In the late 1990s, senior executives at Microsoft -- including then-CEO and co-founder Bill Gates -- were obsessed with what they saw as the biggest threat to the company's domination of the desktop software industry. That threat was the combination of an upstart Web browser called Netscape with a cross-platform, network-friendly piece of software called Java, developed by Sun Microsystems. Starting with the infamous “Internet tidal wave” memo penned by Mr. Gates in May of 1995, Microsoft spent a great deal of its time and energy on trying to combat this threat.
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