Table of Contents

Chronology of Hardcore Software

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• Start reading the eBook immediately on Kindle and many eBook stores worldwide (EPub and PDF, $)

• Audio series narrated by me available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack, and RSS

• And the original on Substack including a treasure trove of artifacts, photos, images, news clippings, and memos

• There’s even a collection of archived videos on YouTube

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If you are looking for a good overview of this substack, see Introducing Hardcore Software.

The following is a chronological table of contents of all posts for Hardcore Software. Each post links to what came before and what comes next or you can come here at any time and read the stories in order. You can also use this page as a quick way to find what you’re looking for if you want to share a post with a friend or co-worker.

Prologue: Becoming a Hacker (1982-1989)

Chapter I (1989-1990)

• 001. Becoming a Microsoftie

• 002. SteveSi

• 003. Klunder College

• 004. Everything is Buggy

• 005. Keeping Busy with Cross-Platform OOP 

• 006. Zero Defects

• 007. Windows 3.0 Buzz

Chapter II (1990-1993)

• 008. Competing with Steve Jobs (the First Time)

• 009. Password is ‘NeXTStep’ 

• 010. Our BillG Review 

• 011. Strategy for the ’90s: Windows

• 012. I Shipped, Therefore I Am

• 013. End of the Beginning

Chapter III (1993-1994)

• 014. Executing on the Expansive Vision of Bill Gates

• 015. Every Group Is Screwed Up

• 016. Filling the Void Left by IBM

• 017. Eyes on Competition, Architecture, and Left Field

• 018. Microsoft’s Two Bountiful Gardens

• 019. BillG the Manager

• 020. Innovation versus Shipping: The Cairo Project

• 021. Expanding Breadth versus Coherency: The EMS Project

• 022. Injecting New Ideas and IQ: The Information Superhighway

• 023. ThinkWeeks

Chapter IV (1994)

• 024. Discovering “Cornell is WIRED!”

• 025. Trapped

• 026. Blue Suede Pumas

• 027. Internet Evangelist

• 028. Pivotal Offsite

• 029. Telling the Untold Story

• 030. My Performance Review (and An Expense Report)

Chapter V (1994-1995)

• 031. Synchronizing Windows and Office (the First Time)

• 032. Winning With the Suite

• 033. Creating the Office Product Unit, OPU 

• 034. Office94, Office96

Chapter VI (1995)

• 035. Windows 95, August or Bust

• 036. Fancy Wizard and Red Squiggles

• 037. Capone and Email Without Typos

• 038. Designed for Windows 95

• 039. Start Me Up

Chapter VII (1995-1997)

• 040. Creating the First “Real” Office

• 041. Scaling the Office Infrastructure and Platform

• 042. Clippy, The F*cking Clown

• 043. DIM Outlook

• 044. Our First Big M&A Deal (Beating Netscape)

• 045. Incompatible Files, Slipping, Office 97 RTM

Chapter VIII (1998-2000)

• 046. Prioritizing a New Type of Customer

• 047. Don’t Ship the Org Chart

• 048. Pizza for 20 Million People

• 049. Go Get This Rock

• 050. The Team's Plan in the Face of Disruption

• 051. HTML: Opportunity, Disruption, or Wedge

• 052. Alleviating Bloatware, First Attempt

• 053. Strategy Tax: Outlook Storage, First Attempt

• 054. Steve and Steven Get New Jobs

• 055. Office 2000 is Good to Go!

• 056. Going Global…Mother Tree

Chapter IX (1999-2001)

• 057. Expanding Office in the Enterprise—Enterprise Agreements

• 058. That Dreaded Word: Unification

• 059. Scaling…Everything

• 060. ILOVEYOU

• 061. BSoD to Watson: The Reliability Journey

• 062. Split Up Microsoft

• 063. Managing the Antitrust Verdict

• 064. The Start of NetDocs v. Office

• 065. SharePoint: Office Builds Our Own Server

• 066. Killing a Killer Feature (In Outlook, Again)

• 067. MYR-CDG: Product Meets Sales

• 068. The XP eXPerience

Chapter X (2001-2003)

• 069. Mega-Scale, Mega-Complexity

• 070. Office.NOT

• 071. Resolving NetDocs v. Office

• 072. Notes on Tablet PC Innovation

• 073. **DO NOT FORWARD**

• 074. Outlook Pride, Finally

• 075. Scaling and Transitions

Chapter XI (2003-2006)

• 076. Betting Big To Fend Off Commoditization / Chasing the Low-End Product

• 077. What Is Software Bloat, Really?

• 078. A Tour of “Ye Olde Museum Of Office Past”

• 079. Competing Designs, Better Design

• 080. Progress from Vision to Beta

• 081. First Feedback and a Surprise

• 082. Defying Conventional Wisdom to Finish Office

Chapter XII (2006-2007)

• 083. Living the Odd-Even Curse [Ch. XII]

• 084. Who Is on Our Team, Exactly?

• 085. The Memo (Part 1)

• 086 The Memo (Part 2)

• 087. Reorg! Why Are We Together, Exactly?

• 088. Planning the Most Important Windows, Ever

• 089. Rebooting the PC Ecosystem

• 090. I’m a Mac

• 091. Cleaning Up Longhorn and Vista

Chapter XIII (2007-2010)

• 092. Platform Disruption…While Building Windows 7 [Ch. XIII]

• 093. Netbook Mania

• 094. First Public Windows 7 Demo

• 095. Welcome to Windows 7, Everyone

• 096. Ultraseven (Launching Windows 7)

Chapter XIV (2010)

• 097. A Plan for a Changing World [Ch. XIV]

• 098. A Sea of Worry at the Consumer Electronics Show

• 099. The Magical iPad

• 100. A Daring and Bold Vision

Chapter XV (2011-2012)

• 101. Reimagining Windows from the Chipset to the Experience: The Chipset [Ch. XV]

• 102. The Experience

• 103. The End of Windows Software

• 104. //build It and They Will Come (Hopefully)

• 105. New Ultrabooks, Old Office, and the Big Consumer Preview

• 106. The Missing Start Menu

• 107. Click In With Surface

Epilogue (2013)

• 108: Epilogue: The End of the PC Revolution

Bonus: A Select Microsoft Bibliography

In Our Memories…

Bonus Posts

• BONUS: Windows 8 Launch October 26, 2012

• BONUS: Innovation in the Context of Success (An Essay)

• BONUS: Jonde on Engineering Excellence

• BONUS: Avoiding Escalation in Decision-Making

• BONUS: Competing With Lotus Notes

• BONUS: Split Up Microsoft and Managing the Verdict

• BONUS: The Journey of the EMS and NT Directory