Barbarians Led by Bill Gates

Edstrom, the daughter of a Microsoft public relations executive, and Eller, a former Microsoft developer who worked on Windows, wrote an insider account of the company's culture and product development during its dominant period.

The substantive content concerns how decisions were actually made. Eller's account of Windows development describes a process driven by competitive response and by internal advocacy rather than by product planning, with technical decisions frequently determined by which group won an internal argument. The authors document the internal politics, the conflict between groups, and the practice of announcing products long before they existed, which they connect to the competitive effect of deterring customers from buying alternatives.

The strategic material covers the relationship with IBM over OS/2, which Microsoft used to gain time while developing Windows; the response to Novell, Lotus and WordPerfect in applications; the internet response after the 1995 memo, including the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows; and the general pattern of entering a category, matching the incumbent's features, and using the platform position to win distribution.

Edstrom and Eller are critical of Gates personally and of the culture, which they describe as combative to the point of dysfunction.

The book was published in 1998, during the antitrust litigation, and reads as a contribution to that argument. Both authors have connections that shape the account, and Microsoft disputed it. It is one perspective from participants with grievances, and readers should treat specific claims accordingly. What it conveys, which more measured histories do not, is how the internal argument actually worked and how much of the company's product direction came from competitive reaction rather than from planning.