The 50 Best Things Microsoft Has Ever Made

OK, I am deep in the weeds working on a post, and it has proven to be very challenging.   And so instead of sending out some half-finished incoherent blathering, I am taking a short walk down memory lane.  It is Microsoft’s 50th anniversary this year, and these are the top 50 things Microsoft has ever made according to The Verge, at least.  A great list, and I was lucky to be involved in some of these, and I have memories of some others:

• #49, Microsoft Bob.  I never worked on Microsoft Bob, but two great members of our engineering team left the Windows group to go work on Bob.   They were tired of the constant maelstrom that was the Systems Division back in those days, and they wanted something calmer to work on.  I loved the maelstrom and was befuddled that systems developers would leave to go work on Bob — though years later I understand why they did; an atmosphere of constant change and stress is not something you want for your whole career.
• #46, Internet Explorer for Mac.  I hired the team that built Mac IE, a great team.   They had a lot of trepidation about coming to work for Microsoft, coming to work for Windows guys.  But they came and they built a great product, and I loved working with those guys — they were passionate product guys.
• #41, Microsoft Basic.  I never worked on Microsoft Basic, but I certainly used it and I used Applesoft Basic before that.  The first sizable program I wrote was in Basic to do hex editing of disks.  I still love the ability to program my own machine and make it do exactly what I want — that is the magic of personal computing.
• #22, MSN Dialup.  How in the heck does this make it to #22?  You have to be a real masochist to look back fondly at dial-up networking.  Agonizingly slow, tying up the phone line for the whole house, oof.  This team worked for me for a while; fortunately, most people paid for dialup as kind of an emergency backup option, and so the business was somewhat profitable because not many people actually used it.  
• #16, Steve Ballmer’s “Developers” chant.  Steve’s enthusiasm and commitment were contagious, and I was lucky to have worked in the Systems Division when he was actively involved in leading it.
• #10, MSN Hotmail.   After the acquisition, the Hotmail team reported to me in the MSN group.  It was a tough fit at times; the Hotmail guys were entrepreneurial and wanted to try a lot of things without much corporate oversight, and Microsoft wanted something different from them.  Ultimately it worked out ok, but acquisitions are tough.
• #1, Windows 95.  An amazing team, and the right product at the right time for the industry.   There was never a retail software event like it ever again.  What a blast.  

Now that we are entering the AI wave of software, it will be interesting to see this list in another 25 or 50 years. Maybe only Windows will still be on the list.