Microsoft's roots are as a company full of hackers. Gates was coding up traffic software in high school and dropped out of Harvard to found a startup. Even through the wild 25 year ride of building a company on a well timed pivot around the lucky success of Windows, in fine Seattle tradition it built the skunkworks that is Microsoft Research.

The increasingly apparent changes in direction relative to open source, end user OS pricing, and nondenominational hardware specification indicate a possible return to those core valued of the company's early days.

Microsoft's hardware has always been excellent. I wonder why they insist on making software :-P

Applesoft Basic, the principal "firmware" of the Apple II, was a derivative of Microsoft Basic.

"Apple reportedly obtained an eight-year license for Applesoft BASIC from Microsoft for a flat fee of $21,000, renewing it in 1985 through an arrangement that gave Microsoft the rights and source code for Apple's Macintosh version of BASIC." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applesoft_BASIC]

Accessories for the Apple II is just an afterthought, really; kind of like Microsoft keyboards and mice for a Windows PC. :)

I had the Z80 card in my Apple ][ and ran CP/M more often than the Apple's own OS.

I still own that card. Used it to run cp/m in order to run Wordstar. FYI, Microsoft also wrote Applesoft Basic.

I also owned one and used Wordstar on CP/M. Also, Borland's Turbo Pascal!