So, with no experience or training as a programmer, he taught himself BASIC and wrote PC-Talk, which was the first (and for a long time the best) communications program for the PC.
What you're going to see -- if you haven't already -- is Xbox Live connecting up to the PC so your presence -- the ability to send messages and talk, you can even play some of the games that are cross-platform enabled -- that Live asset is going to make gaming on Windows a lot better.