the cycle to 168

horsepower and tanks

on the rear

a butane igniter final

fitted the

machine with two nitrous-oxide booster

The shop

fender.

on the exhaust

so

also it

equipped the machine with

could shoot flames and, for a

elegant touch, wired the cycle's undercarriage with blue

lights to give

it

an ethereal glow

neon

at night.

Engstrom's custom cycle, including purchase price, cost him $50,000.

The

final piece

of the scheme

—

as St.

John envisioned

it

was for Microsoft to sponsor a contest where Engstrom would give

away the cycle

as first prize to the

Chrome-plated

Web

developer

A contest featuring

built the best

the giveaway of a one-of-a-kind Harley would

generate the type of hype sorely lacking at

development. Engstrom claimed to have puter makers signed up to

install

Chrome

in the

decision

and subsequent

of Chrome's

this stage

at least three

Chrome on new PCs

ing one part of the chicken/egg equation.

—

He had hoped

reversal,

to

have

not to mention the technology's

that schedule untenable.

The next

July 15, which Engstrom conceded would be impossible.

gunning for

major com-

partially solv-

hands of computer makers by May, but David Cole's

had made

immaturity,

who

site.

target was

He

was

now

early August.

"August fifteenth

is

the drop-dead

week

[to get

Chrome]

to

OEMs,"

Engstrom declared. Yet while Engstrom was confident computer makers would have

Chrome

in time for the Christmas season, the other part of the

chicken/egg equation was to convince developers to build Chromeplated

Web pages. The easiest solution would have been to simply pay

Web firms to build Chrome pages in hopes the new technology would generate enough

Chrome hoped

critical

mass, but Microsoft was not backing

with the truckload of marketing

for.

opers were building Chrome-plated

One

bit

money Engstrom had

Other than flashCast and a few others, hardly any develsites.

of good news, from Engstrom's perspective, was that

DRG head Brad

Chase removed Bellevue-based Waggener Edstrom

241

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

from marketing Chrome and handed the

responsibility to DirectX

product manager Leslie Evans, who would work in concert with Portland, Oregon-based MacKenzie Kesselring Inc.

Edstrom

Waggener

Microsoft's longtime public-relations firm, credited with

is

helping orchestrate the massive hype for Windows 95 and refining the image of

Bill

Gates. But

ble understanding

Engstrom

Chrome and

said the

company had

trou-

couldn't articulate a compelling

sales story.

"Wag-Ed didn't have a clue about Chrome," Engstrom

said at the

time. "I'm getting used to that."

But Engstrom had a bigger problem. His relationship with collapsed

when

lion for a

Chrome marketing campaign.

the chipmaker refused his request to put Intel,

Chrome's rescue when Cole had put a gun lier that year,

was

now

unwilling to infuse

cash. Intel viewed that as Microsoft's job.

quiet but widening 1995,

when Gates

rift

Moreover, Intel had

chipmaker of abusing

and customers

bumps"

— an

The FTC

for

its

It

its

known

own

its

its

titans

dating back to

as Native Signal Processing

and Java-

antitrust troubles stewing. Earlier in filed a lawsuit

market dominance

allegation

to

accusing the

punish competitors

mirroring one of those against

cited Intel's admission that

it

had erected "speed

chips. Like Microsoft, Intel initially

didn't deny

but maintained

it

it

responded

withheld information from competitors,

never broke the

law.

Engstrom argued that Chrome was it

with marketing

underscored the

competitors by denying them access to technical infor-

mation about aggressively.

to

ear-

— accusations Microsoft strongly denies.

June the Federal Trade Commission had

Microsoft.

issue

head

allegedly pressured Intel to back off on developing

the multimedia project

based software

Chrome

between two high-tech

mil-

which had ridden

to the project's

The

Intel

up $10

in Intel's best interest

gave consumers a real reason to buy

puters. Despite assurances that

it

maintains Intel hadn't delivered on

opment of Chrome-related Web

faster,

because

more expensive com-

was backing Chrome, Engstrom its

promise

to post or

fund devel-

pages.

"They kept talking about how they were going

242

to

and going

to,

but

SISYPHUS ON A ROLL

nothing happened," Engstrom recalled. "They said these things take time.

you don't have time. Show

said, 'Well,

I

PR has produced. You

remarkable

one stinking

can't,

me one

page that your

can you. You can't show

me

page.'

"About the third time going around

I

said forget

it,"

Engstrom

added, shaking his head. "You have to meet some of these people."

Although

and Microsoft would

Intel

tell

the public that they were

working together on Chrome, Engstrom and privately

begun courting

Devices, for

its

Intel's rival

team had

chipmaker, Advanced Micro

K6 microprocessors. The K6 was cheaper and

nologically comparable to Intel's faster grateful for the

his business

chance

Pentium

to split the so-called

II

chip.

tech-

AMD

was

Wintel alliance.

As Chrome's marketing woes festered, Engstrom increasingly turned to

St.

John

for advice

to regain influence with

and support. As a

result, St. John started

Engstrom and with Chrome. Engstrom con-

ceded that he would never have chrome-plated stunt

licity

had

John not suggested

St.

his

Harley for a pub-

it.

The year away from Microsoft had been good for St. John. Despite his setbacks with

and

that

underestimating the performance of Apple stock

one mishap with day-trading Microsoft, he was making

money on

the market.

umn. And

as

it

He

was savoring the notoriety of his Boot

turned out, he was hearing wedding

John had met Jeaneane

St.

col-

bells again.

Falkler, a freckled, fair-skinned,

twenty-four-year-old Seattle University law student, at a ballroom

dance

class earlier that year.

Although he

still

carried extra girth

and

she was as slender as a pipe cleaner, the two shared an abiding adoration for his ego.

"He comes

off as better than other people," she said. "But

it's

On their first date he brought her an edition of Boot magazine,

the

justified."

one featuring him on the

cover.

The magazine was

still

in

its

shrink-

wrap. "I

think he thought

recalled. "I Still,

thought

it

it

would be a topic of conversation," she

was obnoxious."

she was taken with his sense of daring and the two were mak-

243

RENEGADES ing wedding plans for August

THE EMPIRE

OF

— the same month fellow Beastie Boy

Craig Eisler was scheduled to walk

down

the aisle with Kathryn "KT"

Kaufman. "I'm going to beat St.

him

John's competitive

Even

as St.

to the altar," St.

fires

would be attending felt that

Eisler.

Eisler's

said that

summer.

were, evidently, burning again.

John and Engstrom nurtured

became more distant from Engstrom

John

Neither

their friendship, they

St.

John nor Engstrom

wedding, for instance.

St.

John and

one thing coming between them was

Eisler's

involvement with the Landmark Education Corporation's programs.

They didn't understand the seminars or him. Additionally, since

St.

Eisler's invitation to join

John and KT had never

he'd been scratched from the invitation

244

list

liked each other,

long ago.

16

THE WHITE-PAPER TRAIL

Eric

Engstrom needed an author

to write the definitive

"white paper," an industry term for a print or on-line

used to explain a certain technology and why Engstrom's hunt began in his sitting,

the best

man

own

living

it's

Chrome would have

its

official

techniques, July 19-24.

coming-out party

St.

John.

Siggraph

'98,

interactive

again the setting would be the massive

Orange County Convention Center be standing onstage talking

at

on computer graphics and

Once

document important.

room. From where he was

for the job was his best friend, Alex

the international conference

Chrome

in Orlando.

Engstrom wouldn't

to a faceless sea of people

about Chrome.

This time he would be holding court with software developers, the

media, and potential partners face-to-face on the exhibition

More than tools

a

floor.

dozen independent software vendors who had created

and related Chrome technology would be on hand. There

would be demonstrations,

free

CD-ROMs

containing

Chrome

still-

screen shots, and of course, the chrome-plated Harley. St.

John would be paid more than $20,000

for writing the twenty-

page white paper, to be issued to the press and prospective developers

and posted on Microsoft's new Chrome that selecting his close friend

Web

site.

Engstrom

and fellow Beastie Boy

paper had nothing to do with patronage.

245

insisted

to write the white

RENEGADES "He's a

good

writer

he does," Engstrom It

THE EMPIRE

OF

and nobody knows more about Chrome than

said.

had been more than a year since

Microsoft. orbit.

He

He now found

John had blown out of

appreciated the irony. His payment for the white paper

marked the

time Microsoft had cut him a check since he'd

first

crashed and burned trying to insulate

John took

St.

himself reentering the Empire's powerful

the assignment seriously

—

Chrome

after

the year before.

the line. But he also took the opportunity to have a

little

paper included screen shots of sample Chrome-plated

One

documents

den routines are original

The

pages.

file

name,

programs inside

appli-

—which read "by.alexstjohn" backward.

Embedding hidden cations or

fun.

Web

of the icons in one of the screen shots had a curious

nhojtsxela.by

St.

twenty grand was on

all,

is

as old as the software industry.

useful, such as so-called trapdoors,

programmers

to

Some

hid-

which allow

special access into a system. Others, such as

undocumented goodies programmers

"Easter eggs," are

programs only

identifiers or secret

slip inside

be discovered by accident or word of mouth.

Easter eggs usually contain the

on the program and

names of the people who worked

are in effect the software industry's equivalent

of a byline or movie credit.

Some

complex. To open the Easter egg

eggs are simple to crack; most are in

Windows

98, for instance,

you

have to double-click the clock in the bottom right corner of the

Choose the Time Zone Tab. Press CTRL-ALT-SHIFT.

task bar.

While holding down the Key Combo,

click

and drag from Cairo,

Egypt, to Memphis, Tennessee. After dragging, let go of the Key

Combo.

Reclick

to Bellevue,

CTRL-ALT-SHIFT This time drag from Memphis

Washington.

out

All that just to find

who wrote

the

program. St.

John's core message was simpler than cracking an Easter egg:

Chrome would be rience over the "In the time

easy to use

Web

it

and provide a

rich,

almost TV-like expe-

using low-speed Internet hookups.

takes to

consume

this traditional

compilation of text

and images, the same information could have been conveyed

246

in

THE WHITE-PAPER TRAIL

under ninety seconds tent

enhanced with

He had ciated

if it

.

.

.

had been presented

[Chrome],"

St.

in a single

page of con-

John's white paper began.

a flair for hyperbole, a quality not

— particularly marketers who were

in

all at

Microsoft appre-

charge of monitoring

press coverage.

The

public relations firm MacKenzie Kesselring by

piling weekly

"Chrome Coverage Reports" about

now was com-

the nascent tech-

nology and posting them on a cork board near Engstrom's

While these reports provided Engstrom and summaries and

full texts

reports contained a "rating system"

PR people.

on a scale from one

one being "very negative mention of Chrome," prominently covered in

office.

team convenient

of what the press was writing about Chrome,

they also reflected the inherent paranoia of

The

his

[a]

feature story."

marily positive reviews in the press

five

to five:

being "Chrome

Chrome was

receiving pri-

— earning mostly ratings of four

from Mackenzie Kesselring. Yet even praise of Chrome sometimes triggered alarm bells. St.

John was quoted

authoring in the

is

Web

way the

Microsoft in

in a

June Boot

widely adopted,

its

is

ongoing

will

it

article as saying, "If

mean

viewed, as well as a huge advantage for effort to

dominate the

'Net."

MacKenzie Kesselring reacted with predictable "Avery positive

article," the press

technology that

will 'take

vation, while positive in that

article position

wanted

it

antitrust case staring

to read

Chrome

over the 'Net.' This published obser-

Chrome

recognizes

nology, does not represent the real purpose of

With an

anxiety.

coverage report stated in the clip

summary. "Except quotes in the body of the as a

Chrome

a dramatic transformation

it

as a solid tech-

Chrome."

in the face, the last thing Microsoft

was some uncontrollable

ally talking

about the

Empire's "ongoing effort to dominate the 'Net." Indeed, even as

World Wide states

Web

St.

John was

talking about Microsoft's desire for

domination, the Department of Justice and twenty

were building a case to prove exactly

Now

that a court date

had been

set,

247

that.

the government was playing

RENEGADES hardball.

It

THE EMPIRE

OF

petitioned the court to unseal internal documents

Microsoft submitted for the case. Microsoft, of course, objected on the grounds that

wanted

it

vious antitrust case,

Unlike in any pre-

company E-mail would become

the government's arsenal tives

to protect trade secrets.

— E-mail

had seemingly plotted

a key

weapon

in

in

which Gates and other execu-

to kill

competition to preserve and

extend a monopoly. In one correspondence, Senior Vice President Paul Maritz said the

company planned Windows

to

means

as a

to "cut off Netscape's air supply."

The incriminating the

the Internet Explorer browser into

fuse

E-mail chatter that

prompted Microsoft

trial

conducting "a

trial

emerged before and during

lawyers to accuse the

government of

by snippets." Wags in the press would wear but-

tons reading, "Free the Snippets!"

Indeed, at one point the release of documents became almost

June the DOJ possessed what

comical. In

document penned by Jeffrey for Sales

considered a damning

Raikes, Microsoft

and Marketing. In

paradise" being under siege

it

it,

and

group

vice president

Raikes talked about "Windows that "Netscape pollution

must be

eradicated."

But the document was part of a hip-hop

star Coolio's

script in a

"Gangsta Paradise."

It

gag video that parodied was one of the annual

motivational videos Raikes produced for his sales force. It

was a prank, but one humorless

appear on

its

DOJ

official said, "It

does not

face to be a joke."

Microsoft responded to the government's dour disposition by

unleashing

its

most forceful

pretrial counterattack, a three-page essay

written by Bill Gates.

Calling the antitrust case "the government's lawsuit

on behalf of

Netscape," Gates wrote in The Economist magazine: "We are defending the legal right of every

own for

products.

.

.

.

company

government regulators

Others

to decide

which features go into

its

America's antitrust laws do not provide any basis

in the industry

to

attempt to design software products."

took potshots

248

at Microsoft.

THE WHITE-PAPER TRAIL

Larry Ellison, the GQ-esque

of Gates, publicly called for

CEO

all

registered voters to

antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft, claiming the giarist,

"If it

their

file

company was

own

a pla-

not an innovator.

an innovative piece of software comes along, Microsoft copies

and adds

the

enemy

of Oracle and longtime

it

to

Windows," Ellison

said. "Bill calls this innovation. It's

end of innovation."

Fortunately for Microsoft, Ellison wasn't one of the three U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges reviewing district court

Thomas

judge

Penfield Jackson's earlier injunction requiring Microsoft to

offer a browserless version of Windows 95.

On June test

23, just as Microsoft

was about to

roll

out

its

preview or

version of Internet Explorer 5 to developers, the Appeals Court

handed the software giant a major

The court ruled 2-1

victory.

that Microsoft could

bundle a browser with

Windows. Furthermore, the Appeals Court removed Lawrence the special master Judge Jackson ters in the case.

the

The

threejudge panel was "inclined to conclude" that

combined operating system and browser was a "genuine

tion" permitted

Lessig,

had appointed to review technical mat-

under the 1995 consent decree

"The limited competence of courts

at the heart of that case.

to evaluate high-tech

designs and the high cost of error should

integra-

product

make them wary of second-

guessing the claimed benefits of a particular design decision," wrote U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of

Columbia judge

Stephen Williams.

The

ruling shot Microsoft shares to an all-time high of $100.75,

accounting for stock

The panel seemed

splits.

to

be echoing the admonishment of the famous

Judge Learned Hand, who declared long ago that "the successful competitor, having been urged to compete, must not be turned

when he

The

upon

wins."

ruling also fueled

consumer interest in Windows

just two days after the appeals victory. Unlike the

rounding Windows

95, the release of

249

98,

launched

marketing orgy

Windows 98 was

a

sur-

ho-hum

RENEGADES affair.

THE EMPIRE

OF

Analysts estimated Microsoft spent about $10 million, com-

pared with the reported $30 million

to

$100 million for the Windows

95 launch. Yet the release of Windows 98 was considered the biggest software rollout since

Windows

ating system contained also

noted that Win98 crashed

course, was

more

95.

more than less

The company

new

said the

oper-

three thousand upgrades. Others often than

its

predecessor and, of

tightly integrated with the Internet

Explorer

browser.

The

release put a spotlight

coming out of Windows 98

98.

on San Francisco, the main

The theme of

site

for the

the launch was "Route

— another milestone on the computing highway." The Chrome team had been

Chrome was The day

giddy.

be featured in the Windows 98 coming-out party. Chrome marketing wonk Brent Ethington sent mail

to

before,

to the team, congratulating Paul Scholz for the

demo he

pulled

together for Brad Chase. "This

is just

the

first

the marketing team

is

of many

activities

over the coming months that

driving that will result in visibility for Chrome,"

Ethington wrote. True,

Chrome

got

its

shining minute of fame

when Brad Chase

demonstrated Chrome while the world's press cameras were

rolling.

But another internal Microsoft storm was brewing into which

Chrome would be

swept. As so often

is

the case at Microsoft, this

storm began innocuously enough. David Cole, the

guided Windows 95 out the door a few years

month

vacation. Cole

had

prior,

man who had

was taking a three-

verbally jousted with

Judge Thomas

Penfield Jackson at a grueling hearing in January. Cole had faced the

wrath of Intel when he virtually canceled

emerge

as the technology's

he needed the unguarded.

rest.

And

Chrome

in

March, only

second guardian vice president.

But departing meant he would leave

in

He

to

felt

his territory

the Darwinian battlefield inside Microsoft,

opportunists are quick to seize undefended terrain.

250

17

PHONE CALL

St.

Alex turn

John

to ash.

lit

IN

ORLANDO

dozens of fuses and watched more than $1,000

He had

spent lavishly for a Fourth of July party Eric

Engstrom was hosting

at his lakeshore house.

Good

was a large body of water nearby. While others drank

and

ale,

a sober

St.

John went wild,

in a pyrotechnic frenzy.

port to

beam

he had mounted

failed to spin, torching the

wine,

Chinese-made fireworks

igniting

A pinwheel

thing there

spirits,

beam.

St.

to a patio sup-

John raced

to a

hose

douse the flames climbing up Engstrom's house.

Engstrom had a good laugh and offered

St.

John's fiancee,

Jeaneane, a celebratory cigar snatched from his mahogany humidor. St.

John turned

serious, then furious, as

light the stogie. St. John, just at

Engstrom helped Jeaneane

moments before

Engstrom for pushing "poison" on

the mirthmaker, yelled

his bride-to-be.

Then he turned

on Jeaneane, reminding her she had quit smoking just

five

months

before and accused her of polluting her body. Unable to get her to stop, St.

John stomped

to his car

and drove

enjoyed her cigar and after a while took a

A few days

later,

when

the incident

off in a huff.

taxi

Jeaneane

home.

had blown

over,

Engstrom met

with another fiery near-disaster. Gasoline shot into his crotch as he

gunned

his

custom Harley-Davidson along

Seattle's State

Bridge, that floating ribbon of asphalt linking the

25"

Route 520

Emerald

City

and

RENEGADES the

Redmond

traffic

jam

Mothership.

THE EMPIRE

OF

The bridge was

that sweltering July afternoon

constipated with

when

ing the

man

stop.

Rubbernecking

from witnessing a fum-

in gas-soaked jeans, those inching along SR-520 to

first

Springer

to a rare sight. Aside

eyes

lay

were among

on Engstrom 's 1997 turbocharged Harley

— the only Harley on the planet covered from stem

with forty pounds of

usual

a fuel-hose connection

broke on the big hog and forced Engstrom to

commuters were treated

its

chrome

nitrous oxide booster tanks

plating,

to stern

equipped with two, five-pound

on the rear

fender,

and butane exhaust

capable of shooting twenty-foot flames.

The

Seattle-area

shop that had customized the

cycle

had missed

deadlines and rung up cost overruns. As Engstrom dialed his ever-

present mobile phone for roadside assistance, he grew enraged at the

mechanics, All that

21,

who had

in his

mind deceived and now nearly killed him.

anger was in Engstrom 's rearview mirror on Tuesday, July

opening exhibition day

Orlando stage,

at the

Siggraph '98 conference in

— Chrome's actual debut. No longer just a demo up on a

Chrome was now

scrutiny.

Only

floor-show technology ready for public

wasn't called

it

Chrome anymore.

Microsoft was

unable to secure international rights to the trademark, so two weeks before the conference really liked the

to call the Still,

Chrome was renamed

name and even marketers had its new moniker.

Chromeffects. trouble

No one

remembering

technology by

the next day there was a palpable buzz at the Chromeffects

booth, which generated heavy foot "fast, flashy,

root beer

and

bobbed

and

traffic

functional" technology.

A

interest in this

new

keg of Thomas Kemper

in a tub of melting ice. Blue lights swirled

above

the chrome-plated Harley, as a French television crew interviewed

Engstrom

sitting

on the big

beast.

The Harley was now merely a prop, rather than a grand prize. Although Engstrom 's own skeletal marketing staff had loved the contest idea, Microsoft's legal department dubbed the cycle a "God machine"

—you ride

it

and the next stop

kibosh on Engstrom 's plan to give

it

252

is

the afterlife

away. Already

— and put the

burdened with a

PHONE CALL massive antitrust

on was

suit,

IN

the last thing

ORLANDO

company

lawyers wanted to take

the form of a turbocharged chopper.

liability in

But Engstrom resisted the notion that legal whining could stop him.

St.

John had been kicking around the idea of

development company

built

Web-

starting a

around Chrome. Although

this

venture

was just in the white-board stage, Engstrom was thinking ahead to the day when

St.

John's independent company might be able to get away

with sponsoring a "It's

Chrome Harley

contest.

Engstrom

just a piece of art,"

said of the cycle, noting that

it

was far more powerful than a production-model Harley. "I'm going to find a

way

Chrome Web it. I

to give site.

it

away

As cool

company

to the

as the bike

is, I

that builds the best

want someone

else to

have

was

talk-

like that story."

Meanwhile, Engstrom 's business manager, Chris

Phillips,

ing with the press in an interview closet.

"But

Chromeffects another Microsoft attempt to bifurcate the

isn't

Web?" asked one superserious pressman.

and

Bifurcate to describe

balkanize

Redmond's

were buzzwords Microsoft

critics

used

Web. Some viewed

plot to take over the

Chromeffects as part of Microsoft's strategy to introduce proprietary Internet

programming languages and technologies

better or only

that

worked

on Windows, the world's dominate PC platform. This

would force developers

to write

Web

software for Windows, there-

by maintaining and extending Microsoft's hegemony, or so the theory went. Phillips didn't like this particular journalist,

who had

disingenu-

ously prefaced his remarks by stating, "Now, I'm not a Microsoft

basher ..." Moreover, Phillips didn't

like

being confronted with the

accusation that Microsoft was megalomaniacal. "So,

Web

what you are

sucks,

telling

we should

me

is

just because everything else

The attending media handler from MacKenzie at the outburst,

on the

suck, too?" Phillips barked.

but Phillips managed to remain

rest of the interview.

253

Kesselring flinched

civil

throughout the

RENEGADES Phillips line to

THE EMPIRE

OF

emerged from the interrogation booth and made a bee-

Engstrom.

"I'm the master manipulator," he said, beaming at Engstrom,

who

cautioned him to keep his voice down. "There's press here," Engstrom said.

About a dozen independent software partner companies, ing MetaCreations, Katrix, and

John

includ-

Sculley's Live Picture, flanked

the perimeter of Engstrom 's corner lot

on the expansive exhibition

floor.

PR people handed

out testimonials or "case studies" from compa-

nies such as SkyMall, the upscale in-flight catalog retailer,

Chrome-plated

going to make

"It's

and it's

which had

its site.

Web

sites

much more

appealing to shoppers

to viewers," a SkyMall adviser stated. "I'm very excited

doing for us today as well

as

about what

where we see the technology headed."

Stepping aside for a few moments of quiet before his next

Engstrom swept

view,

"Something

like

his

hand around

This

is

how

inter-

temporary kingdom.

fourteen companies are here that changed their

course to endorse our product," he

ters a

his

said. "I

hope

it

Microsoft launches most products.

works."

The Empire

clus-

few partners around the periphery of a Microsoft booth, while

a cadre of smooth-talking marketing reps extol the virtues of the

technology and play some videotaped testimonials. One-on-one interviews are conducted in makeshift pressrooms,

erature

and CD-ROMs are passed

and sheaves of lit-

out.

Yet Engstrom lamented that Microsoft was not throwing

keting

money

at his project.

"Getting developers to use Chromeffects

problem," Engstrom nology.

"We

said, careful to use the

originally

wanted

to bootstrap

have that cash. But Chromeffects cool

more mar-

enough and the download

is

easy

story

is

will start

using

Again, his fallout with Intel hurt.

going to be a hard

new name to

some

enough and

for his tech-

cash.

We

don't

the results are

so smooth, plus there's

bike giveaway. Things like that will help

developers especially

it

is

sell

it.

I

think the

my

game

it."

And without Developer Relations

2 5 4

PHONE CALL

Group's support,

it

IN

ORLANDO

was nearly impossible for Engstrom to swing more

marketing money behind Chrome.

He was forced

from other projects he oversaw. As

it

way

to overshooting his

to carve

turned out, he was well on his

Chrome budget by more than $2

big spending was a throwback the Beastie Boys, aided by

St.

to the

out funds

million. His

cowboy days of DirectX, when

John's easy access to DRG's cash hoard,

burned through resources without authorization. But Microsoft bean counters would take a decidedly ing

dimmer view of Engstrom 's spend-

on Chrome, which unlike DirectX lacked a targeted

install

base

and widespread developer support. As disappointed

as

he was about the lack of marketing cash, he

was pleased with his marketing team's ingenuity. Leslie Evans of Microsoft and Olivia Riley of MacKenzie Kesselring, the two in charge of

novel parting box.

To get

gifts

their

— a pair of chrome

balls set inside a

hands on the jingly chrome

pants had to collect at least six Chromeffects

by

women

banging the pots for Chromeffects, had dreamed up

balls,

coupon

booths of Chromeffects partners and

visiting the

purple velvet

Siggraph

partici-

cards, available sitting

through

their demonstrations. Requiring patronage at partner booths in

exchange for the

gifts

little

trinkets

is

a standard trade-show

tactic.

However,

are usually T-shirts or baseball caps, not chrome-plated balls.

Engstrom appreciated the symbolism. "My only contribution was requesting that the balls not

come

in leather bags,"

he joked.

His grin was infectious. Microsoft product managers were nearly

trembling with relief and excitement.

"Can you believe

been such a

it's

finally out?"

Audra Gaines-Mulkern

said. "It's

roller coaster."

But everyone knew the ride wasn't public display

over. Yes,

Chrome was now on It now

and refinements had improved the technology.

could render quality text in the browser, a feat not feasible just two

weeks before Siggraph.

And Chrome

computer, instead of a 350

MHz

could

machine

meant the technology could be fused generate

more

sales of

to

now run on

a 300

MHz

— important because

it

cheaper PCs, which could

Chrome-enabled computers.

Computer makers such

as Gateway,

255

Compaq, and

Dell were sched-

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

uled to begin installing Chromeffects before the end of August, Microsoft confided. Meanwhile, a Chromeffects software develop-

ment

kit,

would be

which would enable developers available for

download August

to build

Chrome

sites,

1 7.

Despite the looming antitrust case, things were looking up for

Chrome and

the company.

In the days

and weeks before Siggraph, industry

analysts

had

reported Microsoft had narrowed the gap in browser market share.

Netscape had slipped to 52 percent, while Microsoft had jumped to

more than 45

percent.

On the antitrust front, three prominent Republican senators unexpectedly rushed to Microsoft's defense and accused the Justice

Department of feeding confidential information about Microsoft

to

foreign governments. Senators Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Spencer

Abraham of Michigan, and Jon

Kyi of Arizona said the

ing other governments with their

DOJ denied

own

DOJ was

help-

antitrust investigations.

The

the allegation.

Later, the twenty states that

scaled back their attack

had joined

in the antitrust lawsuit

and dropped accusations dealing with the

alleged illegal bundling of the Outlook Express E-mail program with

Windows.

And

the day before Engstrom took the wraps off Chromeffects,

Microsoft announced fourth-quarter sales of $4 billion, with eye-

popping annual revenue

at

more than $14

Microsoft had officially surpassed

on the It

IBM

and no

as the biggest software

debt.

maker

planet.

was

late afternoon.

swirling blue lights

Engstrom and

on the exhibition

their latest technological debut.

potential "I

billion

and

his

own

Phillips stood

floor,

basking in the glory of

Engstrom mused on Chrome's

future with the company.

think there's a decade of stuff to be done with

dicted. "After three years

and then

it

will

before thev take

it

will

become

clear

awav from me."

256

it,"

Engstrom pre-

what needs

be just a matter of time. There it

under the

will

to

be done,

be three revs

PHONE CALL

There was no malice imperial

on

IN

in his voice.

ORLANDO

He

manner he assumed when he

his floor

talked about

was destined to be a marble

Chrome

staircase,

actually existed.

spoke in that same,

how the

spiral staircase.

its

duct tape

But unlike the

Engstrom had guided the project

through Microsoft's potent political minefield and hauled grave at least once during

satisfied

relatively

it

long development

out of the

stage.

The

technology had survived near-mutiny from Engstrom 's developers

and a

frontal assault

had been able

Web

sites

to

from Engstrom 's upper management. His team

persuade more than a dozen companies to develop

and software

for

Chrome,

as well as

Chrome launch

tomers such as SkyMall. Although the

grandeur of

St.

lacked the

John's DirectX spectacles, Engstrom could

He

having the world's only chrome-plated Harley. the day in the near future

hardwired to

win a few major cus-

fast

still

boast

looked forward

to

when Chromeffects, nee Chrome, would be

computers and

in the

The crowd was thinning toward

hands of consumers.

late

afternoon and Engstrom

found himself fielding fewer questions about the big chrome Harley

under the blue spinning lights. He and

had gone and what was on tap press guys ate a

how the day one of the

had asked about Fahrenheit, the Microsoft initiative

converged

interface.

Phillips discussed

for that night. Phillips said

OpenGL and

to cre-

DirectX application programming

Engstrom chuckled and asked

if

anyone had inquired

about Talisman, the dreaded 3-D chip design Jay Torborg had to date failed to produce.

Not long It

No one

after, Phillips

had.

shrugged and

said, "Well,

was more of a prod than a question. Engstrom,

you wanna go?"

satisfied with the

launch and tired of playing trade-show host, agreed

head back

to the palatial

it

was time to

Hyatt Regency Cypress Gardens. Engstrom

was looking forward to romping around Disney World that evening with a lady friend. Phillips was debating whether to attend an Intel party in

downtown Orlando. While making

Engstrom and

Phillips privately

mocked

their

the

way

to the exit,

neon red-and-green

Japanese motorcycles other vendors were using as booth props. The two stepped out of the air-conditioned convention center and into

257

RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

the thick, bright Orlando afternoon. As Phillips

a cigarette,

lit

Engstrom's mobile phone rang. 'You're kidding!" Engstrom said, waiting for a crosswalk light to

turn green. 'You've got to be joking." It

was Mark Murray, Microsoft's top spokesman. The Wall

Street

Journal was poised to run a story about Microsoft allegedly strong-

arming Apple

in

an attempt

Tim Schaaf and

Apple's

up

the multimedia market.

had

told

to carve

Philip Schiller

government

investi-

gators about Engstrom's field trips to the company's Cupertino headquarters.

appear

Now

Apple's version of those encounters was about to

The timing might have

in the world's leading business daily.

been mere coincidence. Then again, given the history between the two companies, Apple more than of evangelism, one could say the debut of Engstrom's

The

story wouldn't

recount

how Apple

The

brief

it

timed

its

leak

— a nice piece

technology.

mention Engstrom by name, but

it

would

executives believed Microsoft was trying to force

also reveal that

QuickTime so

likely

to the Journal to roughly coincide with

new multimedia

company out of

the smaller

would

—

the streaming

media market. The

story

Apple suspected Microsoft of sabotaging

wouldn't work well on Windows.

phone conversation had ended by

the time Engstrom

slipped inside Phillips's rented Buick Skylark.

"We were

trying to be nice guys for a change,"

"What

struggling to finish his thought. it!

God damn

I

love

is

.

.

.

Engstrom is

.

.

.

said,

God damn

it!"

"At least you'll get to talk to

Bill," Phillips

chuckled

he drove

as

onto the freeway.

Engstrom dialed Christiano Apple

visits.

Pierry,

who had been

Engstrom instructed Pierry not

a party to the

to talk with Wall Street

Journal reporter John Wilke. "I

wouldn't send any E-mail on

added. clear

"I

where

person

this for

obvious reasons," Engstrom

think that you should just not respond to him.

[at

this

whole pain

Apple]

who

in the butt

came from. Probably

sent you the E-mail.

go unpunished. Bye."

258

It's

No good deed

pretty

the will

same ever

PHONE CALL

Engstrom speculated antitrust trial "I

wish

said as

I

and said he

relished the thought of sitting in the hot seat.

could give those people a piece of

who

my

mind," Engstrom

balls in his thick

hand.

didn't share his partner's enthusiasm, complained

would run a

that the Wall Street Journal

Microsoft

upcoming

that he'd have to testify in the

he clanked a pair of chrome

Phillips,

ORLANDO

IN

officials give

Engstrom shook

his

it

a once-over.

head

the Hyatt Regency sentry

story without first letting

in disbelief as Phillips

and up the long

moved

the car past

driveway.

"What I find funny, of all the things in a long list of things that actually caused

somebody some pain because

I

won,

I

I've

done

get nailed

for this. For this!"

In Engstrom's mind, his talks with Apple were innocent excursions to discuss ties as

"I

swapping technology, not intimidating market-carving

guess

we

all

delete mail, huh?" Phillips joked.

"We

can't,"

On

Thursday, July 23, the day after Engstrom fielded the

phone

sor-

described by Apple execs.

call,

Engstrom quickly

the Wall

plaint that Microsoft

media market and,

Street Journal

had

ran

its

tried to bully

failing to

do

QuickTime. That same day, Rob

former Microsoft executive,

Committee

said. "That's

that,

story outlining Apple's it

had altered Windows

Glaser, the

testified

cell

com-

out of the steaming multito disable

CEO of RealNetworks and

before the Senate Judiciary

that Microsoft deliberately wrote

disable his company's

destroying evidence."

code into Windows

competing streaming media

to

player.

Engstrom, whose duties included developing Microsoft's Windows

Media

Player,

front lines of

would get

his wish.

one of the century's

He

was

now

hurtling toward the

greatest antitrust battles.

259

18

C0D.COM

ithin

weeks of Chrome's unveiling, the buzz in the trade

press was white-hot.

The idea of

animation to the heretofore

like

enthusiasm of tech writers and

"When

transporting video-gamestatic

Web

fueled the

analysts.

there are 50 million Chromeffects-capable systems deliv-

ered (say a year from now), the technology will be the coolest reason to

upgrade a PC," industry newsletter The Peddie Report opined.

Rob Enderle,

Chrome "I

would

at this,

a Microsoft-friendly analyst with Giga Group, likened

to "a religious experience."

it

call

was

it

revolutionary," Enderle said.

like discovering the

Web

for the

Even MacWeek, the trade journal devoted

"When

first

first

I

looked

time."

to covering

Apple, said,

"After years of playing second fiddle to Apple's cross-platform

QuickTime technology, Microsoft may have latest

raised the stakes with

its

multimedia offering.

"It's

cool software, and

it's

not often

I

say Microsoft has cool soft-

ware," the article went on, quoting David Card, an analyst at

New

York-based Jupiter Communications. "Apple doesn't have anything comparable."

Riding

this

momentum

was Alex

St.

John. The Beastie Boy

had helped dream the idea of Chrome was now prepared

260

to

who

put the

C0D.COM technology to work for him. After knocking the idea around with Eric

Engstrom,

St.

WildTangent

John formed

company, appropriately named

his first

would be a

Inc. Like flashCast, St. John's start-up

Chrome-plating shop that would build advanced, high-end

But

St.

spree.

John couldn't do

He

it

Web sites.

alone and embarked on a frenetic hiring

He

searched across Puget Sound and around the world.

even recruited Cambridge mathematician Jeremy Kenyon, a pro-

grammer and former

colleague

St.

John knew from

his days at

Harlequin Ltd. in England. Within weeks he had assembled a team of almost a dozen highly skilled employees eager to explore the potential of Chromeffects

and make

Lacking a base of operations,

gym

vert his downstairs

Jeaneane,

St.

riches

John

on

Bill Gates's coattails.

called in carpenters to con-

into a residential high-tech headquarters.

John's fiancee,

home, didn't mind

St.

who was now

living at his Kirkland

that her husband-to-be was starting a

new

busi-

ness just a few weeks before the nuptials.

"We're

stress junkies,"

she would

say,

parroting one of his favorite

phrases.

Microsoft program managers and others on Engstrom 's team, however, weren't thrilled with having the nascent technology.

who

St.

John

linking his fortunes to

They remembered him

as the loose

cannon

couldn't get along with colleagues and delighted and profited in

taking public potshots at Microsoft after he was cast out.

Their apprehension deepened when Engstrom arranged for

St.

John, the prodigal evangelist, to set up temporary shop inside four first-floor offices at

"No one "I

trusts

Building 30.

him," several

said.

don't think Eric's thinking wisely about this one," others

lamented.

No one was more

troubled by

St. John's

return to the Empire than

Paul Scholz, the president of flashCast. Not only did choice

first-floor office

John gain space with windows, WildTangent would com-

pete for a dwindling pool of development

Engstrom was not authorized

to

money

St.

— money

that

spend but was spending nonetheless.

26

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

There was no lack of acrimony between Scholz and before he formed WildTangent,

and he join

St.

course,

with

St.

and Scholz would

in charge,

They would make

millions, St.

admired Scholz's development turn

down

Chrome and

John's magnetic talent for marketing.

would be

president.

fact,

John had wanted to absorb flashCast new company. Engstrom and St. John had

talked about leveraging flashCast's expertise with it

In

that Scholz

forces. Actually, St.

in order to fast-track his

pling

St. John.

John had proposed

skills,

St.

cou-

John, of

act as subservient vice

John

said.

said Scholz

who

Engstrom,

would be an

idiot to

this opportunity.

Scholz had pledged his unflinching fealty to Engstrom and struggled with what was

now

the biggest business decision of his

Should he just fold the tent he had labored so hard

moved

company

his entire

Microsoft's

to

Redmond

During the long summer

and cons of handing the tells

me

it's

Seattle's

to the south,

reins of flashCast to

the smartest thing

I

St.

I

built

John.

could do," Scholz

said. "But,

a litmus

Scholz's reluctance

the stomach for what

test. St.

at

what we do and

it."

John had sensed

may not have site

Lake Union.

you know? flashCast may be small and we may have these hokey

mine.

St.

to

he volleyed the pros

Dayton values and everything, but we're the best it's

it

nights, Scholz retreated to the rooftop of

house on the scalloped waters of

With the jeweled skyline twinkling

"Eric

only to relinquish

most famous malcontent?

his floating

fuck,

life.

Had he

to erect?

John requested

and suspected

propose

I

to do."

that "Paul

So he prepared

that Scholz register a half dozen

Web

or domain names through Network Solutions' Internic service.

Internic was the gatekeeper of Web-site fee for companies, organizations,

and

names and charged

individuals to claim two-year,

renewable rights to a certain domain with the com, fixes.

Among

the

names

St.

a $119

net,

and

org suf-

John requested Scholz secure was

god.com. Although Scholz never proselytized, he acknowledged that

he was a nonpracticing Christian and believed that Jesus was the world's savior.

St.

John, an avowed

atheist, said

Scholz's tolerance threshold.

262

he wanted

to

push

C0D.COM "This

is

a

little test," St.

John

said. "If

Paul does what

ask

I

him

to

do, he passes."

Scholz registered

all

the

names but god.com, which he

already been taken. But even

have registered

at least

it,

Theological issues aside, Scholz decided St.

had

hadn't, Scholz said he wouldn't

if it

not for an atheist

not to go into business with

said

He

John.

like St. it

John.

was in

his best interest

was too reckless, Scholz

thought.

"Alex lacks the moral authority to lead troops into battle," Scholz told Engstrom,

who, in turn, bluntly told Scholz he was being an

The rebuke confirmed

for

idiot.

John what he had thought

St.

all

along. "Paul's a religious zealot,

John

and

zealots don't

know how

Thus WildTangent was born and incubated

womb St.

John wasted no time

game code than

quickly

managed

to

getting

site,

up

to

speed on Chrome. Although

he believed Chrome was more

writing

HTML.

Launching the

Web sites damn cool."

produce Chrome-plated

John had

it

promised

invited Boot

to

a "traditional" Las Vegas wedding.

be

magazine

"fast, flashy,

to cover his

for the publication to interview Engstrom.

ing inquiries on to

how to become an

official

perform the wedding ceremony. He

chrome-plated Harley. Unfortunately for ther of those things. essary to

become

some mechanical

a

wedding

would become part of a Chrome promotional

The wedding would be

Like Chrome,

that even

start-up did not interrupt St. John's

plans. In fact, they

like writ-

Whatever, he and his team

Scholz was forced to admit "looked pretty

event.

inside the protective

of Building 30.

he had never built a Web ing

to win," St.

said.

He

and functional."

St.

wedding and arranged

Engstrom had been makpagan also

priest

wanted

history,

— he wanted to bring his

Engstrom did

nei-

didn't have time to complete the steps nec-

bona

fide

pagan

priest,

and the bike

still

had

troubles.

However, Engstrom did attend the August 12 wedding and chatted with Boot magazine about Chrome.

263

RENEGADES Just two weeks in a

later,

THE EMPIRE

OF

the other Beastie Boy, Craig Eisler, married

more conventional ceremony

in

KT

her native Malibu, then jetted

Hawaii for their honeymoon. The couple appeared happy enough.

to

"All

day,"

went REALLY well on our honeymoon and on our wedding

he wrote

some bride

one

in

E-mail.

.

.

KT

is

the most beautiful

and awe-

that ever lived or ever will live!"

As a Microsoft executive, Perhaps

".

had grown more conservative.

Eisler

was KT's influence or his involvement with Landmark

it

Education Forum. Or maybe

Engstrom and

St.

was the time spent away from

it

John. For whatever reason, Eisler was not gambling

with his career as general

manager of NetShow. Yet given the nature

of Microsoft, he could not escape controversy. Before his wedding, the

company had announced

that

NetShow

would be

server software

bundled free with Windows 2000, formerly Windows NT, saying the technology was part of the operating system.

It

was the same strategy

Microsoft had used in integrating the browser with

Windows 95 and

Win98. Because Windows 2000 and succeeding versions of eventually replace

wondered

if it

Windows 95 and 98

it

would

consumer market, many

was just a matter of time before the government moved

against Eisler's

new domain.

however, had learned

Eisler,

in the

how

advance up the corporate

to

rungs by keeping a lower profile. Unlike Engstrom, Eisler had hung

up

his

cowboy

competitors.

spurs. Eisler was not paying visits to

He was

Apple and other

not about to go over budget and spend funds he

was not authorized to blow. Moreover, he made sure to keep tance from

While

St.

St.

his dis-

John, whose entreaties for lunch went unrequited.

John's WildTangent plans proceeded on schedule, the

looming

antitrust case

October

19.

was delayed,

first

until

September

The government had been broadening

its

23,

then to

attack against

Microsoft's business practices. Although the court allowed each side just twelve witnesses, the Justice

expected

would not

to

Department was taking longer than

conduct depositions from

call

its

key players. Microsoft

DOJ

Gates to the stand and neither would the

didn't want to waste

one of its few witnesses with someone

264

—

it

hostile to

C0D.COM cause. However, the

its

government would use hours of Gates's video-

taped deposition testimony.

Moreover, a half dozen media companies, citing the 1913 Publicity

Taking Evidence Act, petitioned the court to cover the depositions

in

of top Microsoft

officials,

including

Bill

Gates.

and

Microsoft, contending the 1913 law was outdated

wanted the depositions pany

on

filed a

one.

this

said.

irrelevant,

behind closed doors. The com-

quick appeal. Even the government sided with Microsoft

The media presence would be

a distraction,

DOJ

officials

But Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson said he was compelled by the

archaic statute to lets

to take place

— the New

Ziff-Davis;

An

open the depositions

to the petitioning

York Times, the Seattle Times;

and two news

services,

appeals court said

computer trade publisher

issue, yet in the

mean-

time allowed depositions to take place in private. Because the

was scheduled to

before the appeals court

start

Microsoft essentially got

its

Seattle

Times broke a story

first

made

trial

a ruling,

wish.

As the government was taking statements from

the meetings Microsoft

out-

Reuters and Bloomberg News.

would review the

it

media

on September 20

its

witnesses, the

that featured details of

had had with Apple. The

article

marked the

time Eric Engstrom and his business manager, Chris Phillips,

were mentioned

as participants in

an alleged scheme

to carve

up

the

streaming multimedia market.

"A series of meetings between the summer of 1997 and April of this year has drawn the attention of government investigators talks as

who see

the

another example of Microsoft crossing the line from cooper-

ation to attempted collusion," the article stated. It

went on

Phillips

neering,

to detail the first

met with Apple's Tim

1997 encounter where Engstrom and Schaaff, director of

and Peter Hoddie, senior QuickTime

allegedly suggested

QuickTime

architect.

engi-

Engstrom

Apple eliminate QuickTime from the Windows

market.

"Are you suggesting that we knife the baby?" asked Hoddie, referring to QuickTime.

265

RENEGADES Phillips

said to have replied, "You'd have to knife the baby."

is

Phillips told

coworkers

"We

all

know how he

Building 30 that he had never said any-

at

thing about knifing a baby.

said

THE EMPIRE

OF

Few believed him.

talks," said

one former Chrome worker. "He

it."

On

September

28, eight days after the article

appeared, Engstrom

was in Washington, D.C., where Department of Justice investigators

had subpoenaed him out to be an all-day riorated

to testify in a closed-door deposition. It

affair.

Engstrom was

and he was scheduled

the physical pain behind

for surgery in mid-October. Yet

him and focused on

turned

back had dete-

in agony. His

he put

He

the battle at hand.

slurped a case of diet Coke as he defended himself and Microsoft. So

animated and aggressive was Engstrom that the stenographer on eral occasions

asked him to slow down.

government pursued was

Windows

that sabotaged

Among

that Microsoft

had written code

competing software,

QuickTime and RealNetworks' media

sev-

the accusations the into

particularly Apple's

players.

Both companies

accused Microsoft of deliberately rigging Windows to disable their players.

Engstrom

said that was laughable.

peting software,

it

programs offered

also

in the top-selling Office suite.

In early October, the to include

Windows not only broke com-

broke Microsoft's own products, including

government revised

its

twelve-man witness

list

Apple executive Avie Tevanian and Sun Microsystems

executive James Gosling. Tevanian would speak about the alleged

strong-arm

tactics

by Engstrom and Phillips, while Gosling would

claim that Microsoft had violated a licensing agreement by "polluting" the Java

programming language

to

make

it

run better on

Windows. Microsoft, impressed with tion, quickly

Engstrom 's performance

responded and inserted him into

its

at the deposi-

twelve-man lineup.

Engstrom replaced Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's director of Windows marketing. Engstrom, the former hick from eastern Washington and

arguably the beastliest of the Beastie Boys, would be

266

among just

C0D.COM twenty-four people to testify in person at arguably the most riveting antitrust case in

modern

with the biggest

names

history.

He would

at Microsoft

share the witness stand

—senior executives Paul Maritz,

James Allchin, Brad Chase, and Cameron Myhrvold. Although he was

name began appearing in USA Wall Street Journal, among countless

not granting interviews, Engstrom's Today, the

New

York Times,

other publications.

mainstream "Looks

and the

He had matriculated from

the trade papers to the

press.

like Eric

got his wish,"

St.

John

famous."

267

giggled. "He's going to be

19

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH

November

The newsstands

issue of

Maximum PC,

in October.

For the

formerly Boot magazine, hit

first

himself featured inside a glossy mag.

time, Eric

The

article

and-answer piece on Chromeffects spanning headline icated

"MS Caches

In," a play

of words on

bank of high-speed memory used

to

Engstrom found was a question-

six

pages under the

cache,

defined as a ded-

improve computer per-

formance.

The

interview

town for

St.

had taken place

in Las

Vegas when Engstrom was in

John's August wedding. The

theme and focused on

article

had

a

gambling

Microsoft's risky gambit to bring a gamelike

3-D experience to the

Web

using low-bandwidth connections.

Microsoft was betting that computer makers would pay a per-unit licensing fee to install

time,

Chrome on

their high-end PCs. At the

company was wagering

the

Chrome-plated

Web

sites for

that developers

same

would build

Chrome-enabled machines not

yet

on

the market.

Engstrom, dressed in a shirt

open

to

stiff

beige leisure suit and a loud polyester

expose a gold chain, was supposed

fessional cardsharp.

But the consensus

30 was that Engstrom looked more of those guys

you wouldn't

who

among

like a

your money.

268

those back at Building

cheesy car salesman or one

breaks fingers for a living

trust with

to look like a pro-

—

essentially

someone

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH

"Chromeffects dollar industry,"

ogy marked the

an attempt

is

to turn

multimedia into a

billion-

he had told the magazine, noting that the technolfirst

time Microsoft had built a product "that pushes

the envelope of high-performance machines."

He

said the

company estimated

that 60 million

computers would

be sold with Chromeffects in 1999. There was reason for his optimism.

As recently

as early

September, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's second-in-

command, had declared

that Chromeffects was "mainstream technol-

ogy for the future." Even strategic

Bill

way for developers

capabilities of Windows

Gates had publicly called

to harness the

and further

aside to focus

a

Microsoft's Internet goals.

That summer Ballmer was promoted

when Gates stepped

Chrome

power of the 3-D graphics

to president of Microsoft

more on

his first love

— technol-

ogy development. With an endorsement from Gates and Ballmer,

who now gripped

Microsoft's major administrative reins, the future

of Chromeffects seemed secure. "I

don't have any fear that Chromeffects won't be a success,"

Engstrom predicted. But that was in August, before the

ill

winds of October started

blowing across Microsoft, the land where "no good deed shall go unpunished."

And

so

it

happened

that

between early September, when Ballmer

talked about Chromeffects as "mainstream technology," to just days

before the antitrust

trial,

an extraordinary convergence of events

doom Engstrom

conspired to

's

glory inside the Empire. While

plans to ride Chromeffects to greater

Engstrom braced for

his ascension to

the witness stand, his career as a Microsoft innovator

was in a

Distractions closed in his

mind was

agony

and renegade

tailspin.

on Engstrom

in early October.

Foremost on

excruciating pain. His spine had deteriorated and the

literally

brought him

to his knees. Colleagues could

hear his

howls of torment from behind his closed second-floor door. As as

he hated the idea of retreating, he decided

ond week of October. His trial started,

to stay

surgery, scheduled the

could not come soon enough.

26

9

home

week the

much

the secantitrust

RENEGADES Then Phillips

THE EMPIRE

OF

there was the pain of preparing for the

was now spending

much

Chris

trial itself.

of his time at Eric's house, review-

ing their version of events and making sure Engstrom would deliver a message consistent with his pretrial deposition as well as testimony

of other Microsoft executives. Engstrom and Phillips figured into the

government's most serious antitrust charge against Microsoft

company intimidated competitors

the

and extend

in

order to

its

— that

maintain

monopoly. The government held up Netscape

a

prime example, alleging that Microsoft, having with

illegally

smaller

about

rival, set

with even copv of

Windows

to kill

sold.

it

The

as

its

failed at colluding

by bundling a browser free

allegations

from Apple were

reinforcements to buttress the case.

Government and

Phillips as

and Apple executives portrayed Engstrom

lawyers

henchmen,

the will of Godfather Gates.

digital-age It

who maintained he was just petitive

and often

Indeed, for

was

all

goons dispatched

trying to

compete

in a ferociously

sioner all

when

reputation as a frontier for risk-taking, where

computer industry can be

it

com-

fickle industry.

all its

pools of venture capital spawn start-ups and explosive offerings, the

to enforce

too inconceivable for Engstrom,

comes

to betting

too well that cooking

initial

as timid as a

public

Miami pen-

on new technology. Engstrom knew 7

up cool software was

relatively easy.

But not

even mightv Microsoft could force-feed technology down the throats of the unwilling. Despite

all

his efforts,

by October Engstrom had been unable to

convince computer makers to PCs, which were

now

install

Chromeffects on their faster

hitting store shelves.

It

wasn't a question of

major computer makers not wanting Chrome. In

and ready

to wire the

budget

own ambition and

the his

to

develop Chrome, and he ran out of money

developers

were eager

chicken/egg conundrum. Engstrom had overspent

machines. But Engstrom was a victim of his industry's

fact they

technology to their high-end, Windows 98

to

build

Chrome-plated

W eb T

sites.

promised computer makers that Chrome-plated

270

to

pay Web-site

Microsoft had

sites

would

exist.

— ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH

When Engstrom

failed to deliver

cycle.

Engstrom 's team discovered

enabled machines,

it

was

developers to spend their

"The plan was to

sources of

money

be

said there will

we

Web sites.

through marketing deals their sites,"

program manager. "But the

lead

content," he added.

these

all

sites.

involved. In the end, there was said

"We went

There was a

some

to

little bit

faith missing

OEMs

of faith

because some

were going to happen didn't happen."

Heddle and others didn't see

Still,

persuade

dried up.

"We had no one making

things that

Chrome-

Chrome-plated

Chrome content on

put

to

Bob Heddle, Chrome's

a negative-

that without

to build

to jump-start the process

encourage people

computer makers

virtually impossible to

own money

explained

and

that promise,

Chrome. This created

didn't see a reason to install

feedback

on

that as terminal. After

all,

Microsoft was able to break the chicken/egg cycle with DirectX, the

precursor technology that had invaded and conquered the PC-

gaming critical

industry. Microsoft gave DirectX away, generating

mass for widespread market adoption.

It

enough

was a formula that

could work again.

'You have to break the cycle and that means giving [Chromeffects] to

OEMs

for free,"

Heddle

said.

"Or

like

what we did with DirectX

convince both the chicken and the egg that the problem was going to

be solved." Alex

St.

John suggested

distribution. St. John

entire

company was

from near and

far

that Microsoft "get creative" with

had urgent reason riding

Chrome

Chrome

OEM

succeed. His

on Chrome. He had hired developers

and brought them together with the promise they

would be making cool technology and If

to see

its

collapsed, so

would

lots

of

money along

his business, or so

Microsoft had never announced what

it

it

the way.

seemed.

was going to charge com-

puter makers for Chrome, but figures kicked around internally were

between $3 and $5 per Chromeffects to one

unit. St.

John advised Engstrom

to give

OEM for free or at a reduced price and then start

playing competing computer makers off each other. This was classic

27

a

evangelism.

RENEGADES

OF

The thinking was

that

THE EMPIRE

OEM

once one

had Chrome

—

technology that could lure consumers to buy or upgrade to more expensive high-end PCs

—other computer makers would want

But Engstrom was not in control of Microsoft's strategy. install

Moreover, as a practical matter,

Chrome

for Christmas '98.

it

was too

OEM

it,

too.

distribution

late for

OEMs

to

The holiday would have come and

gone by the time computer makers received and configured Chromeenabled machines, then shipped them

Although

OEMs

to market.

were interested in the technology, by now they

were hedging their

bets. St.

Advanced Micro Devices

John

told

said executives at

chipmaker

him computer makers believed

Microsoft would eventually bundle Chromeffects for free inside the

operating system. After

all,

Microsoft was giving away

Explorer browser and Windows Media Player. that at

some point Redmond would

It

its

Internet

was logical to assume

just incorporate

Chrome

as a

standard function of Windows as well.

Engstrom wanted Chrome

Windows

Web

to distinguish itself

to

be a premium add-on and a way for

on the Internet by being able

to display

content better than any other type of operating system. Giving

away Chrome was not part of Engstrom 's grand plan. "Chromeffects was not installed on inally insisted

on charging the

OEM machines because

OEMs for it," Engstrom says.

because of lack of content. By the time away,

it

was impossible to push the

I

understood

'free' price

I

"It

had

I

orig-

was not

to give

it

through [Microsoft's]

OEM sales division." As disappointing

as a giveaway was, at least

and many

in the industry believed

Web. But

this

insisting

it

Engstrom,

Chrome would

his team,

revolutionize the

was hardly the time for a revolution. Microsoft was

wasn't trying to wrestle Netscape, Apple, and other com-

petitors off the Internet.

So having a Beastie Boy

Boy accused of strong-arming Apple

— the same Beastie

— thundering

around on a

chrome-plated Harley and pounding his chest about a new breed of Internet technology ran afoul of Microsoft's interim strategy of tak-

ing a lower profile. Indeed, any hopes that Engstrom had of advanc-

272

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH

on the wheels of Chrome were soon crushed under the

ing his career

weight of the Justice Department's antitrust suit and by yet another internal reorganization.

and distracted by preparation

Debilitated by back pain antitrust case,

Engstrom couldn't defend

his territory

for the

when

was

it

most vulnerable. Moreover, David Cole, Engstrom's overlord and the

man who had pion

it

Chrome

almost killed

had been on a three-month

earlier that year,

key guardian vice president had also

By early October

it

only to resuscitate and cham-

left

leave.

Engstrom's

turf unguarded.

was rumored Chrome would be taken from

Cole and Engstrom and handed to Deborah Black, the general manager of Windows presentation technologies and the

whom

St.

John had

woman

with

unsuccessfully sparred the previous year.

Engstrom would be given the untenable option of working for Black,

who knew nothing about Chrome. She

did, however,

know

plenty

about Engstrom. "It's

chaos over here right now," said one

Chrome developer in

the

days before the reorg was officially announced.

Some blamed Cole

for the reorg

and

installing Black over

Engstrom.

David Cole

"It

was

St.

John, however, had a different read. From his perspective, Jim

all

all

the time," said a couple of engineers.

cunning senior

Allchin, the

vice president in charge of

Windows

operating systems and Internet development, targeted multimedia

and Chrome

for himself in the reorg.

"They scavenge your know. They did "This reorg

it

to

and

when

pile

me when

installing

I

you're gone," said

was distracted with

Deb Black was

under Jim Allchin. Cole was not defending a

known

Black

On

is

quality

October

assembled the

now

John.

"I

a consolidation of power his turf

Allchin trusts to keep a

one of Allchin's

Friday,

she was

who

St.

my divorce. and Deb Black

is

hand on the rudder.

lieutenants."

16, three days before the antitrust trial,

Chrome team

to

Black

announce the reorg and declare

in charge of Chromeffects.

273

She

also said

that

Chrome would

RENEGADES be delayed,

THE EMPIRE

OF

her new management team got up

indefinitely, while

speed on the technology. Those

meeting described her

at the

to

as part

den mother, part clipboard bureaucrat. She reportedly told the group that everyone's

job was secure and that Chromeffects was just being

reevaluated to strengthen

wanted

to believe

it,

position in the market. As

its

much

as they

few wanted to follow under her command.

"She was so mousy," said Paul Scholz, the president of flashCast.

was

like

no one could buy her

what you want about

as

someone who could

"It

lead troops. Say

Eric, at least he's a leader."

Engstrom attended the meeting. "I

gave a

little

speech

at the

end asking them

same support they had given me," Engstrom since she It

is

incapable of leading people, but

wasn't a pleasant day inside Building 30.

ble days before Black called her meeting.

had submitted weeks ago

to

to give

says. "It

did

I

St.

He

Deborah the

was a

futile act

try."

John had sensed

trou-

feared that invoices he

Audra Gaines-Mulkern would

face even

longer delays amid the chaos of a reorg. Hoping to speed his invoices, St.

John bought boxes of Godiva chocolates

administrative assistants.

box and on

that fateful Friday

floor to thank

him and

for

dropped by St. John's

ask what was the occasion.

about the invoices. Taylor marched off furiously Mulkern,

who had just returned from

upbraided Gaines-Mulkern for "There was a

catfight," St.

said.

arrests

Black's it

announcement of

St.

on the

John

first

told her

to confront Gaines-

"They started screaming

at least

police arrived.

the stress inside Building 30

offices

letting the invoices lie fallow.

John

No

Once

the key female

a trade show. Taylor reportedly

each other. Linda punched Audra, or

The Redmond

all

Program manager Linda Taylor received her

at

slapped her in the face."

were made, but

clearly

had become unbearable. a reorg triggered a

Chrome

diaspora.

was clear Engstrom would no longer be holding the center,

developers wasted no time fleeing. Colin McCartney, the Scotsman

who had

drafted the

initial

specs for

bulk of the coding grunt work,

left to

Chrome and performed

the

join the DirectX Foundation

team under Jay Torborg. Kip Olsen and Ajay Jindal, two other Chrome developers, shifted to work on the Windows Media Player.

27

A

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH

Bob Heddle, Chrome's

lead program manager,

who had

butted

heads with Engstrom over the previous fourteen months, was unsure

what he would do. "I'm leaving," Heddle said. painfully

and

"I

can't

sit

around here and watch

it

die

slowly."

Engstrom was depressed that Microsoft had again stripped him of

one of his creations and was unwilling ing Saturday he flew to

St.

to

work

"I

was born with an undeveloped that puts

Some joked

me on

tail,"

at the

he would

end of his don't

say. "I

spine.

know

the evolutionary tree."

Engstrom was the missing

that

follow-

Louis for his long-awaited back operation,

which included removing two extra vertebrae

where

The

for Black.

link.

On Monday, October 19, the antitrust case against Microsoft began in U.S. District Court, Room 2 — the same courthouse where Special Prosecutor Ken Starr had grilled former White House intern Monica

Lewinsky just a few stormy weeks lurid travails, the Microsoft case

found. less

More than just one man's

prior.

Unlike President Clinton's

seemed

far

more sober and

than the futures of Microsoft, the Internet, and

accessed and used

its

pro-

reputation was at stake. Nothing

digital treasures

were on the

how

society

line.

In the

crosshairs was Gates's Empire, America's wealthiest corporation.

Not

since the breakup ofJohn D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust in 1911

had the government targeted such a large and formidable that turn-of-the-century case, the

the fate of

one of America's

greatest

companies and forever

vital

then

was about competition over access to

oil

and gas

distribution.

This case was about competition over access to something even valuable Beastie

— information. And whether he liked

Boy

influ-

portion of the nation's economic infrastructure. Back

ence a it

prey. Like

one against Microsoft would decide

Eric

or not, at

more

some point

Engstrom would be a part of it.

When Engstrom showed the long

it

returned the next week from his back surgery, he

scar that stretched

from

his posterior

on up

to his

lower back. "It

looks like he has a two-foot ass crack," remarked one former col-

league.

"He should be a

refrigerator

repairman with a crack

275

like that."

RENEGADES All

THE EMPIRE

OF

mirth aside, Engstrom sought the counsel of group vice presi-

dent Paul Maritz, then the third most powerful told

him he was having

man at Microsoft, and

a miserable time coping with the collapse of

Chromeffects. Maritz said he could arrange for the Beastie Boy to stay

on more favorable

with Chromeffects

interested in working

terms. But

Engstrom wasn't

on a fragmented, amorphous version of his cre-

ation with a crew of unseasoned developers, nor was he at to

inclined

all

work with Deborah Black. Maritz then suggested Engstrom check

with John Ludwig, Engstrom 's former mentor,

who was

in charge of

Microsoft Network, the company's troubled Internet service provider.

MSN was plagued with problems. It was slow and complicated compared to other Internet service providers, and

Engstrom agreed

tling for customers.

place as any to restart.

He

could

still

vested stock options continued to "I

need a job," he

even clean your

told Ludwig.

office.

But

I

this

draw a

make him "I'll

as a result

it

was bat-

was probably as good a

and watch

salary

as his

wealthier.

do anything.

only have one request

I'll

—

be a

I

tester. I'll

don't want to

be second-guessed." "In that case,"

Ludwig

said, "I

don't want you cleaning

However, he noted that he had "a real access

and

told

crisis"

Engstrom he could help

fix

with

my

office."

MSN's Internet

the glitches to

make

it

easier for customers to use.

After

more than

his office

to

nearby MSN.

toward Microsoft.

He knew

ing warrior. While

some speculated

mode"

up

three years at Building 30, Engstrom packed

and moved

MSN

He harbored no

the rules of that

lasting

engagement and was

he would lapse into

and sulk the way he once did

ill

will

a will-

"rest

and

at the

company's

Advanced Consumer Technology group, others thought

differendy.

vest

at

Programmers soon began submitting requests

to

become

part of

Engstrom 's new team. By November Chromeffects

12, Microsoft

Web

had

quietly dismantled

page and replaced

it

its

elaborate

with a vague outline describ-

ing the technology. "Chromeffects interactive media technology

276

is

an

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH

add-on feature coming soon system," the

The next

memo

to

document

day, Friday the thirteenth,

Chrome

being delayed

partners informing

— not

technology, but personality.

to the Microsoft

it

Windows 98 operating

read.

killed.

Audra Gaines-Mulkern sent a

them

that Chromeffects was

Chromeffects would

wouldn't have

its

still

be revolutionary

own brand name,

its

own

distinct

Gaines-Mulkern said the technology would be threaded

piecemeal into succeeding versions of the browser and operating tems. Like an organ donor, Chromeffects' vital

sys-

components would be

ripped out and stitched into the monster that "FrankenWindows"

had become.

"We are stepping back and gies to better

refactoring the Chromeffects technolo-

meet customer and your development needs," Gaines-

Mulkern wrote. "Instead of releasing Chromeffects will

The memo needed ter

this

Christmas,

we

instead release Chromeffects technologies in multiple phases." stated that

among

closer adherence to

other things Chromeffects 1.0

proposed Web-language standards,

bet-

authoring tool support, and "improved quality and performance

of 3-D hardware device drivers."

The

fifty-six

the guts of released,

markup language or XML

Chrome would not

meaning even

would have

work

extensible

if any

to use a thick

ship until after

formed

tags that

Windows 2000 was

developers wanted to use Chrome, they

chunk of Java programming

to

make

it

— almost ensuring few would adopt the new technology.

Although the

XML

tags

were the most open and easy

developers, many, including

to use for

members of standards committees,

applauded Microsoft's decision and agreed the steps would make a better product.

But St. John, who was now a Chrome Web-site developer, said all

a

smoke noting

that, for a virgin

product,

bad. "But the rest of this stuff

enemy

was

screen.

"The one good excuse for delaying Chrome said,

it

is

its

is

that

it is

slow,"

performance wasn't

all

he

that

just rationalization for disbanding

leaders."

277

RENEGADES

Gaines-Mulkern concluded by

change

THE EMPIRE

OF

"We understand

stating,

that this

Chromeffects represents a nontrivial

in the release plans for

change for you, our Chromeffects partners." Indeed, companies from as far away as Tel Aviv were burned by the

sudden flameout of Chromeffects. Even

Intel

was caught unaware,

unhappy marriage.

further straining the already

"Chromeffects was supposed to be released at the end of this year,

and Microsoft hadn't bothered Information Group analyst

About dollars

a

ahead of time,"

to tell Intel

Rob

dozen companies had spent untold tens of thousands of

working on Chrome-related technology in hopes of seeing

some return from Christmas 1998. But not

Chrome

all

software industry

the terrain.

And

flashCast, the office to

is

sales.

That wasn't going

to

happen

in

partners were necessarily devastated.

The

come

with

unpredictable, at best. Product delays

smart companies have contingency plans. little

Web

Redmond, had

firm that had relocated

its

Dayton, Ohio,

started developing so-called Internet portal

sites for

the palm-sized computers that were

becoming

late '98.

A portal,

a

own

said Giga

Enderle.

like a virtual

launchpad,

is

Web

site

all

the rage by

containing

its

news, entertainment, software downloads, and other content as

well as links to other

sites.

They were good

starting points for explor-

ing the Web, and Scholz and his band were working on ways to fuse the

Web and

palm-sized computers. Ironically, the implosion of the

Chrome team helped flashCast. ness manager,

left to

become

Chris Phillips, Engstrom's former busi-

a business

manager for Windows CE, the

system software used in handhelds and palm-sized digital organizers.

"That can only be good for me," Scholz said in November. Microsoft would later pay Scholz

Windows Media

more than

Windows CE and

Player to

$1 million to port the

all

non-Windows operat-

ing systems.

Vancouver, B.C. -based Vertigo Technology Inc. was another survivor.

company spokeswoman Barb have seen this technology come to

"Sure we're disappointed," said Willans.

market

"We would have [in 1998].

liked to

But has

it

stopped us in our tracks? No."

278

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH

Hunt Interactive

Inc.,

based near the epicenter of Chrome's devel-

opment, suffered similar disappointment.

"We were going

to

be in the Microsoft booth

Vegas]," said John Hunt, hotel rooms,

posed

we were ready we

to leave,

Hunt had uncertain

if

company

get that

president.

Then

to go.

[in

Las

tickets,

the day before we're sup-

memo."

built tools specifically targeting

the new,

Comdex

at

"We had plane

Chromeffects and was

dismembered incarnation of the technology

would be compatible with what

and thousands of dollars "Nothing ships until

it

building.

Still,

he

ships,"

company had spent thousands

his

he remained philosophical. shrugging.

said,

And what about St. John, who had recruited developers from as far away

as

England and whose WildTangent rode on the promise of

Chrome? WildTangent's mission was sites It

—

sites that

Chrome-plated

to create

Web

fewer than a dozen other companies could produce.

was supposed to be one of the

first

companies

to use

"mainstream

technology for the future." St.

John sensed Chromeffects would survive

Consumers expected

to.

computers

their

animation, and even movie

clips.

from the Internet, which was merely a

ers?

Multimedia on the

sion,

It

had

they expect anything

vast

network of computtelevi-

he believed.

"Despite

companies

its faults,

Microsoft

ill

is

will

are stirring

in the U.S. or the world, for that matter,"

up only helps

"The future

will

else's flag in

ters for

be

drive that

fine.

is

delay

it

shit

and

home

to

lies

said a

me.

a couple of years, and in the

a

Engstrom

that our competitors

They will ship Chromeffects under some-

my personal goals at the

can't uninvent a

can do

toward Microsoft, believed.

perhaps one of the only large great

few weeks before his testimony. "The

You

fashion.

was as inevitable as color was to

Even Engstrom, who held no

one

some

to deliver sound, images,

Why would

less

Web

in

'Soft

end

and the world

all is

that really matthat

good idea no matter how hard you

it

happens.

try.

All

you

little bit."

There were signs for optimism. By Thanksgiving, Microsoft had reposted an edited version of

St.

John's white paper and other sub-

279

RENEGADES stantive material

the

site said,

THE EMPIRE

OF

on a revamped Chromeffects Web site. Chromeffects,

"would be coming soon."

Meanwhile,

St.

John and

his

team

sat scratching their heads, fig-

uring out their interim plan of attack.

pened.

A

Then

a strange thing hap-

stray synapse fired inside St. John's brain, triggering a

long-forgotten memory.

He recalled that at a Professional Developers

Conference a few years

prior,

version of

Paul Maritz had run an experimental

Chrome when demonstrating

the as-yet-released Internet

Explorer 4 browser. St.

John

when he and

recalled that in 1996,

Engstrom and

fellow Beastie Boys

memChrome

were formulating Chrome, they had asked

Eisler

bers of the Internet Explorer team to bury

some prototype

coding inside the then-nascent IE 4.0 browser. The prototype code allowed the browser access to DirectX multimedia capabilities. Ironically, St. John this It

and

his

WildTangent team were able

to activate

long-dormant proto-Chrome capability by using a Java program.

was

much harder

to

formed

faster

than the

have as

many

layers of

program first

coding

to

technology already resided in IE inside millions of computers.

point of view,

it

for,

version of

but the buried function per-

Chrome

1.0

because

it

didn't

chew through. What's more, the

4,

And

which was by that time best of

all,

installed

from WildTangent's

was undocumented and thus "utterly unknown in the

universe."

Chrome St.

lives!

John rubbed

browser jump to

his

life,

"All right, then,"

hands and smiled when he saw the IE 4

as a fast-animated 3-D star

spun on the screen.

he said with a familiar devious

again."

280

grin. "Let's play

EPILOGUE MY BELOVED ENEMIES

ALL

confidence Eric Engstrom might have possessed walking into

Any

U.S. District Court that frigid February

he

helplessly

the antitrust

trial,

and

this

It

was a Friday, day

was Engstrom's

for Microsoft a torture chamber.

a giant shoe box,

Room

wood paneling

what had

broke the monotony of impos-

that reached two stories high.

who had been

into

first stroll

of

Roughly the dimensions of

hardwood spectator benches made backsides erans

fifty-seven

2 of the E. Barrett Pettyman building was

No windows

designed for discomfort. ing

as

watched one of his own being devoured by the gov-

ernment's lead attorney, David Boies.

become

morning evaporated

Ten rows of spartan,

throb.

Some

savvy vet-

attending, covering or participating in the

trial,

brought seat cushions. Recessed government fluorescent lighting

cast

And to the right ofJudge Thomas Microsoft's meek general manager

milky illumination, but no shadows. Penfield Jackson sat for

new

and

sat

technology.

more than

Dan Rosen, The

a few feet lower than the judge's chair,

diminutive Rosen seem

much

witness stand was shoved in the far corner

all

that

much

smaller

—and

making the

his lies all that

larger.

Rosen was Microsoft's key executive

in dealing with

Netscape dur-

ing the crucial year of 1995, specifically at a June meeting

government of the

says the software giant tried to

Windows browser

the

strong-arm Netscape out

business. E-mail after E-mail

281

when

had shown

that

— RENEGADES

OF

THE EMPIRE

Microsoft feared Netscape was becoming a threat to the Empire. Even

memo.

Yet,

that way. Pudgy, chinless,

and

Gates had stated so in his famous "Internet Tidal Wave"

Rosen

incredulously,

a litde ashen (was

it

said

he didn't see

it

the lighting?), Rosen said in his reed-thin voice,

"[Netscape] said they wanted to be a partner, not a competitor I

believed them." Few,

his wife,

League

who

if

anyone, believed Rosen

hands clenched

sat with

—save for maybe

in the front

row

like a Litde

mom watching her HI' slugger strike out, again and again and

again.

Confronted with the as a competitor,

Rosen

fact that Gates himself had identified

replied, "I

thought

had a

I

better perspective

than Mr. Gates did on Netscape's intentions." Judge Jackson, passing resemblance to the late

Netscape

who bears

House of Representatives Speaker Tip

O'Neill, rolled his swollen eyes as a contingent of the world's

media

laughed aloud. Engstrom's broad shoulders slumped. Too depressed to

watch Boies continue tearing the wings off Rosen, Engstrom did not

return after the Bill

noon

recess.

Gates had set the tone of Microsoft's curious defense during his

twenty hours of videotaped testimony filmed in August 1998. In the

an oversize leather

tape, Gates sat pouting in

chair,

quibbling with

government attorneys over the definition of words such

and answering deposition questions with remember," or the

trial

time for

began its

"I

don't recall"

utterly destroy the

the

don't know,"

more than two hundred

in October, Microsoft

dozen witnesses

"I

as definition

had promised

that

to take the stand, the

"I

don't

times.

When

when

it

came

company would

government's case, which had so far been built on

damaging testimony of industry competitors and an unprece-

dented edifice of incriminating internal E-mail. But Microsoft sensed

momentum would

swing in

chased Netscape in a $10

its

favor.

America Online had since pur-

billion deal that Microsoft said

proved there

was abundant competition in the Internet market. The deal compelled South Carolina to withdraw from the case, leaving nineteen states

and the

But witness

federal

government

to

continue the offensive.

after Microsoft witness folded

282

under

Boies's relentless

a EPILOGUE

questioning. Vice President Paul Maritz was forced to explain his

memo

how

describing

Windows

Microsoft should bundle a browser with

to "cut off [Netscape's] air supply." Senior Vice

no

Allchin fared

better.

when

His testimony crumbled

Presidentjim

a videotape that

was supposed to prove Windows 98 performance suffered when uncoupled from the browser was shown to be doctored. Microsoft redid the video, but

when

it

failed to

show

that

Windows 98

suffered any

ill

effects

the Internet Explorer browser was amputated from the operat-

ing system.

Then

there was Rosen, to date the worst of Microsoft's

witnesses.

Engstrom skipped Monday's court

Rosen trying

to recast the

and ownership

as browser and wrest

—in short, another disastrous day for Microsoft. But

Engstrom returned Tuesday, February marathon

which was a replay of

session,

meaning of words such

trial.

day

23,

Engstrom and Microsoft's

legal

fifty-nine

of the

team marched into

the courtroom, through the low-slung swinging doors separating spectators

from

litigants,

and took

their rightful places at a long

table piled with legal briefs, black binders,

Windows with Internet Explorer ernment was using

to call

up

wood

and a computer running

— the same type of system the gov-

electronic copies of depositions

and

other evidence. Microsoft's

orange

jail

team

sat at the

same

table

where crack addicts wearing

jumpsuits had been arraigned just

strange juxtaposition. There was Rosen again, stand.

It

hunched

—

at the witness

was Microsoft's turn to somehow undo the exquisite damage

Boies had inflicted during the preceding days. to

moments before

"It's

always inspiring

watch young people embark on heroic endeavors," Judge Jackson

quipped

as Microsoft attorney

Michael Lacovara began the

futile task

of resuscitating Rosen's credibility.

Indeed, tioning,

moments

after

Lacovara finished his gentle line of ques-

Engstrom and the

rest of

Boies, dressed in his signature

team Microsoft

rumpled blue

suit

sat horrified as

and black Nikes,

shredded Rosen.

During lunch the day before,

in the courthouse's

283

basement

cafe-

RENEGADES

THE EMPIRE

OF

a writer for Ziff-Davis publishing accused Microsoft of con-

teria,

structing a defense based

on

lies.

"Not just

"But big, fuckin' eigh teen-wheeler-sized

little lies,"

the writer said.

lies."

Too bad for Microsoft that Rosen was still

at the wheel.

Under cross-

examination, Rosen claimed that he hadn't even seen Netscape's

browser before the infamous June '95 meeting with Netscape

How

officials.

could Microsoft have thought the browser was a threat when

he and other

officials

hadn't even seen the technology, Rosen was

implying.

But Boies showed an E-mail Rosen had written

in

May

that year in

which Rosen asked for a copy of the Netscape browser from a

col-

Rosen explained that he had never got the copy and that

league.

any rate

it

was a

test version that didn't

sure that's the way

it

at

work. Yes, Rosen said, he was

was.

Boies looked over his half-rimmed glasses and paused for dramatic effect.

'You don't remember

that,

do you,

sir?

You're just making that up

right now."

Microsoft attorneys leaned forward in unison, their jaws dropping.

"No,

I

remember

Boies fed

it,"

and not April?" Rosen assistants.

on

Rosen

said weakly.

him some more hangman's said

he was

rope. "You're sure

sure. Boies

it

was May

glanced at one of his

Within seconds a one-sentence E-mail Rosen had written

April 27 appeared

on courtroom computer screens and on the

twin thirty-six-inch Mitsubishi

TV monitors

facing spectators.

"Do you remember who took the Netscape Win95 browser they gave us during our

last

meeting?" Rosen had written. "I'd

like to get

a copy."

Seventeen seconds elapsed. reply, "I stand corrected,"

A

clearly

ing where the Netscape browser was

Now

it

shaken Rosen could only

and admitted he had attended the meet-

was Engstrom's turn.

He

handed

out.

was Microsoft's tenth witness and

was there to refute claims that he had tried to force Apple from making further advancements on QuickTime for Windows. Engstrom

284

EPILOGUE

had been cooling

his heels in D.C. for a

snap, awaiting his turn

when

on the

stand. His

the avowed agnostic swore before

whole

truth, the

truth,

week, during a bitter cold

moment arrived at 2:08 p.m., God and country to tell the

and nothing but the

truth.

Although Engstrom had chatted with an sketch

and appeared relaxed

artist

in the

attractive

moments before

stand that afternoon, he was, in truth, terrified.

had spent an hour doubled over a room, nauseous with

anxiety.

courtroom taking the

The night before he

toilet in his

Four Seasons hotel

Men more powerful than he had tripped

over the government's merciless line of questioning. Engstrom had practiced for this

moment

months with Microsoft attorney Ted

for

Edelman. The two had been paired because of their personalities. In fact,

from the

little

was intentionally located away

ruthless.

when Engstrom took

so

office

of the legal team. Engstrom was told Edelman could

rest

sometimes be a

And

Edelman 's

similarly blunt

the stand, the world got a refreshing

change from the prevaricating, obfuscating executives who had come before.

Engstrom didn't quibble over

from convenient amnesia. He didn't

definitions.

flinch

He

didn't suffer

from the

fact that

he

enjoyed competing for market share.

For the

first

time in

this trial,

Boies would not be grilling a

Microsoft witness. Confronting Engstrom was Phillip Malone, a sharp litigator ers.

who

Malone

from

his

reportedly possessed a deep understanding of computfirst

asked about

all

computer's hard drive

Engstrom

said

uses an older

he routinely

kills

the E-mail Engstrom

—why was

all

had deleted

that E-mail missing?

E-mail every two months because he

machine with limited storage memory, mirroring com-

puters presumably in use by people in the real world.

Running

soft-

ware on older machines puts him in closer touch to customers, he explained. (In fact, the trial

Microsoft, so

found way

much

had a

so that

it

chilling effect

on the use of E-mail

changed the culture

— employees were now holding more

Malone then sprang

in at least

face-to-face meetings.)

a surprise. Instead of focusing

285

at

one pro-

on Engstrom's

RENEGADES Apple headquarters

sorties to

government's deposition

on

THE EMPIRE

OF

—which had been the subject of the

— Malone probed Engstrom's recollection

Intel's Native Signal Processing, that

company's

initiative to

make

a chip that would also handle multimedia and which duplicated

DirectX functions. Malone called up internal Intel E-mail, indicating

how

NSP

upset Engstrom and Microsoft were over the

Malone wanted

to

know if Engstrom

plete control software drivers

Engstrom didn't said that ...

I

ever said Microsoft wanted com-

"down

the way

to the iron."

"That would not surprise

blink.

was quite

all

full

initiative.

of myself at that point in

me at all that I my career." He

explained that dependence on other companies to make drivers put Microsoft at the mercy of uncontrollable developers. At any rate, these drivers

worked deep under the hood of a computer and end

users were never exposed to them.

When Jackson

called a late-afternoon break, Microsoft attorneys

quickly huddled with Engstrom.

haps a Willy

"little

Loman

mer yet

still

They were concerned he was

too cocky." But this was not

per-

some absurd and doomed

figure wasting the court's time. This was Engstrom, for-

forever an evangelist, a jugular-mauling renegade

and

at

heart a Beastie Boy.

When

court resumed, Malone zeroed in on Engstrom's handling

of the Dimension for

X

acquisition, the

San Francisco company known

Java-based multimedia authoring software called Liquid

its

Motion. Microsoft attorneys tried to voice objection to questioning, saying

it fell

judge allowed Malone

Malone

outside the scope of expected inquiry.

tried to snare

it

of

The

to continue.

Engstrom

in his

Engstrom talked about buying Dimension division of tools

this line

planned

own

E-mail, in

which

X to deprive Sun's JavaSoft

to share with Netscape.

Malone made

great issue of this paragraph:

"Given derailing thing.

.

.

.

how important iHammer is to [Tod Nielsen], I would think the iHammer equivalent for Netscape would be a HUGE

We

could achieve a big

tactical

key tool."

286

win here by removing their

— EPILOGUE

Again, Engstrom didn't blanch.

"The whole point of that paragraph

iHammer

support for

Engstrom engaged wanted

said, giving a

in at the

to vector

is

[Tod Nielsen's]

[Dimension X]

the

into

acquisition,"

glimpse of the kind of internal warfare he

company. "Quite

to kill at Microsoft,

Nielsen, a fixture at the

but

trial

frankly,

iHammer was

needed Tod

I

for weeks,

a project

I

Nielsen's support."

squirmed

in his seat cushion.

Malone didn't buy Engstrom's explanation and repeatedly rephrased questions trying to force Engstrom to admit an untruth that the only reason Microsoft

wanted Dimension

X was to deny it for

the competition.

"No," Engstrom said, his patience wearing thin. think this

is

good

a

that sentence. I

did writing

every

word

I

it

thing,' that

total

sum

You are spending more time on

—by an order of magnitude.

I

'Tod Nielsen

of thought

this

I

will

put into

one sentence than

wasn't prepared to have

wrote dissected."

Judge Jackson couldn't It

was the

"

resist:

'You've never been in court before."

was one of the few times the judge laughed with a Microsoft

witness, rather than at one.

Court recessed for the day

at 4:53 that

afternoon.

Engstrom's performance was "Did you have to use

my name

so

solid.

many

The next morning Engstrom entered tle

more

shirt.

cocksure.

The

He was

the only

the courtroom looking a

one wearing a bright yellow

court's congenial marshal shared

Engstrom's laugh rumbled over the tions.

Only Nielsen complained: times?"

mumbled

an aside joke and

din of other conversa-

Again Engstrom conversed with the courtroom sketch

requesting a copy of one of her drawings of

lit-

dress

him

to

hang

artist,

in his

still-

unfinished house.

When dictable

the court

came

to order,

Malone focused on the

— accusations that Engstrom had

tried to shove

pre-

Apple out of

developing QuickTime for Windows and that Microsoft had inserted diabolical coding into the operating system to sabotage Apple's

media

player.

287

RENEGADES Engstrom

were benign codec-sharing missions

said those meetings

and Apple never

told

him

it

THE EMPIRE

OF

felt that it

he pointed out, an independent

was being muscled. Moreover,

testing laboratory

concluded that

it

was bugs in QuickTime, not Windows, that were causing problems. "Certainly

I

wanted them

to use

DirectX for video and audio play-

back on Windows," Engstrom acknowledged. "That was nonnegotiable."

But if Apple didn't cooperate, then Engstrom said he was prepared for battle.

"Understand," Engstrom added

and watch

television.

later,

Engstrom recalled the infamous day

show

in

"I'm not going to

sit

down

I'm going to compete." in July at the Siggraph trade

Orlando, noting that the day after he was told the Wall

Street

Journal was poised to run a piece containing allegations that Microsoft

had sabotaged Apple's QuickTime, he had learned the former Microsoft executive tified

that

Rob

Glaser,

and founder of RealNetworks, had

tes-

before the U.S. Senate that Microsoft had deliberately written

code into Windows that broke the RealNetworks multimedia

Engstrom

said

player.

he was called away from Siggraph, feeling betrayed

by Apple and Glaser. "I'm friends with

"Understand

my

Rob

mind-set

Glaser's wife,"

—

this

is

Engstrom told the

court.

not a good day for me."

Judge Jackson nodded. "I'm sympathetic

to his

bad

day."

This happened to be a bad day for Malone and a singularly rare

good day

for Microsoft. Perhaps for the

begun hauling

its

first

handpicked witnesses

time since Microsoft had

to the stand,

it

had won a

round. After a few anticlimactic redirect questions from Microsoft attorney Edelman, Engstrom was excused at 11:47 a.m. Microsoft

would

summon

would

recess for an

its

two

final witnesses

extended

plished was quickly

layover.

undone by

German-born Joachim Kempin,

before Friday,

when

the court

Any good Engstrom had accom-

the two executives

who

followed.

Microsoft's senior executive

in

charge of managing the company's business relations with computer makers,

left

many

with the impression he was using his less-than-

288

EPILOGUE perfect

command

of English to give deliberately confusing answers.

Worse was Robert Muglia, Microsoft's

witness before the long

last

break and the one executive in charge of Microsoft's Java

Muglia tried

to correct the

when he wrote

"I

am

judge that what

hard core about

from Sun Microsystems was,

Bill

Gates

efforts.

meant

really

NOT supporting" a technology

in fact, just the opposite.

As Muglia bab-

bled some nonsense justification, Judge Jackson covered his face with

one hand and

thrust another at Muglia. "No! "Jackson yelled. "Stop!"

Jackson stomped out of the courtroom for a ten-minute recess. All of that

would be of

his time inside the torture

little

concern

chamber.

to

He had done He

Engstrom.

Now it was

time to celebrate.

walked out of the courtroom and cinched

wool overcoat.

his

Cristiano Pierry, the longtime DirectX veteran, patted

Engstrom on

the shoulder. "You did great, man." Pierry fished in his pocket retrieved a plate.

little

Nokia mobile phone with a

"Who should we

call?"

Stars

and

and

Stripes face-

Before Engstrom could answer, Pierry

was dialing Chris Phillips in Redmond, regaling him with stories from

and Engstrom

the front lines. Pierry continued talking as he to the upscale Capital Grill a

Engstrom checked claim

his coat

number on the another restaurant, the claim num-

and glanced

A few days earlier at

ticket.

ber was 666 and Engstrom had kept

who was

still

talking

strolled

few blocks from the courthouse.

it

for

at the

good

on the phone, were soon

luck.

seated,

He and

Pierry,

and Engstrom

ordered rum and diet Cokes, insisting each come with a wedge of lime and a maraschino cherry. As he waited for an order of Atlantic-

salmon appetizers, Engstrom reflected on the court case that had

consumed

so

much

of his energy over the past

played a role in compelling Microsoft to

He lamented

kill

five

months and had

Chrome.

that Microsoft's legal strategy

had

relied

on a

fall-

back, defensive position.

"Microsoft by and large reverted from

he

said. "It

its

normal aggressive

self,"

withdrew from battle rather than engage an offensive.

This could have been handled a lot better."

Although he agreed Microsoft was

289

ruthless, cunning,

and

aggres-

RENEGADES sive,

THE EMPIRE

OF

he insisted the company was

guiltless of illegally

wielding

monopoly power.

The waiter returned and Engstrom ordered Scotch, neat.

The

a Macallan single-malt

twenty-five-year-old stuff.

"Ah, you must be celebrating," the waiter said, smiling.

The most him.

He

experience of Engstrom 's

stressful

life

was

now behind

could savor the fact he served his company with honor. The

government

said

it

had proved Engstrom had

do things Microsoft's

way,

much

the way

tried to get

Apple

to

Redmond had muscled

Netscape. But Malone had landed only glancing blows on Engstrom.

The

A

Beastie

Boy had won by a

USA Today

decision.

story noted that

Engstrom "offered a glimpse of the

straightforward approach other

company

witnesses might have

taken."

Another writer had another noted that

Engstroms

it

said

Engstrom "rode

to the rescue." Still

was a shame Microsoft hadn't called a dozen

to the stand.

Ironically, the

trouble through

man who had so much of the

caused Microsoft so

much

internal

nineties proved to be the company's

finest witness.

A devious grin crossed Engstrom intended

its

least

he had

effect. Yes,

's

broad face

Chrome's death

history's favorable

still

as the

Scotch worked

troubled him. But at

mark of approval.

Engstrom reflected on the glowing press accounts. "The

me

fact

my enemies

at Microsoft will see this,"

very happy."

290

he

said,

"makes

,

,

IHPEK

Tim, 64

AbiEzzi, Salim, 134

Bajarin,

Abraham, Spencer, 256

Ballmer, Steve, 12, 31, 97, 151, 269

Abrash, Michael, 57-58, 93, 129, 133, 137

Banfield, Steve, 34, 66-68, 69-70, 72, 81,

87-88, 89, 90

ActiveX, 61, 163 Adler, Dennis, 39-40

Adobe Systems

Banks,

Inc., 2, 11,

40

Bateman,

PostScript, 9, 10, 11, 38, 39, 40, 41

Advanced Authoring Format (AAF)

135

155

Scott,

"Beastie Boys," xv

220-21, 237, 239

see also Eisler,

Advanced Consumer Technology (ACT) 26, 45, 47,

Alistair, 32, 133,

Barksdale, James, 143, 200, 203, 223

Craig; Engstrom, Eric;

96

Bentz, Greg, 21

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), 243 Advanced Technology, 26

Berkes, Otto, 93, 94, 127, 133

Allchinjim, 29, 95, 97, 175-76, 204, 211, 212, 214, 273, 283

Black, Deborah, 128-32, 133, 273-74,

Allen, Paul, xiv

Boich, Mike, 31

Beton, Morris, 120, 127, 134-35, 175, 184

276

Amelio, Gilbert, 161

Boies, David, 281, 282-83, 284, 285

America Online (AOL), 282

Bonner, Gillian, 85, 87

80, 117, 218, 224,

Boot, 171, 225, 243, 247, 263,

Andreessen, Marc, 98, 144-45, 192, 223-24

Bork, Robert, 222-23

APIs (application programming inter-

81, 161, 162, 163, 165-68, 180-81,

Borland International, 32, 35 Breslauer, Heidi, 54, 66 Brumer, Marshall, 73, 74 Burger, Karen, 148

221, 235-39, 258-59

Burns, Conrad, 128

faces), 34, 35,

St.

John, Alex

36

Apple Computer Corp.,

2, 17, 28,

43-44,

Engstrom's meetings with, 165-68, 171,

Byte, 52,

268-69

216

178, 179, 227, 235-39, 258-59,

266-67, 284, 285-86, 287-88, 290

Caffeine, 140, 230

evangelists at, 30, 31

Campbell, Colin, 134

turnaround of, 238-39 Macintosh computers of, 28, 30-31, 42, 161, 162, 163, 221, 238-39

Card, David, 260

Microsoft accused of unfair business

Channel Definition Format, 117

financial

Carmack,John,

practices by, 63-66, 67, 82, 162,

Chase, Brad, 51, 52, 71, 98, 107, 108, 119,

180-81, 224, 238, 270

130,

Microsoft's relationship with, 161-63, 165

of, 42,

183-84,239,241,250

chips, microprocessor, 115, 119, 186, 222,

multimedia and, 42, 43, 63, 165-68 printing technology of, 19, 38-39

QuickTime software

49, 93-94, 95, 124, 131

CD-ROMs, 42

243 G3, 237-38, 239

Pentium, 115, 186, 210, 222, 243

43-44, 45,

Chrome

63-66, 121, 133, 164, 165-68, 178,

(Chromeffects),

1,

18-19, 110-25,

221, 224, 227, 236-37, 239, 258, 259,

130, 136-43, 145-50, 152, 153, 157,

260, 265-66, 284, 287-88

159, 160, 163, 164, 175, 177-81,

Avid, 220-21

184-98, 201-3, 206-12, 214-17,

291

INDEX Chrome

(Chromeffects)

Doom,

(cont.):

DOS

220-22, 224, 230-43, 245-47, 250, 252-57, 268-80, 289, 290

debut

games and,

Engstrom's Harley-Davidson and, 240-41, of,

43,

44, 46, 52, 60, 66, 83, 88, 89,

108

243, 252-53, 257, 263

renaming

3, 31, 32,

64, 66, 104

252-55, 256, 257, 260-63

of,

44, 48-49, 53

(Disk Operating System),

hidden coding

OS/2

252

Cole, David, 98, 176, 182, 201, 202, 203, 205, 210, 211-12, 234, 235, 241, 242, 250,

in, 34, 35,

36

and, 28, 29

Dreamworks, 79 Dunne, Fred, 82

273 Cole, Lee, 3

Easter eggs, 246

collapsible tool bar, 156, 157, 160

Economist, 248

Computer Game Developers Conference (CGDC), 63, 70, 71, 75-76, 85, 127

Edelman, Ted, 285

Computer Gaming World, 53, 79, 83

Eisler, Craig,

Egan, Kevin, 32 17-18, 19-22, 26, 27, 28, 34-37,

Computer Retail Week, 52

47-51, 52-55, 56-57, 66-70, 84, 87, 91,

ComputerWorld, 28

94, 101-3, 104, 108-9, 120-22, 125, 134,

Crigger, Fred, 21

137, 142, 143, 146, 150, 158-60, 176,

Culberston, David J. "Inky," 155, 156, 157,

184, 203-5, 214,

childhood

160, 191, 192

Chrome

Cyberlink Interface, 157-58

Cyberlink

Mind Systems

Inc.,

of,

264

19

and, 109-10, 111, 113, 122, 143,

146-47, 164, 280

157

DCI

65-66

lawsuit and, 63,

DirectX (Manhattan Project) and, 58-63,

Datalytics Inc., 153, 154

Davey, Chris, 219

66-70, 72, 73, 76, 77, 78, 81-83, 94-95,

DCI

99, 100, 108, 110, 164

(Direct Control Interface), 58, 60,

employee reviews and, 89

63-66, 67, 73, 82

Kaufman and, 204, 244, 264 "Taking Fun Seriously" paper

Definition Six, 124

Developer Relations Group (DRG),

12, 13,

14, 34, 42, 45, 61, 62, 98, 108, 119-20,

Eisler, Phil,

132, 175, 185, 188, 191-92, 234, 239,

Ellison, Larry, 161,

254-55

Enderle, Rob, 228, 260, 278

DHTML

(Dynamic HTML), 156, 194 Dimension X, 138-40, 147, 176, 286-87 DirectX (Manhattan Project), xv, 1, 58-63,

Engstrom,

of, 53,

56

101

249

Eric, 17-18, 22-27, 28, 29-30, 34,

36-37, 48, 53-55, 56-57, 66-70, 72, 84, 87, 90-91, 101-3, 108-9, 125, 137-38,

66-79, 81-88, 90-95, 97-101, 104,

142-43, 145, 150, 158-60, 163, 164,

108-9, 111, 130, 133, 135, 137-38, 140,

175-77, 179, 184, 201-6, 224, 240,

142-43, 146-49, 158-59, 163-65,

242-45, 251-52, 263, 269, 274-75

167-68, 175-76, 178, 191-92, 214-16,

AAFand,

221, 233-34, 237-39, 255, 257, 271, 274,

antitrust trial and, 224, 265-67, 269-70,

280, 286, 289

281-90 Apple and, 165-68,

Chrome

and, 110-11, 118, 121

220, 221

171, 178, 179, 227,

235-39, 257-59, 265-66, 284, 285-86,

DirectAnimation, 164, 177-78, 179, 195

287-88, 290

DirectDraw, 59, 60, 82 Directlnput, 59, 60

childhood

DirectPlay, 59-60, 163

Chrome

of,

22-23

and, 110-13, 115. 119-20, 122,

DirectShow, 163-64

126, 137-41, 146-47, 148, 177-79,

DirectSound, 59

184-92, 193, 201-3, 206-12, 214-17,

Direct3D, 60, 92-95, 96, 101, 124-25, 127,

221-22, 230-43, 245-47, 252-57, 261-63, 268-76, 279, 280, 289, 290

129, 131, 132, 178

marketing stunt planned

OpenGL

for,

Dimension X and, 138-40, 176, 286-87 DirectX (Manhattan Project) and, 58-63,

105-7

and, 93-95, 96, 101, 124-25,

66-73, 76-77, 78, 79, 81-83, 90, 91,

126-27, 129-31, 231

94-95,99, 100, 104, 108, 110

release of, 83

employee reviews and, 89

Dole, Bob, 222

292

INDEX Harley-Davidson

of,

Giger, H. R., 105

240-41, 243, 251-53,

257, 263

MSN move

Gillen, Paul, 183

Rob, 165, 204-5, 259, 288

276 NSP and, 73, 74 Engstrom, Joy and George, 23

Glaser,

Ethington, Brent, 250

Gruber, Diana, 86

evangelism:

Guyton, Kevin, 193

at

of,

Gosling, James, 266

graphical user interface (GUI), 42

Apple, 30, 31

at Microsoft, 12-13, 14, 25, 28, 30,

31-37,

147-48

Hall, Jason,

Hand, Learned, 249

42,45, 119-20, 135 Evans, Leslie, 235, 242, 255

Hatch, Orrin, 171, 199, 200, 217

Ewing, Eric, 155

Hecker, Chris, 46-47, 48, 49, 50-51, 53, 73,

Fahrenheit, 95, 257

Heddle, Bob, 111-13, 116-18, 120, 121, 137,

124, 125, 129-32, 133, 134

139-43, 177, 196, 201, 208, 214, 216,

Falkler.Jeaneane, 243-44, 251, 261

Federal Trade Feed,

Commision (FTC), 32-33

230, 271, 275

Henrich, Doug,

206

flashCast

Communications Corp.,

151, 152,

153, 154-57, 160, 191, 222, 230-31, 232,

98

Hoddie, Peter, 167, 235, 236, 265 Hoffman, Jim, 189, 195-96

261, 262, 278 Fortune,

14, 32, 39, 88,

Herbold, Bob, 97, 170 Higgins, Pete, 97

230

HTML

Fowles, Ken, 13-15, 30, 36, 135, 136

(hypertext

markup language),

116-17, 118

G3

dynamic, 156, 194

chips, 237-38, 239

Hunt, John, 279

Gabner, Viktor, 32 Gaines-Mulkern, Audra, 235, 255, 274,

277-78

IBM,

Chrome

and, 148;

see also

Chrome

DirectX (Manhattan Project) and, 58-63, 66-77 3-D graphics

WinG

in,

56-57, 60;

see also

iHammer,

160, 191, 192 28, 40, 47, 52, 56,

Intel, 60, 73,

91-92, 119, 186, 200, 254

242

132, 134, 150, 159, 169, 178-79, 180,

Apple's lawsuit and, 63-66

181, 195, 212, 222, 242, 269, 282, 289

Chrome

antitrust battles and, 182, 199, 200-201,

242-43, 250, 278

NSP

229-30, 249, 264-65, 282

and, 73-75, 242, 288

Pentium chips

282

63, 64, 65-66, 161-62, 163, 166

of, 115,

186, 210, 222, 243

Internet, 18, 96-97, 117, 158, 163, 175-76, 187, 214 bandwidth and, 114-15, 118

Internet and, 18, 96-97, 109, 123, 158, 214, 282

Chrome

Judgment Day

II and, 105 multimedia and, 43, 44, 45 at news conference, 224-25, 226 OS/2 and, 28, 29 printing technology and, 38-39

and, 118, 119, 147, 181, 184, 185,

186, 193, 196, 197, 207, 209-10, 222,

217, 218-19, 223, 224-25, 227, 228,

and,

see

Chrome

278

portal

sites,

see also

World Wide Web

Internet Explorer (IE), 19, 98-99, 122, 123, 126, 128, 137, 138, 143, 144, 156, 162,

reorganizations and, 95, 96 at

33-34

"Inky" (David J. Culberston), 155, 156, 157,

antitrust troubles of,

Apple and,

(ISVs),

InfoWorld, 31,

78-79, 80, 83, 84, 86, 88, 120, 122, 130,

antitrust testimony of,

286-87

independent software vendors 38-39

3-D

203

Bill, xiii, xiv, xv, 3,

138, 139, 203, 212,

iMac, 239

Garcia, Tony, 133 Gates,

256

and, 28-30

id Software, 44, 49, 57, 92-94, 129 xv, 1,

and, 46-47, 49, 50, 51, 52-53, 73,

75, 76, 134,

128, 144, 229,

3, 31,

OS/2

games, 43-49, 51,52-54

217, 220, 238, 251

WinHEC, 213-14

bundling

of,

with

Windows

95, 98-99,

Gazaway, Stan, 23

118-19, 122, 145, 168, 169-71, 173-75,

Gibbin, Chris, 197

182, 184, 218, 223, 250, 264, 270

293

INDEX Internet Explorer (IE) (cont):

Chrome

and, 192, 193, 201, 202, 203, 207,

216, 234-35, 280

Windows, 137, 145, 146, 168, 170-71, 176, 183, 188, 227, 264, 283 Wired and, 194 as part of

McCartney, Colin, 101, 111-14, 116, 117, 118, 137, 140-43, 146, 177-79, 202, 208,

211,220,230,274 McCurdy, Ann, 24, 25 Macintosh, 28, 30-31, 42, 161, 162, 163, 221,

238-39

intranets, 144

iMac, 239

Irimajiri, Shoichiro, 91

see also

Apple Computer Corp.

McNealy, Scott, 200, 203 Jackson,

Thomas

Penfield, 33, 79, 173-74,

MacWeek, 260

175, 181, 182, 183, 184, 223, 229, 249,

Maiers, Spencer, 191

250, 265, 281, 282, 283, 287, 288, 289

Malone,

Phillip,

285-87

Jacobson, Bruce, 133

Manhattan

Jagger, Mick, 80

Marimba

Japan, 184

Maritz, Paul, 29, 47, 56-57, 97, 130, 131-32,

Inc.,

139

134, 211, 222, 248, 276, 280, 283

Java, 120, 138, 139, 140, 162, 197, 238, 242,

Maximum

266, 277, 289

Project, see DirectX

PC, 268-69

JavaSoft, 138-39, 286

Mehdi, Yusuf, 266

Jindal, Ajay, 274

Microsoft:

accused of sabotaging competing software,

Jobs, Steve, 31, 161-62, 163, 165, 166, 180,

220, 221, 235, 238-39

33, 34, 35

accused of stealing, 28, 33, 63-66

Junker, Andrew, 157-59

in antitrust battles, 28, 32-33, 64, 79-80,

KaTrix Millennium

RUSH, 187-88

99, 122, 127-28, 136, 145, 146, 163, 165,

Kaufman, Kathryn ("KT"), 204, 244, 264

167, 169-71, 173-76, 182-84, 199-201,

Kawasaki, Guy, 31

217-20, 222-25, 227-29, 236, 248-50,

Kempin, Joachim, 288-89

256, 259, 264-67, 269-70, 272, 275,

281-90

Kenworthy, Mark, 134

Kenyon, Jeremy,

10,

Apple's lawsuits against, 63-66, 67, 82,

261

Keondjian, Servan, 94 Ketola,

162, 180-81, 224, 238

Adam, 149

Apple's relationship with, 161-63, 165

Klein, Joel, 170, 174, 219, 220, 223, 227

Christmas party

Kuperstein, Marc, 157, 191, 192

corporate culture

Kyi,

of,

15-16

of, xiv-xv,

Lacey, Steve, 94

hiring practices

at, xiv,

Lacovara, Michael, 229, 283

reorganizations

at,

Landmark Education Forum,

Hock

Microsoft Network (MSN), 80, 276 Microsoft Site Developer Network, 154-55 Mondry, Lawrence, 228 Monolith Productions, 147-49, 150, 185,

San, 133

Lee, On, 90, 133

Leno.Jay, 80 Lessig,

Lawrence, 174, 175, 181-82, 223,

249 LeTocq, Chris, 163 Lexis-Nexis, 156, 157

Lion King

CD-ROM,

4

88-89, 95-98, 100,

135-36, 175-76, 204, 272, 273, 274

244, 264

Leahy, Patrick, 199 Lee,

212, 285

growing conservatism at, 135-36 growth of, xiii-xiv, 107, 256

Jon, 256

75

Liquid Motion, 138, 139, 140, 147

191, 197, 222 Montgomery, Betty, 219 Moore, Gordon, 115 Moore's Law, 115, 119, 187

Muglia, Robert, 289

multimedia, 36, 41-47, 50, 71, 73-75, 79, 81, 82, 138, 163-68, 178-79, 181, 234,

Liquid Reality, 138 Los Angeles Times, 219

see also specific software

Lost in Space, 231

Multimedia Week, 101

Love, Jamie, 183

Murray, Mark, 258

Ludwig,John, 98, 101-3, 113-14, 117, 146, 176, 177, 178, 184, 201, 204, 205, 276

Murray,

Patty, 218 Myhrvold, Cameron, 31-32, 33-34

294

259

INDEX Myhrvold, Nathan, 26, 31, 96, 97, 100, 120, 127,

printing technology, 10, 19, 38-40, 41

174-75,211,235

progressive downloading, 164-65, 166 Project

Nader, Ralph, 169, 183

Chrome, see Chrome Promote Competition and

Project to

Innovation in the Digital Age, 222, 225

Nagel, David, 64 Native Signal Processing (NSP), 73-75, 242,

Quake, 44, 93

286 Netscape Communication Corp., 96, 116,

Quartz, 133

128, 143-45, 146, 162, 177, 192

QuickTime,

42, 43-44, 45, 63-66, 121, 133,

in accusations of unfair business practices

164, 165-68, 178, 221, 224, 227, 236-37,

by Microsoft, 99, 127, 168, 173, 200, 217, 218, 222, 223, 227, 270, 281-82,

239, 258, 259, 260, 265-66, 284, 287-88

Raikes, Jeffrey, 97, 248

283, 284, 286

Chrome

Raptor, 45, 133

and, 121

Communicator, 122, 128, 143 Dimension X and, 139 HTML and, 116-17

RealAudio, 165 Reality Lab, 56, 92

RealNetworks, 165, 167, 204-5, 236-37, 259, 266, 288

Navigator, 98, 99, 122, 156, 162

NetShow, 100, 164, 165, 167, 204-5, 214, 236, 264

RealVideo, 165

NetTheater, 205

Reed Elsevier PLC, 156, 157 RenderMorphics Ltd., 56-57,

Reback, Gary, 99, 145

network computers (NCs), 128 Neukom, William, 229

60, 92, 94, 125

Reno, Janet, 170, 217 Richards, Keith, 80 Riley, Olivia, 255 Robar, Jason, 94

Nielsen, Tod, 98, 105-6, 107, 108, 138, 139, 212, 239, 286-87

Olsen, Kip, 274

Rolling Stones, 80

OpenGL (Open

Rosen, Dan, 281-82, 283, 284

Graphics Language), 45, 46, 60, 231, 257

Rossmann, Alain, 31 Rudolph, Eric, 194-95 Rutherford, Doug, 99

DirectX and, 93-95, 96, 101, 124-25, 126-27, 129-31, 231

operating system (OS), 3 Oracle, 128, 162

OS/2, 28-30, 33, 82 Osborne, Paul, 43, 50,

St.

John, Alex, 1-16, 17-19, 21-22, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34-37, 38-41, 45, 47-54, 56-57,

54, 55, 57, 62, 69, 70,

133

66-72, 75, 91-92, 94, 96-98, 100-102, 104-5, 108, 109, 112, 124, 125, 136,

141-43, 171, 205, 214, 225-26, 239,

page flipping, 48-49

243-44, 251, 267, 271-72, 273 "apology" of, 132-34 Apple stock and, 238 childhood and young adulthood

PCWeek, 33, 34, 71, 79 Peddie Report, 260

Pentium chips, 115, 186, 210, 222, 243 Pesce, Mark, 206-7

Chrome

Petreley, Nicholas, 169

208-9,

221, 234, 235, 236, 253-54, 256, 257-58,

259,265-66,271,278,289 Pilla,

95, 104-7, 108, 110

Tom, 95 sites,

279-80 DirectX (Manhattan Project) and, 58-63, 66-73, 75-76, 78, 81-82, 83-88, 91, 93,

289

employee review

Pinette.John, 174 portal

5-7

246-48, 253, 260-63, 271, 272, 277,

Phillips, Chris, 113, 165, 167, 185,

Pierry, Cristiano, 113, 235, 258,

of,

and, 110, 111, 122, 240-41, 242,

of, 88,

Microsoft's firing of,

278

1,

89 112, 125-26, 128,

130, 134-35, 136, 137, 141

Porter, Geoff, 155

Microsoft's hiring of, 2-4, 12-16

Porter, Swain, 22

Microsoft stock and, 112, 126, 226-27

PostScript, 9, 10, 11, 38, 39, 40, 41

OpenGL and,

Pournelle, Jerry, 216

"Taking Fun Seriously" paper

295

125, 126-27, 129-31, 231 of, 53,

56

INDEX St. John, Alex

theme

3-D, 45, 56-57, 60, 73, 127, 133, 138, 139,

(cont.):

parties

and marketing

143

stunts of,

Chrome

83-84, 85-38, 105-7, 171-73

WildTangent company St.

John, Amelia, 48

St.

John, 125

St.

of,

261-63, 279-80

and, 110, 111-12, 120-21

Direct3D and, 60, 92-95, 96, 101, 124-25, 127, 129, 131, 132, 178

OpenGL

Kelley, 3, 7-11, 16, 19, 47-48, 112,

and,

see

OpenGL

Talisman and, 45, 100-101, 126, 127, 130, 136, 216, 257

John, Rhomni, 11

VRML and,

Schaaff, Tim, 167, 168, 235, 236, 239, 258,

265

see also

Schiller, Philip, 221, 235,

121, 138, 148, 194,

206-7

Chrome

throughput technology, 10

258

Scholz, Paul, 150-56, 157-60, 179, 189,

Tiemeier, Dustin, 155

190-91, 196-97, 198, 209, 230-33, 250,

tool bar, collapsible, 156, 157, 160

261-63, 274, 278

Torborg.Jay, 100-101, 103, 108, 126, 127,

Schulman, Andrew,

34, 35

130, 132, 134, 216, 257,

Schultz, David B., 87

Torvalds, Linus, 202

Sculleyjohn, 64, 162, 180-81, 192-93, 224

Truher.Joel, 194

Seattle Times,

274

265

USA

Seekings, Kate, 94

Sega GameWorks,

91, 97,

1,

Segal, Rick, 41-42, 43, 44-45, 46-47, 48-52, 62, 63, 65, 69,

Today,

290

172-73

98

Van Flandern, Mike, 133 Veres, Jim, 130, 134

Sessions, Jeff, 256

Video for Windows,

Shaw, Greg, 219

VRML

Silicon Graphics Inc., 46, 129

44,

63

modeling language), 148, 194,206-7

(virtual reality

121, 138,

Silverberg, Brad, 29, 35, 39-40, 66, 70-71,

Adam, 32 Waggener Edstrom, 242

77, 83, 95, 97-98, 130, 139, 175, 176,

Waalkes,

204, 212

217, 218, 258, 288

Snipp, David, 41

Wall

Spice (Caffeine), 140, 230

Sporkin, Stanley, 64, 79

Warden, John, 229 Web, see World Wide Web WildTangent Inc., 261-63, 279-80 Willans, Barb, 278

Stac Inc., 64

Williams, Stephen, 249

Stevens, Ted, 128

Windows, 13-14,

Spindler, Michael, 65 Spiner, Brent, 52

stock options, 24-25 Stolar,

Street Journal, 80,

29, 32, 33, 38, 42, 95-96,

97, 109, 121-22, 145, 175-76, 195

Active Desktop, 117

Bernard, 91

games and, 44, 46, 49, 51, 52-53, 59-61, 73 hidden coding in, 34, 35, 36 Media Player, 100, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168,

Stonesifer, Patty, 83-84, 133

Stork, Carl, 73, 74, 75

streaming technology, 164-65, 166, 167, 168,

178, 236, 237, 259, 274

204

Sun Microsystems,

OS/2

128, 138, 144, 162, 217,

and, 28-29

32-bit extender

286, 289

Surround Video,

43,

Windows

203

for,

20-21

95, 17, 37, 42, 44, 45, 52, 53, 58,

60-61, 66-67, 69, 73, 77, 78-79, 82, 83,

Symantec, 35

97, 108, 135, 145, 175-76, 223,

"Taking Fun Seriously" (Eisler and

St.

Apple lawsuit and, 63-64, 65, 82 Internet Explorer bundled with,

John),

53,56

99,

118-19, 122, 145, 168, 169-71, 173-75,

Talisman, 45, 100-101, 126, 127, 130, 136,

182, 184, 218, 223, 249, 264, 270

216,257 Talk of the Nation, 183

launching

Taniguchi, Bob, 25, 32

OpenGL and,

Taylor, Linda,

242

274

Windows

of,

80-81, 82-83, 249-50 124, 125

98, 97, 150, 159, 175-76, 197, 205,

Tevanian, Avadis "Avie,"Jr, 235, 266

217, 218, 220, 222, 224-25, 227, 228,

Thomas,

249-50

Craig, 128

296

INDEX Chrome

and, 19, 110, 118, 146, 188, 201,

Winser, Michael, 12

203, 215, 216, 232, 233, 234, 250, 276-77

Internet Explorer as part

of, 137, 145, 146,

168, 170-71, 175, 183, 188, 227, 264,

283

Wired Ventures

World Wide Web,

OpenGLin, 130 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), 213-14 Windows NT, 29, 41, 45,

OpenGL Windows

Chrome

and,

HTML and, see also

see

Chrome

116-17

Internet

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), 116-17, 187

and, 124, 125

(Windows 2000),

96, 117, 138, 187-88,

bandwidth and, 114-15, 118

57, 80, 81, 95-96,

and, 19, 118

NT 5

194

214

97, 144, 175, 188, 197

Chrome

Inc.,

Wladwasky-Berger, Irving, 144

188,

Wright, Steve, 133

215-16, 264, 277

WinG, 46-47,

49, 50, 51, 52-53, 73, 75, 76,

XML

134, 203

(extensible

147, 277

297

markup language), 117-18,

ABOUT

Michael

Drummond He now

ing awards.

has

T

HE

won numerous

UTHOR

regional

covers telecommunications

nology for the San Diego Union-Tribune. enthusiast,

A

Drummond

resides in

daughter, Harper Rose; and son,

and national and Internet

An outdoor and computer

San Diego with

Eli.

writ-

tech-

his wife, Alison;

UPC

>0/BUSINESS/TECHNOLOGY .00)

"A

LOO

RK FROM THE REMORA'S PERSPECTIVE."

Oif:

Competing

in

the high-tech computer market \

is

a

lot like

a

—especially you work at Microsoft. Gates's gladiators — his engineers, evangelists, and programmers — were war

Bill

if

for seizing new terrain and new technology, converting nonbelievers, and always winning ... no matter what the cost. No one took the lessons of Microsoft more to heart than Craig Eisler, Eric Engstrom, and Alex St. John, a trio of software engineers who were willing to do almost anything to conquer a market of their own, even if that meant disregarding procedure and protocol. Michael Drummond gained exclusive access to their story, and the result in this updated edition is a revealing glimpse into the world's most successful company. Renegades of the Empire isn't just a tale of technology and power it's a story of fascinating science, of high-tech boys and their toys. Even more, though, it's a tantalizing, behind-the-scenes look at how three engineers conquered an empire.

famous

— —

—

'A very revealing look inside

and the personalities

A

one corner

that color

it."

of the

computer industry

— Booklist

— Hardware.com

great yarn!'

is a technology business writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He has won many national and regional journalism awards, including the Investigating Reporters and Editors Award and the Best of the West competition, as well as the Society of Professional Journalists Award. He currently lives in San Diego.

CURRENT AFFAIRS—GENERAL

ISBN 0-609-80745-5 Cover design: whitney

cookman 5

THnti New

www

n

i

\

i

u

\

rni

is

York .

randomhouse .com

9

780609"807453

14