The End of an Era? Which university drop-out became, for a while, the richest man in the world? Yes, it was Bill Gates, who worked his last day at Microsoft this Friday. There are lots of tributes, both on the net and in the conventional media. There are also hordes of analysts trying to figure out exactly what it's going to mean for the future of Microsoft. Some indication of the importance of Bill Gates to Microsoft can be judged from the fact that they have replaced him with three people - Steve Ballmer as CEO, Craig Mundie as chief research and strategy officer, and Ray Ozzie as chief software architect. His replacement as the Open Source fount of all evil has not yet been finalised! Will Microsoft be the same after Bill Gates? Probably not, because he is leaving as the world on which Microsoft was founded is undergoing dramatic changes. Microsoft would have to change even if Bill Gates was still at the helm. It was Microsoft's aim to put a computer in every home and on every desktop (a Microsoft computer, they hoped). Figures published this week suggest that something like a quarter of the world's population now has computers and is connected to the Internet. That's not exactly 'every', but it's a pretty good achievement for one lifetime! I haven't exactly seen eye-to-eye with Microsoft over the years, and neither, it seems has Bill Gates. Take a look at this internal memo from Gates to the XP development people! It reminds me of some of the memos that have come to light over the Vista development! A few years back I was sitting in a pub with a group of programmers discussing some crass thing or other that Microsoft had just done. There was much rolling of eyes and calling for more beer, and the topic drifted over to a consideration of the heads of the major computing companies - Bill Gates, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Scott McNealy of Sun and Steve Jobs of Apple. None of them were exactly popular, but as one programmer put it "At least Bill Gates is one of us. If Ellison was in Gates' position, we would be paying rent for Windows on the basis of the number of computer clock ticks used!" There was general agreement. One of us? I think that's a pretty fair thing to say about Bill Gates, and a serious compliment, coming as it did from a bunch of programmers. So farewell then, Bill Gates - one of us. Have fun in your retirement - maybe even do some Open Source programming... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7465485.stm Originally published in Winding Down 29 June 2008 |
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