Ronald Beekelaar is a man of many talents. A qualified computer scientist, he has been involved in training and certification within the Microsoft ecosystem since the 1990s. Following the introduction of virtualisation in the early 2000s, he swiftly became one of the foremost experts in this area. Initially, he focused on VMware products, but with the release of Hyper-V — Microsoft’s first in-house hypervisor development — Microsoft’s solution became the centre of his work. He founded Virsoft, developing it into one of the leading lab hosting providers.
During the 2026 MCT Summit in Sarajevo, I spoke to Ronald about his education in the Netherlands and the USA, learning and teaching in the 1990s, and his views on cultural differences in learning between continents. We also discussed the future of teaching and learning in the age of artificial intelligence, learning with disabilities and his unique experiences with the Dutch royal family.
The interview was recorded on April 23, 2026 in Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
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Show notes
- Ronald on LinkedIn
- Ronald’s company: virsoft.net
- Utrecht (WP)
- Pascal programming language (WP)
- Cognitive Science at Princeton University: cogsci.princeton.edu
- Connectix: Virtual PC, Virtual Server (WP)
- Microsoft Accquires Connectix Virtual Machine Technology
- The history of Hyper-V (backupchain.net)
- Introducing Windows Admin Center: Virtualization Mode (vMode) (techcommunity.microsoft.com)
- Two years after Broadcom acquisition: VMware exodus fails to materialize (Heise online)
- Proxmox
- MCT Summit Sarjaveo 2026 (mctsummit.eu)
- Learning and teaching in Dutch: “leren” (dictionary.cambridge.org)
- Anders Hejlsberg (WP), (YT)
- Anders signing Ronald’s book (Facebook)
- Learning (WP)
- Mark Russinovich (Mark’s blog at azure.microsoft.com)
- Putting the “You” in CPU (https://cpu.land)
- x86 Assembly Language Programming (cs.lmu.edu)
- History of artificial intelligence (WP)
- History Of Programming Languages (https://javaconceptoftheday.com)
- Liberty Munson (LinkedIn)
- Mark Russinovich, Scott Hanselman: Redefining the Software Engineering Profession for AI (dl.acm.org)
- Stevie Wonder (YouTube)
- Princess Maria Christina (WP)
- Arnold Schwarzenegger on Special Olympics (FB)
- Microsoft CEO’s son remembered for love of music, profound impact on his dad (geekwire.com)
- Tim Berners Lee: Weaving the Web (WP)
- John Gruber about Markdown (https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)
- Claude by Anthropic (claude.ai)
- Hugo (WP)
- Marp: Markdown Presentation Ecosystem (marp.app)
- Sudoku (WP)
- Jimmy Carr: it’s the Happiness of the Pursuit (YT)
Chapters
00:00:36.482 From IT to Teaching
00:03:05.925 Choosing Computers
00:10:27.709 Hyper-V’s Microsoft Path
00:15:53.777 Learning Across Decades
00:18:04.155 Teaching and Learning
00:20:41.246 Slides versus Hands-On
00:26:47.485 Imitation Builds Skill
00:32:40.808 Cultural Learning Styles
00:41:02.922 AI Changes Everything
00:46:56.761 Exams in the Background
00:52:14.823 Mentoring Future Experts
00:58:12.748 What Skills Still Matter
01:04:16.195 Accessibility and Special Needs
01:05:42.832 Princess Christina’s Lesson
01:14:13.116 Satya’s Accessibility Drive
01:18:53.229 Markdown and the Web
01:25:16.405 Markdown in Practice
01:28:00.017 Learn for the Joy
Transcript
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