someone could expound that the departure of bill gates from microsoft is just part of the natural business cycle. when john warnock and charles geschke left adobe systems, it could have been a ending point to photoshop, illustrator, and postcript, but the transition team was successful and i know microsoft will drive toward its inevitable end.
microsoft has it’s foothold, some say a monopoly on the desktop, server, and database industries. microsoft is moving rapidly into the storage arena, and trying to grab the digital living room. bill gates is just one guy, but he was the headliner for microsoft making presentations at comdex, CES, RSA, and winHEC. a portion of the microsoft initiatives have broken, but other actions have become dominant like windows OS, and the office suite. microsoft powerpoint is synonymous with presentation. microsoft word and .doc is equivalent to digital documents.
bill gates is not leaving due to windows flaws, windows viruses, windows spyware, or delayed windows vista. he truly wants to spend his billions on making a dent in world health and education. will bill gates become the next andrew carnegie? we’ll see.