Cyberspace

There was no particular reason why it took two guys at the University of Illinois to do it, any more than it should have taken two guys in Sunnyvale to do the Apple I. It’s just that sometimes the establishment needs a kick in the pants.

–Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape

In 1994, Microsoft was riding high and Bill Gates was a billionaire. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t still driven by fear.

No matter that he was the richest person in America, viewed by most people as the symbol, and possibly the inventor, of the personal-computer revolution. Nor did it matter that he was the founder and leader of the company whose products dominated most of the industry. Gates truly believed that he and Microsoft held their position only ...

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