Gates Stepping Down in 2008

Thanks Bill!

You may have created the 800 lbs gorilla that every one loves to bitch about, but it was the best damn 800 lbs gorilla on the market. Thanks for leading the way in getting affordable computing power in virtually every house in the civilized world. Thanks for getting hardware manufactures to settle on common standards. Thanks for producing a platform that will secure my income for decades to come.

You may not have been directly responsible for all these things but you and your company had a huge influence on the events of the last 20 years. Thanks.

I AM PUMPED about this.

For all you corporate IT dudes out there, Ray Ozzie (new chief architect) was one of the principal architects of Lotus Notes which shook the world in terms of secure collaboration.

Ray went on to found Groove Networks and their Secure Workspace product which is the shizzle for nizzle. If you haven't been using it, you should have been. It's Lotus Notes on P2P steroids and it rocks.

The M$ mothership moved in and assimilated Groove about 9 months ago, getting Ray Ozzie in the deal.

Smart, smart move on M$ part. But then again, nobody of intelligence ever accused Bill Gates of being an idiot.

I like Bill Gates. Seriously he's a good guy, he somehow doesn't piss anyone off even though he's got all the money in the world but mostly he does true charity work.

With MS bleeding top notch programmers and Vista turning out to be a bloated mess, I bet Gates see's the writing on the wall and wants to jump ship so he's not remembered as the guy that brought down one of the most powerful corporations in history.

oh my god what the fuck barbeque breaking news !!!!! one one neoneoneoneo

Weird seeing this. Microsoft IS Bill Gates.

i wonder how this affected MSFT's stock.

Couple of things:

1. I'm already seeing threads in forums (like that cesspool Slashdot) where people are belittling Gates' charitable contributions because it's not 50% of Microsoft's annual revenue or whatever. That's sanctimonious bullshit and the people that spew it are pigheads. I don't see them donating 50% of their income.

2. Many of the same people are claiming that Microsoft's woman-raping and baby-eating from before - or, at least, that's what their tone would have you believe happened - somehow invalidates everything that Gates and his wife have personally done in the name of philanthropy. "NEVAR FORGET THE ANTITRUST TRIAL." They sound more like Republicans talking about 9/11 than they'd ever admit. Fuck that noise as well. Hell, some of us don't even agree with the judge's original decision and think that MS has done nothing worthy of all the crucifixion and demonization that they've received.

Bill Gates has my firm respect for being an individual of exceptional intelligence in both technology and business, and for being one of this world's biggest philanthropists. I think his advisory capacity for Microsoft will prove to be very beneficial.

This makes me want to pop in the old VHS of "Pirates of Silicon Valley." Such a great made for TV movie.

How much has the foundation given over the years?

I wish that I had such an enormous amount of money that I had to quit my job just to manage it. So much respect for Bill Gates. And yet somehow he's a villian compared to dirty ol Steve Jobs.

Even Bill knows Vista is going to suck.

link to the press conference thing:

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=f1df9ee2-6887-4e83-b389-c9e8272f740b&f=00&fg=copy

about 10mins long.

THE NEXT DAY AFTER BILL GATE'S LAST DAY REPORT.

microsoft corruption charges are handed down byt the DOJ. and MS files for chapter 11 bankruptcy.


NEWS AT 11

The Road Ahead! I get it!

wtg Bill.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

wonder how the market's reacting to this.... hmm.... MS stock might cheapen in the short term

wow thats awesome news for Gates. very very cool

I would of done this...about 10 years ago.....

Bow down to your new master - Ray Ozzie