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Quote by Jerry Pournelle

“Gates has always understood Moore's Law better than anyone else in the industry. If you can make something run at all, get it out there -it may be slow and clunky, but hardware improvements will bail you out. If you wait until it's running perfectly on the hardware already in the field, it will be obsolete before it's released. This philosophy built Microsoft and is the main reason Microsoft won the war IBM declared back in the OS/2 days.”

Quote by Jerry Pournelle

Author

Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle

Jerry Pournelle is an influential American science fiction writer born on August 7, 1933. His works are known for their profound philosophical insights and complex narrative structures, having a significant impact on the science fiction genre. more

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