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> Gates got pissed when he realized he had lost the browser wars

Gates announced his retirement in 2006. At which point IE's world market share was between 85.33% - 90.01%

Hardly what I'd call having lost a war.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers

The writing was on the wall long before 2006.

Browser marketshare was only one metric for winning. Controlling the way browsers worked and how people used them was much more important. "Embrace, extend, extinguish" never got much farther than the first stage.

What's the point of doing all the work and paying for all the support if you can't control the game?

It's more appropriate to say he lost to the internet. Even by 2006 it was obvious that OS didn't matter any more. Not that I agree with the grandparent.

And post 2007, smartphones have shown that the the OS really does still matter.

The OS has always mattered. Do you really think that all the businesses that run Windows could just switch away from it with no pain? Gimme a break.

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