Ask Paul: October 28 (Premium)

Hola from Mexico City and Happy Friday! Here’s another great set of reader questions to get the weekend started a little early.
Mary Jo
OldITPro2000 asks:

I was sad to see that this was the last week that Mary Jo will be a regular on Windows Weekly. I've been reading both you and Mary Jo for as long as I can remember, back to when you had the Internet Nexus and she had the Microsoft Watch blog.

Yep. It’s been a long time. Leo and I started Windows Weekly in late 2006, so about 16 years ago, and Mary Jo joined … maybe four years later? Whatever the exact time frame, it’s been a long time.

I vaguely remember the rivalry between you both, so I was glad to see it fade away and you become colleagues and friends. I thought she would be a great addition to Windows Weekly years ago and she certainly was. Like you said, the combination of the two of you plus Leo just worked and reminded me of the crew from The Grand Tour or Inside the NBA where the sum is greater than the parts. Too bad you can't get the same amount of money they all do.

Yep.

I was at a Microsoft event at the Seattle Convention Center in the early 2000s---so, almost certainly a WinHEC---and Todd Bishop, who was then working for the Seattle PI, asked if we could have lunch so he could pick my brain about some things related to Microsoft. Todd is one of the nicest people in the world, and one of the questions he asked me---which is totally innocuous---was which other Microsoft-focused reporters and bloggers I followed. I kind of stammered for a second and then finally had to admit, “I don’t follow any of them.” It was kind of a weird personal thing, I just wanted everything I did to be original and I didn’t want to spend my life rewriting things others had covered first. But it made me feel weird, and I decided I’d start following others and, as importantly, reach out to some of them personally as well. Specifically, some people I considered to be rivals.

Long story short, of the few people I did reach out to, only Mary Jo proved to be an incredible human being. I said this on the show, but most people disappoint me and it usually gets worse over time. She is a rare exception to that, and the more I’ve gotten to know her, the more I respect and love her. I don’t know what this looks like on the outside, but we have an amazing relationship. We have traveled together for work, we’ve traveled together (often with my wife) for fun, and I just enjoy her as a person. She’s a true friend and confidant.

I might have missed it on the show, but did you mention who might be the new co-host? I know you said you were going to fly solo with Leo for a bit and see what happens, but I thought I heard Leo drop a name (besides the said in jest suggestion of Sinofsky, which quite frankly would be epic if just for one episode...the equivalent of the Jobs-Gates D5 interview scaled down to our circle of Microsoft folks).

There’s no new cohost. The probl...