[solarkraft]

> Microsoft said they wanted not just to license the image for use as Windows XP's default wallpaper, but to buy all the rights to it. They offered O'Rear what he says is the second-largest payment ever made to a photographer for a single image

> "I don't think the engineers or anybody at Microsoft had any idea it would have the success it had

They also flew him out to deliver it. I feel like they had an idea of what they had.