Gates steps down

In two years time, to work more with his charitable foundation. About 5 minutes or so of the speech was live on Fox News.

Good for him. He could use a break..

one thing concerns me, though. I always got the impression from Bill that he'd leave Microsoft "when it stopped becoming fun." I wonder if he feels that's happening now.

In July 2008 Bill Gates will switch from Full-time MS and part-time at the Gates Foundation to... the other way 'round, full-time at the Gates Foundation and part-time at MS. Bill is giving up the Chief Software Architect job to Ray Ozzie; there are some other changes in that area (Craig Mundy and Steve Sinofsky are taking larger roles, as are Bob Muglia and others.)

Two year "transition".

Bill doesn't "forsee a time when I won't be the chairman of the board of this company".

Gates added "If Scoble's out, I'm out."

This is exactly the opposite of what investors wanted. Most wanted Bill to come back into more hands on and Steve to go away. Second, this is a two year transition, so it's more like non-news (sorta like your job change). Third, this gives Steve more authority as Ozzie will eventually report to him directly meaning that he grows in importance. That is NUTZ. We need less Steve not more.

People wonder at the power of Steve Jobs... I wonder how people will feel about the transition from Gates to Ballmer with Gates as figurehead to Ballmer with Ozzie as figurehead and Mundy, Muglia, and Sinofsky running the ship. Sad: Gates being the "Sexiest" of those names.

Will the interview cover the step down or is this an interview you did a while ago?

MY GOD, what's in the water in Seattle??? First you split Scoble, now Gates??? Why oh why not Steve???
Oh and let me go ahead and say it before the usual suspects do. Gates/Scoble realized that Vista was a dud .....blah blah blah blab. Actually wish Bill the best of luck.....as I do you Scoble.

Perhaps you could do an exit interview channel 9 video next week with him :)

I'm not listening cause I am speaking to a bunch of Venture Capitalists in Silicon Valley and am doing some other things

You're not listening because you have a better job at a better company waiting for you.

Wow. This is big news. BIG news. What will MS be like without Bill being a full-time presence?

when business has a conscience it gives a bill gates.

bill is the conscience of the industry

Simon's comment really should be part of the post. Bill is not making any changes until July 2008. I suggest you edit your post so that it doesn't look like Bill is stepping down/aside right now. As to whether this is good or bad news...I'll let the pundits and reporters discuss. :)

I figure he decided, "I'm 50. It's time to do something else with the next phase of my life."

Thanks Bill. You've been a great leader for this industry. Now, let's all do cool stuff for your remaining two years!

Well, this is indeed big news -- I wonder how investors are going to react to it. I wish Bill the best of luck, and think his work with the Foundation is obviously much more important (speaking of "the big picture, here) than what he does at MS.

All wrong. It is 100% fact that BillG was made aware of the "Scoble quits Microsoft" brouhaha early last weekend and immediately felt unable to continue in the absence of his Blogger in Chief. "Once Robert decided to leave us, it just didn't seem worth it anymore" Gates has said.

This is statement is true, and has been verified throughout the blogosphere. You won't find it in any reputable mainstream media yet, but that's only because fact-checking takes time.

Video is up ...http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=205005

I wonder if there will be a shift in priorities regarding the role of research at Microsoft.

I just hope he turns things over to Raikes or Ozzie. Can he take Balmer with him? :-)

In spite of a record-setting $6 billion gift to charity, the Microsoft founder is not looking to be a full-time philanthropist. He says, “Software is changing the world, and throughout my lifetime that will continue. That's my life's work.”

Newsweek, August 30, 1999.
http://www.generousgiving.org/page.asp?sec=8&am...

Apparently, he's sick of Windows too.

If it's anything like Vista, he departure will be well delayed.

No need to worry. :D

Future News: Bill Gates was quoted as saying "Hasta La Vista, baby" as he exited in Novemeber, 2008, Vista is supposed to ship early in 2009.

Well, regarding the Jobs comparison, I get the impression that Microsoft is probably a healthier organization behind the scenes. Bill G has never encouraged a cult of personality around him, unlike Jobs.

But, being as successful as Gates means he will always get attention, whether or not he wants it. Apple is Jobs. Microsoft is a lot of people.

Hey guys and girls, dont forget to check out the PressPass site, were you can find the webcasts for this news, worth well watching!

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/j...

It's strongly believed that his departure date is to coincide with what will be the eventual release date for Vista. :)

Good for Bill. Like him or not, he has done incredible things for the computer industry and many, many people including myself made a living off the good and the bad of microsoft networking. Although I am typing this on a MAC, I've lived, breathed, and made money because of the adventurous group out of Redmond.

Ozzie will immediately assume Gates' title as chief software architect and begin working with Gates on overseeing all software technical design.

Wow, all their 'end-of-the-world' paranoia comes to bloom, the start of the Post-Microsoft era begins now, it will take 15 years or so, but the process has already started. But good in the sense of Bill's micromanagement and endless toy projects, that he defended to the teeth, (Tablet, UMPC, Xbox, SPOT, Interactive TV/Cable Ventures, heavy wasteful R&D) are now (more or less) on a lease line. In the end competitors didn't do them in, they themselves did. I predict some come-to-Jesus moment after all things x86 that might save them, Unixy base redoing OSX in Redmonds image, dual OSes for a transitional period, with a powerful enough emu layer, I'd bet.

But perceptionalwise, Ozzie and his Web 2.0 rave dance, oh brother, you guys are in for a rough ride, starting with Wall Street. Low stock price kills morale, and reduces recruitment as Microsoft salaries have always had the rep of being sweatshoppy, that in Seattle no less. And reduced morale feeds on itself and results in brain-drain. All one big evil cycle. But expect the stock price to not move for another two years, as all a wait and see.

Also 2008? Wants to see Vista go gold eh? Getting closer, that's only around 4 or 5 feature drops away.

I wish it was a perfect world and Microsoft would start from scratch and develop a new OS that had no legacy attachments or mandates. Develop it, grow it and let people switch when they can or when they want to. Stop further development for the older software just keep supporting it for a few years unti lthe corporate world finally swithes.

Actually that does not seem so far fetched when they develop several versions of Vista. But what do I know, I just have to use the software not build it.

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ЗЫ: Гейтс — мудак па-любому.

ЗЗЫ: И ниипет.

Joel has a great story about Bill Gates today:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16....

The following just fell through a timewarp:

Dateline Seattle, July 2008: Hot on the heels of this month's release of the Windows VAST! Operating System, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced his retirement. "It's been a hell of a year," he told Apple iNews Director of Publicity Robert Scoble, in an exclusive interview. Ever since we moved to a one-per-month OS release cycle last year, MS has been a hive of activity. I'm 52 now; it's time I spent more time with my family. I can't keep up like I used to." Commentators note that the company's fortunes improved dramatically after Gates took the decision, finally revealed with the release of Windows Vista one year ago, to replace the ageing Windows NT underpinnings with the much more advanced Red Hat Linux 12 'Chapeau' core. The Microsoft share price rose sharply after the announcement and has continued to soar, apart from a slight dip in October when the company acquired and broke up its rival Google in a deal rumoured to be worth USD$1.

Microsoft's new chairman, Gilert Amelio, expressed his best wishes for his successor.

(Duh - s/successor/predecessor/ and add a missing double quote before 'Ever since'. I hate web forms.)

All wrong. It is 100% fact that BillG was made aware of the “Scoble quits Microsoft” brouhaha early last weekend and immediately felt unable to continue in the absence of his Blogger in Chief. “Once Robert decided to leave us, it just didn’t seem worth it anymore” Gates has said.

Hahahaa. Thats what I was thinking. Scoble will Gates miss you that much? :)
I think its a beautiful love story.

Bill Gates is an amazing person. He will do great things for charities.

Phil

I am happy that Bill Gates is going to focus on charity works more. I am sure he can win over there too. However, I wonder if he is going to join Linux movement to give everyone a free operating system. Really, that can be a great charity work.

Please Contact Neil From BBC NEWSNIGHT ASAP + 44 208 624 9800 Thanks.

Bill without his blogger would have been lost. BTW, Ray Ozzie has his own personal blog and he wrote some really interesting posts like "Really Simple Sharing" or "Wiring the Web". Microsoft will switch into more collaboration with Ozzie and that is needed in a developing web 2.0 environment.

Interesting to see what happens to his software design. The big example of how his personality impacts upon his software (for me, but I'm biased as a voice & presentation skills trainer) is in PowerPoint. BG's great at what he does but what he does is... push in lots of features: that's how he works.

It's how all geeks worth and God bless 'em for it. But that's not the right way with presentation software. That needs to be written from a user-perspective more than any other package, because most users don't want to be - not many people like giving presentations, so they use the software to hide behind.

Couple that fear with the tendency of the software to encourage you to think in a certain way (lots of detail, bullit points etc.) and you've got a recipie for a bad presentation.

.... and I think that stems from the top at MS.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.....

Simon

Hard to imagine what microsoft will look like without him, he can do a lot of good with charities now, but .. maybe he knows Vista will be a failure and he doesn't want to take credit lol

There is nothing more wonderful than to do charity for them. They have everything.......giving is never ending.....

I wonder if the charity bus stalls if Bill will need to pull over roll the windows up and down with the ignition in the accessory position 3 or 4 times then lock the doors and flush the toilet in order to restart the bus?

Good Luck Bill G.

Tadd