Bill Gates Announces Stepping Aside
I'd be remiss in my blogging duties if I didn't take a few moments to reflect on yesterday.
I'm an old-timer in computer years. I'm a few years younger than Bill Gates, but I started writing code a couple / three years after he did (I started in 1975 when I was 12). Computers have changed a lot since then. And a lot of those changes can be traced directly or indirectly back to Bill Gates and Microsoft.
I rarely meet someone in IT these days who doesn't have an opinion about Bill. Some hate him and others love him. Critics have been less vocal as Bill and Melinda have poured so much of themselves and their money into the Gates Foundation.
I have always admired Bill. He cofounded a company and co-led it from a couple geeks to a huge corporation. More than any other company - including IBM and Apple and Sun - Microsoft has worked to bring the power of personal computers to the masses. They are rarely first, and they don't always get it right on the first attempt, but they do a couple things better than most competing companies: 1) deliver value; and 2) integrate.
I'll start with integration. The idea of how integration works can be seen most recently in Team Foundation Server and Team System. Project management, software development, testing, and quality reporting and control are all now integrated into the developer's IDE and available to all in the enterprise via Reporting Services and Windows Sharepoint Services. This is just the latest example - there are lots more. What struck me early on as I began working with Microsoft Office was how much I learned about Excel while learning Word - and vice versa. That's integration too. An idea in one tool translates to all tools in the suite. And Microsoft has always integrated very well.
Then there's value. Microsoft software is roundly (and rightly, sometimes) criticized for security gaps and software bugs. But no one complains about the price. The reason? Microsoft software is a darn good deal! It always has been. When comparing bang-for-buck, there's always a sector - a large sector too - of the business community where Microsoft is simply the best horse on the track.
From a business perspective, I believe the comments made yesterday at the press conference: they've been planning this for some time, and the company will continue to innovate, lead, and consume marketshare. For Microsoft, I don't see this as devastating or even necessarily a bad thing.
For me personally, there has always been a sense of comfort and confidence in the knowledge that Bill was there somewhere with his hand on or near the rudder. I'll miss that sense of comfort, but I have confidence he wouldn't hand leave the company in the hands of incapable folks. And I believe he's leaving Microsoft in very capable hands.
Personally, I wish Bill and Melinda all the success in the world with the Foundation. To Bill, I would just like to say, "Thanks."
:{> Andy
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