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Renegades of the Empire: How Three Software Warriors Started a Revolution Behind the Walls of Fortress Microsoft
The "Beastie Boys" did whatever it took to make their revolution happen. . . .
St. John's disregard for Microsoft authority figures was equaled only by the game developers' antipathy for the big Redmond company. No one knew how far he might go until his boss put him in charge of a presentation to the trade press.
St. John emerged on stage at the Microsoft theater and told the trade-press "Yep, I know what you guys think about Windows."
He booted up a computer. The blue start-up screen with clouds and Windows 3.1 logo came to life on a large display. A graphic of a shotgun barrel rose from the bottom of the screen. With the audience looking down its sights, the gun blasted five holes in the logo. The press erupted with laughter and approving applause.
Microsoft's senior marketing vice president turned crimson and told St. John's boss, Rick Segal, "You gotta fire this guy."
Segal set the marketing guy straight.
"I looked him right in the face and, said, 'You don't have a clue. They think you're a slime bag and now they think he's a hero.'
"Competing in the high-tech computer market is a lot like war--especially if you work at Microsoft. Bill Gates's gladiators--his engineers and evangelists and programmers--were famous for seizing new terrain, converting nonbelievers, and always winning, no matter what the cost. No one took the lessons of the Microsoft way more to heart than Craig Eisler, Eric Engstrom, and Alex St. John, a trio of evangelists and software engineers who, more than anything, wanted to conquer a market on their own.
Their first attempt was a top-secret effort to make Windows do what it had never done play games. Turning their well-honed combat skills on their own company, the trio--often called the "Beastie Boys"--rammed DirectX, their game project, through, first without permission, then without regard for political correctness, protocol, or budget restraints. The battle spilled from the halls of Microsoft into the international gaming community, but within months, DirectX was being used in every one of the best-selling games for the PC.
The "Beastie Boys" had won the battle, but they received so few rewards that they felt as if they'd lost the war. So they set their sights on the Internet. Their new Chrome, a Web browser that could bring television-quality animated graphics to the Internet. It was every Microsoft marketer's dream, every competitor's nightmare. It should have changed the Internet and the lives of millions, none more than those of the three designers.
Michael Drummond gained exclusive access to this trio's story--the tale of a rise, a fall, and, perhaps, a triumph. In telling it, he gives us the most revealing glimpse yet into the world's most successful company. Renegades of the Empire isn't just a story of a nascent technology--it's a primer on how to get rid of your boss, how to bury your expenses on someone else's balance sheet, and when to put on your Viking costume and walk the halls swinging an ax if you want to get things done. It is a story of fascinating science and high-tech boys and their toys, but even more, it is the story of how three engineers turned the might of an empire to their own ends.
St. John's disregard for Microsoft authority figures was equaled only by the game developers' antipathy for the big Redmond company. No one knew how far he might go until his boss put him in charge of a presentation to the trade press.
St. John emerged on stage at the Microsoft theater and told the trade-press "Yep, I know what you guys think about Windows."
He booted up a computer. The blue start-up screen with clouds and Windows 3.1 logo came to life on a large display. A graphic of a shotgun barrel rose from the bottom of the screen. With the audience looking down its sights, the gun blasted five holes in the logo. The press erupted with laughter and approving applause.
Microsoft's senior marketing vice president turned crimson and told St. John's boss, Rick Segal, "You gotta fire this guy."
Segal set the marketing guy straight.
"I looked him right in the face and, said, 'You don't have a clue. They think you're a slime bag and now they think he's a hero.'
"Competing in the high-tech computer market is a lot like war--especially if you work at Microsoft. Bill Gates's gladiators--his engineers and evangelists and programmers--were famous for seizing new terrain, converting nonbelievers, and always winning, no matter what the cost. No one took the lessons of the Microsoft way more to heart than Craig Eisler, Eric Engstrom, and Alex St. John, a trio of evangelists and software engineers who, more than anything, wanted to conquer a market on their own.
Their first attempt was a top-secret effort to make Windows do what it had never done play games. Turning their well-honed combat skills on their own company, the trio--often called the "Beastie Boys"--rammed DirectX, their game project, through, first without permission, then without regard for political correctness, protocol, or budget restraints. The battle spilled from the halls of Microsoft into the international gaming community, but within months, DirectX was being used in every one of the best-selling games for the PC.
The "Beastie Boys" had won the battle, but they received so few rewards that they felt as if they'd lost the war. So they set their sights on the Internet. Their new Chrome, a Web browser that could bring television-quality animated graphics to the Internet. It was every Microsoft marketer's dream, every competitor's nightmare. It should have changed the Internet and the lives of millions, none more than those of the three designers.
Michael Drummond gained exclusive access to this trio's story--the tale of a rise, a fall, and, perhaps, a triumph. In telling it, he gives us the most revealing glimpse yet into the world's most successful company. Renegades of the Empire isn't just a story of a nascent technology--it's a primer on how to get rid of your boss, how to bury your expenses on someone else's balance sheet, and when to put on your Viking costume and walk the halls swinging an ax if you want to get things done. It is a story of fascinating science and high-tech boys and their toys, but even more, it is the story of how three engineers turned the might of an empire to their own ends.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
4 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 24, 2018
This book could have been told in 10 pages...3 internal to Microsoft insanely smart developers figured out a way to corner the market with directx..that’s it
January 3, 2025
Amazon does not let me to post the review on their site, so posting it here.
This is an awesome book. Some other people rate this book very low, because it is not a nice fairy tale. It is the real story of the birth of DirectX and rise of power of Microsoft in Multimedia (which resulted in the temporary death of Apple (Macintosh)). I truly appreciate that the writer gave the story as it was and did not invent a happy success story full of baloney and lies. Despite this, the history documented here somewhat resembles a cynical, sarcastic and surrealistic dungeons and dragon's tale for adults.
First character is orc chieftain Alex St. John. One bully, loudmouth and megalomaniac liar. He was anything but a man. He did start DirectX, a fast multimedia library that Windows critically lacked. It is laudable as he took on risk and paid the early DirectX programmers with his company credit card reserved for travel and like. But eventually he spiraled out under the ever-growing pressure that he generated. Because he could not take the initial pressure to begin with. He stayed like that during his entire life, one conceited reactionist. I saw later interviews where he bragged on how good he is in making what it takes to succeed. For example, he fired people that previously he hired, (even played Magic the Gathering with them) in order to make the profits for his investors. He left out his obvious mistake in hiring people then realizing that you do not need them or not having a good business plan. He also left out that soon he would have been fired by the investors.
In his writings he even had the audacity to frame his insensitivity as higher intelligence. I am not impressed by simple antisocial behavior and technology patents (I have patents myself and they are not a big thing). His career is littered with short lived startups that initially showed some success, but later probably were abandoned as they collided with reality.
Second character is one greedy farm pig-rat named Eric Engstrom. He definitely looked and behaved like one. One shameless and remorseless internal saboteur, hoarder and boorish creature. After launching DirectX, this simple-minded wannabe had the “original idea” in combining DirectX and the Internet. (Today we have reactive design, but it came via CSS. Anything else is niche.) Working without a business plan and metric helped him to believe in it. Of course it failed. Later in life he stayed cocksure to his method, pushing people towards murky visions of two buzzword combinations. On paper it might look good (successful), but I am skeptical.
Third character is a turmoil raining wizard named Craig Eisler. This guy could conjure real spaghetti mountains and endless quagmires. While it helped to get DirectX off the ground (1.0), the real work came later from professional programmers that wrote the better and newer versions. At least this person changed during the journey. After divorcing from his first wife, he got the message that one can do irreversible damage.
As I said I am very grateful for the writer in detailing this bloody birth as it was. Some of the foul plays and rushed mistakes are truly awful even from a truthful technological perspective (like trying to sabotage OpenGL and the choice of coordinate system for DirectX), but that does not make the book a low rated one. Amazing satirical language too, all props to the writer Michael Drummond. One similar book is Chaos Monkey.
Those who want to read nice, impressive lies and fluff should read “Winning by Jack Welch” or “Becoming by Michelle Obama”.
This is an awesome book. Some other people rate this book very low, because it is not a nice fairy tale. It is the real story of the birth of DirectX and rise of power of Microsoft in Multimedia (which resulted in the temporary death of Apple (Macintosh)). I truly appreciate that the writer gave the story as it was and did not invent a happy success story full of baloney and lies. Despite this, the history documented here somewhat resembles a cynical, sarcastic and surrealistic dungeons and dragon's tale for adults.
First character is orc chieftain Alex St. John. One bully, loudmouth and megalomaniac liar. He was anything but a man. He did start DirectX, a fast multimedia library that Windows critically lacked. It is laudable as he took on risk and paid the early DirectX programmers with his company credit card reserved for travel and like. But eventually he spiraled out under the ever-growing pressure that he generated. Because he could not take the initial pressure to begin with. He stayed like that during his entire life, one conceited reactionist. I saw later interviews where he bragged on how good he is in making what it takes to succeed. For example, he fired people that previously he hired, (even played Magic the Gathering with them) in order to make the profits for his investors. He left out his obvious mistake in hiring people then realizing that you do not need them or not having a good business plan. He also left out that soon he would have been fired by the investors.
In his writings he even had the audacity to frame his insensitivity as higher intelligence. I am not impressed by simple antisocial behavior and technology patents (I have patents myself and they are not a big thing). His career is littered with short lived startups that initially showed some success, but later probably were abandoned as they collided with reality.
Second character is one greedy farm pig-rat named Eric Engstrom. He definitely looked and behaved like one. One shameless and remorseless internal saboteur, hoarder and boorish creature. After launching DirectX, this simple-minded wannabe had the “original idea” in combining DirectX and the Internet. (Today we have reactive design, but it came via CSS. Anything else is niche.) Working without a business plan and metric helped him to believe in it. Of course it failed. Later in life he stayed cocksure to his method, pushing people towards murky visions of two buzzword combinations. On paper it might look good (successful), but I am skeptical.
Third character is a turmoil raining wizard named Craig Eisler. This guy could conjure real spaghetti mountains and endless quagmires. While it helped to get DirectX off the ground (1.0), the real work came later from professional programmers that wrote the better and newer versions. At least this person changed during the journey. After divorcing from his first wife, he got the message that one can do irreversible damage.
As I said I am very grateful for the writer in detailing this bloody birth as it was. Some of the foul plays and rushed mistakes are truly awful even from a truthful technological perspective (like trying to sabotage OpenGL and the choice of coordinate system for DirectX), but that does not make the book a low rated one. Amazing satirical language too, all props to the writer Michael Drummond. One similar book is Chaos Monkey.
Those who want to read nice, impressive lies and fluff should read “Winning by Jack Welch” or “Becoming by Michelle Obama”.
July 15, 2019
I'm conflicted about this book, on one hand it is pretty amazing to get to know about the inception of a technology like DirectX, on the other hand, I'm flabbergasted by the unhealthy work environments described in the book. I'm not sure how much of this sentiment can be attributed to how the author decided to portray the stories. I must also say that the constant name-dropping made it more difficult to stay engaged and keep track of who was backstabbing who.
Overall the book reads more like a morbid curiosity about a time when the macho-programmer attitude was the standard. I can't say I would recommend this with a straight face to anyone.
Overall the book reads more like a morbid curiosity about a time when the macho-programmer attitude was the standard. I can't say I would recommend this with a straight face to anyone.
June 15, 2021
This book provides quite an interesting insight on how Microsoft was in the early 1990s and the subsequent browser wars. It also shows how the trio created DirectX which was an afterthought to Windows 95. Thanks to the trio, gaming was possible on future iterations of Windows and it's quite a read to see how they pulled it off and eventually their careers post DirectX. Recommended if you want to dive into the story of DirectX and the atmosphere of Microsoft in the 1990s.
March 7, 2021
“No good deed shall go unpunished”. A quote that accurately describes Microsoft during the 90s and 00s.
December 17, 2009
This book tells the story of Chrome's development within Microsoft, focusing on three people that were instrumental in its design, from the history that led to its initial design through the time that it was canceled.
What was Chrome? As far as I can tell, Chrome-enabled web browsers would be able to process Chrome effects on web pages, to do great things like make 3D text bounce around the screen (a la screensavers from 1997) or make a web page look like it's being flushed down a drain. And because this was so revolutionary and important, people would be willing to pay big bucks for the software.
The best part of this book is the insight it gives into Microsoft, especially since it describes Microsoft of recent years instead of the early times as most Microsoft books do. The worst part of the book is that it focuses on three whiny dudes that I never card much about, and talks about a software product that I didn't really understand.
What was Chrome? As far as I can tell, Chrome-enabled web browsers would be able to process Chrome effects on web pages, to do great things like make 3D text bounce around the screen (a la screensavers from 1997) or make a web page look like it's being flushed down a drain. And because this was so revolutionary and important, people would be willing to pay big bucks for the software.
The best part of this book is the insight it gives into Microsoft, especially since it describes Microsoft of recent years instead of the early times as most Microsoft books do. The worst part of the book is that it focuses on three whiny dudes that I never card much about, and talks about a software product that I didn't really understand.
November 10, 2008
Alex St. John, Craig Eisler, and Eric Engstrom were three "Evangelists" that worked on the Direct X and ChromEffects projects within Microsoft in the late 1990's. Michael Drummond tells the story of these products from the point of view of this trio.
It's a little weird to be reading a book about these products a decade after they first came out--in computer terms, that's an eon ago. Getting all excited about being able to have an OS capable of "multimedia" seems quaint.
The book suffers for another reason: Drummond drops a ton of names and events into his narrative, some interesting, some not. I was overwhelmed trying to keep track of the important characters vs. the inconsequential ones.
It's a little weird to be reading a book about these products a decade after they first came out--in computer terms, that's an eon ago. Getting all excited about being able to have an OS capable of "multimedia" seems quaint.
The book suffers for another reason: Drummond drops a ton of names and events into his narrative, some interesting, some not. I was overwhelmed trying to keep track of the important characters vs. the inconsequential ones.
January 21, 2013
Like "Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft. " this book has a lot of inside info, but a bit more on the techie side.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews