Microsoft after Gates, Bill without Microsoft

As Bill Gates prepares to walk away from Microsoft, both the man and the company he founded will face challenges getting along without each other, according to the new issue of Newsweek magazine.

Gates, who is stepping down from his full-time role at Microsoft this week to focus on his $37 billion charitable foundation, is the subject of an article that profiles Microsoft's successes and failures during his tenure, as well as the difficult transition the company and its founder will likely face. (CNET News.com plans to publish its own retrospective on Gates' departure, but in the meantime, you might want to refresh yourself with some stories from when the transition was announced.)

We will likely be seeing more of Bill Gates with people such as U2 front man Bono (like in this video), working on famine relief and education.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET News.com)

While the Newsweek story mentions Microsoft's challenges in antitrust probes, Windows Vista versus Windows XP, and the Internet search arena, the story also offers intimate perspectives from the people who know him the best, as well as Gates himself.

"He's not just Bill Gates, he's the Bill Gates," Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO and Gates' right-hand man for decades:

He founded the company, he's accumulated this wealth, he's got this foundation, he's got this fame. That's irreplaceable. Also, Bill grew up with every one of the technologies in this company. He's got more capacity to remember things than anybody I've ever known. It's unlikely we'll have anybody again who has that breadth.

Gates was also responsible for stoking the fires of urgency at the software giant, said Ray Ozzie, who took over Gates' job as chief software architect:

A lot of the company's strength is that Bill created a culture of crisis--if there weren't a Google, we'd have to make one. This is a period of unprecedented strength for the company. If there had to be a time when Bill transitioned out, we couldn't have set it up better than it is right now.

Paul Allen, who co-founded the company with Gates, remarked from the perspective of his own departure from the company in 1983:

You don't always realize how dramatic that transition is going to be when people aren't depending on your decisions day by day.

So how about Bill? Is he going to miss being in the trenches, slugging it out with Apple, Google, and Mozilla? It doesn't sound like it from what he told the magazine:

This whole thing about which operating system somebody uses is a pretty silly thing versus issues involving starvation or death.

[paulwcrain1]

I have known Bill since the DOS 3.0
I want to wish him well on his retirement..HE IS A GREAT MAN !!

[HugeBiotch]

Yo author and editors - it's ROLE, not ROLL...

[C_G_K]

I for one won't be shedding any tears. Good riddance.

Microsoft has held back computer technology by years if not decades. His greed and ego played a large role in Microsoft becoming the huge pseudo-monopoly that it is. The garbage these people put out has made him a billionaire, but the shoddy software has also empowered con artists and criminals like the Russian mafia who have taken advantage of it's poor quality by turning peoples computers into spam zombies, or by extorting money from innocent people through software scams made possible by the atrocious security that windows has.

Gates' motivation has always been greed and power, NEVER putting out a quality product. Windows has been designed from the ground up to lock out competition and take unfair advantage of the fact that people want compatibility with others to make their life and/or job easier.

Don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out Mr Gates.

[benjaminstraight]

Maybe Gates and Buffett will get a condo down south and relax...

[mcwdigital]

What??? I thought he left ages ago. This guy has had more farewell moments than Barbara Streisand!

[p.shearer]

And yet the market loved him. One question for you... if MS products are so bad then why does the NASDAQ run its exchange on them and why aren?t we hearing of them experience constant outages?

[tehrani625]

I would like to point out that the other alternatives have their drawbacks too. As macs gain market share more people will want to hack them and do what they are already doing to windows machines. I would also like to say that a mac can be compromized faster then a windows machine. Then ther is linux and to be honist I can't think of anything off the top of my head thats bad about it except for maby some dodgy hardware support.

[grvn]

History will credit him as person who created a big market which wasn?t there before.

[Chrisa444]

This man is the man of the century and all time- just like the pioneers who invented electricity and also the ford vehicle-
also I live in his neighborhoods- nearby- amazing such a person i keep bumping into wherever i go- move to. I did not know - he is amazing- cant imagine that kind of income- or life either- He was given a gift and Im sure compassion came knocking on his head- gives to the poor. Great person to do this and we would be proud he is an american with this intellegence.

[wolivere]

I remember well the early day's. One one side we had the huge companies with hardware software that where married to each other. Huge costs and fairly locked out systems.

Then Microsoft came around and brought an OS that allowed open development, allowed for an open hardware architecture.

It seamed only yesterday we cheered him on. Over the years we saw more and more people enter the industry.

Yes there where bad times with the good times. Hind sight is always 20 - 20.

But I say thank you.

Today is a much different playing field then 25 years ago.

[loridav1]

Funny you say garbage but more then 90% of the world uses Microsoft because it works. There is no perfect software and never will be as long as we have the human element called personal preference. I can only imagine with out Bill Gates ambitions and drive how far behind we would be today. I am thankful to him and all the others that continue to push the envelope further everyday.

[cdestroyer1]

He was in the right place at the right time. You can't fault him for taking advantage of the situation. It would have been better had the competition for computer software not been so rigorous, maybe there would be other operating system/s available. Business is business. And the computer industry is no different. I can see a future for Linux and I hope it continues.

[satish rao]

I am not sure what kind of man Bill Gates is, but these Java, Sun, IBM and erstwhile Netscape guys are no different, except for the fact that they are infinitely less capable from him in Marketing.
I have seen how ridiculously slow Java is while running as a Desktop application, how ugly it looks and so on. Java has its strengths and MS tools have its own.
I am not sure how and from where these other vendors think they have a high ground over MS. They are equally greedy, and it is a requirement in a capitalist economy anyway.

I think MS is good and all this vilifying of MS is just sour grapes syndrome.

[celticbrewer]

Cheers to Bill. Even if you hate the OS, he's a brilliant man who made a fortune through his ideas and hard work. Windows has the largest market share, yes. Are people restricted from making alternative OSes? No. Can they make them better, cheaper, and more popular? Yes. Has anyone successfully done that? Apparently not, or consumers would have moved on. I'ved used all the major OSes over the ages including OS/2, Mac, and Various Linux Distros. Today, I have 3 Windows PCs at home. I'd gladly change if there was something as flexible, better, and cheaper. Kudos to Bill.

[san2222]

Res Mr. Gates


############Great Full Thanks################



for her Dauther Show Photo

************LokMat*********** Nagpur Indian News Paper



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Who Is Next CEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




i am Software Developer 7Yrs Exp.








Just F'Ship





i am Indian ##########Presently LIving My Native Place############






******************Barghat****************** MP India








Wait for u r Call


Chress




San

[phone]
[e-mail]

[san2222]

HR . Prince Off Brunei
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GreatFull Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
for her **************MARRAGE******************
#############HINDU RELIGON###############
I WISH **************HAPPY LIFE*****************
JUST F'SHIP PERPOSE
WAIT FOR U R CALL
I AM ###############HANDICAPPED PERSON############
PRESENTLY LIVING MY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NATIVE PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #######BARGHAT#####
INDIA
CHRESS
SAN
[phone]
[e-mail]

[fredtheviking]

With all due respect, is it necessary to take pot shoots at Bill, on the news of his retire. Much of your critizique is based on the idea that some other company would have done better than Microsoft. Which is far-fetched, consider IBM and Apple. I doubt either of these companies would have been better. Apple not only lock you in to the software, but to the hardware as well. If Apple won, the market would have long be calling bloody murder (that's why they didn't win). IBM was monopolistic and paid for it later. Microsoft got away with it because OS could on a great deal of hardwar. Also Windows isn't that bad, it gets the job done.