Thread: What do you think of this announcement?

Morning,

I am sure most of you must have heard about Bill Gates *kind of* leaving Microsoft and I was wondering what you thought about it

You can read the full story on the FT: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/fb5a5b88-fc...0779e2340.html

I think it could be good for the future of Microsoft as lots of persons are angry after BG.

What do you think? Could that change the way Microsoft is portrayed?

Ludo

I've always had the impression that Bill Gates has at least some common sense - I dunno why, but to me, he never seemed like the most evil person in the Microsoft empire.

I doubt that anything will change, at least not in a positive way. Microsoft will continue with forcing DRM and other restrictions on their users. And people will happily swallow it down because, well, people are stupid.

The german website golem.de said that one of his tasks after 2008 would involve being a "philanthrop". That totally confused me, because after Windows ME, nobody could possibly believe that. But gladly, they were just talking about him getting more involved with his foundation. And here I was, thinking I missed something important .Phew.

I don't think it will make much difference. Although the media are saying he won't be running the day to day operations of the company any more, in reality he hasn't been doing that for ages - that's what he hired Steve Ballmer for. Gates forte is not running the show, it's as a visionary (whether you like his vision is a different story) and his grass roots are R&D which is where I heard he's spent much more time in recent years.

So I don't think it will mean much for Microsoft. He'll still guide the company as chairman. The charities and other work that he's going to spend his time on will change though - hopefully they can gain some benefits from this new attention he will give.