Windows NT-ийн хөгжүүлэлтийн явцад Microsoft-ын баг өрсөлдөгч компаниуд руугаа авс илгээж байсан сонирхолтой түүхийг тус системийн ерөнхий архитектор Дэйв Катлер хуваалцжээ.
Дэйв Катлер болон түүний багийнхан 1990-ээд оны үед Sun Microsystems-ийн үүсгэн байгуулагч Скотт Макнили болон IBM-ийн Ли Рейсвиг нарт зориулан тусгайлан бэлдсэн авс илгээж байв. Энэхүү авс дотор үхлийн марш аялгууг тоглодог төрсөн өдрийн мэндчилгээний хуудас болон хиймэл нохойн баас хийж, гардуулан өгч байжээ.
Энэхүү хачин жигтэй үйлдлийн шалтгаан нь Sun Microsystems-ийн зүгээс өөрсдийн сурталчилгаанд Microsoft-ыг доромжилсон утга агуулга бүхий дүрслэлийг ашигласантай холбоотой байв. Тухайн үед Sun Microsystems нь өөрийн сурталчилгаандаа “Network” нэртэй нохойг ашиглан Microsoft-ын нэрийг гутаахыг оролдсон нь Катлерийн багийнхны уурыг хүргэсэн байна.
Технологийн салбарын өрсөлдөөн ийнхүү хурц хэлбэртэй байсан бөгөөд гурав дахь авсыг Ларри Эллисонд илгээхээр төлөвлөж байсан ч уг төлөвлөгөө хэрэгжээгүй ажээ. Өнөөгийн нөхцөлд иймэрхүү үйлдлийг хүлээж авах нь эргэлзээтэй ч тухайн үеийн технологийн салбарын “мэдээллийн дайн” хэрхэн өрнөж байсныг энэ түүх илтгэж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
No matter how smart you are, there’s always room for a little childish fun. Or an ominous threat to your rivals, one of the two. Ex-Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer interviewed the chief architect and designer of Windows NT, Dave Cutler, on his YouTube channel back in 2023, and I’ve just got around to the highlights after he reshared it on X.
By highlights I mean, the juicy stuff. Plummer kicks off asking Cutler about a “legend” regarding a gift sent to competing Sun Microsystems around the launch of Windows NT, and he was only too happy to provide the details.
“We decided that [Sun Microsystems co-founder] Scott McNealy was kind of mealy-mouthed, and there were some other people around that were a little bit that way too,” said Cutler, directly referencing Lee Reiswig at IBM. “Somebody, and I don’t know who it was… found these black cardboard coffins, and they were about two feet long.”
“So we decided that we would send Scott McNealy and Lee Reiswig a coffin, and we would put a special message in it,” Cutler continued. “We found a birthday card that played the Death March… so we sent one of these to Lee Reiswig, and we sent one to Scott McNealy.” So far, so oddly macabre. However, the fun didn’t stop there:
“At the time, Sun was running ads with… they had a dog, and the dog’s name was Network,” Cutler continued. “And Scott McNealy is reputed to have brought Network on the stage at one of his talks, with a fire hydrant, and had the dog go over and urinate on the fire hydrant, and it said Microsoft.”
A low blow, for sure. However, Cutler and the team had a… well, let’s just say it was a fitting response:
“We got some fake dog do and put it in the box… both of these we had hand delivered, so we know that they actually showed up.”
“We had a third one,” Cutler helpfully adds. “I forget who we were going to send the third. The third one might have been going to Larry Ellison or somebody else… but that one never went off.”
I’m sure Ellison is mopping his brow in relief. Anyway, it sure got feisty back in the day between tech nerds, didn’t it? While I think the coffins may be viewed in a less positive light if they were sent between rivals today, fake dog poop? Sure thing. Better than a slanging match on X, don’tcha think?
