Goodbye to Bill Gates on June 27... but it's not goodbye forever!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 22 June 2008 17:24

Opinion and Analysis

But Microsoft has always planned ahead, even if it has had to change it plans several times, and the huge organisation that is Microsoft will hardly be falling to pieces just because Bill Gates won’t be coming into the office any more.

As noted in the introduction, Gates will remain the Chairman of the Board, and remains Microsoft’s largest shareholder.

Steve Ballmer will always have the ear of Bill Gates if needed, and Gates has plenty of years left in him yet.

Being born in 1974, a year before the birth of Microsoft, I’ve grown up with Microsoft, played with almost all of its creations, and have lived through the impact Microsoft has had, and continues having, as I write this article in Vista SP1 and Office 2007.

Gates’ presentations at CES will be missed too, even if they were never as dynamic as those from Steve Jobs with the iPhone or anything Mac, but I’m sure he’ll be back from time to time to talk technology and "the magic of software" anyway.

Bill Gates may be officially leaving his day-to-day work at Microsoft on Friday June 27. But he definitely won’t be leaving the stage any time soon!