Burning the Ships: Intellectual Property and the Transformation of Microsoft

Acknowledgments

This book was a bear to write. But thankfully, a great many people helped us to wrestle it into submission by sharing their thoughts and insights, brainstorming about the future, helping to explain what might otherwise have been inscrutable technological issues, digging deep into old files for critical facts or the dates of crucial events, and in general being forthright and often brilliant in their criticisms and suggestions.

Put another way, to even attempt to write a book about a subject as complex and multifaceted as the transformation of Microsoft requires more in the way of advice and counsel, criticism and support, than the casual reader might suppose. We are grateful for everyone's help.

At the same time, we want to make it perfectly clear that any errors, omissions, or stupidities in this book are ours and ours alone.

Among the many people inside and outside Microsoft who gave so generously of their time and wisdom to this project, we wish to thank in particular (but in no particular order) the following:

Brad Smith, Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold, Horacio Gutierrez, Lori Harnick, Mike Marinello, Susan Hauser, David Kaefer, Anne Kelley, Tanya Moore, Lisa Tanzi, Bart Eppenauer, John Weresh, Ken Lustig, Marty Shively, Tom Robertson, Tom Rubin, David Harnett, Dan'l Lewin, Jason Matusow, Atsushi "Yoshi" Yoshida, Susan Mann, George Zinn, Mark Murray, Mike Ensing, Tricia Payer, Tom Burt, Larry Cohen, Sanjay Sidhu, Rainer Kuehling, Jim Foster, Sam Medici, Dan McCurdy, ...