This edginess may be traced straight back to Gates - a CEO who will not concede that a 90 percent market share amounts to a monopoly. It is one of Microsoft's defining traits, the primary force in its corporate culture. To its competitors and critics, Microsoft's combination of edginess and power is like a teenager with a machine gun. Where you find a dead body, a bloody knife, fingerprints and a motive, there may have been a crime. People imbued in the Microsoft culture, however, see the company as a classically capitalist institution.
People believe they're doing the right thing, that they're helping the world.
Sales are a simple indicator of success. Ted Stefanik, a bear of a man who tops six feet, arrived in Redmond with a grudging respect for the company. He was one of more than 30 Microsoft employees or ex-employees who agreed to be interviewed for this story, which was reported between March and August. The problem is, Microsoft doesn't stop when it comes out with a bad product. In the Microsoft universe, FrontPage is a tiny but rising star.