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.