Bill's supposed to quit soon, right?
He has stepped down, & handed Mr. S. Ballmer his former title iirc, CEO... & Ray Ozzie is now taking a HUGE role as well as "software architect" (role Mr. Gates later assumed), see here, current as of today (10/05/2006) for your reference/FYI from "WIRED" magazine, a reliable source:
Rebuilding Microsoft
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/microsoft.html
Jim Allchin's on his way out too... remember - these guys? They're OLD by now, even older (lol) than me!
* Decent read I suppose... place, imo @ least, won't be the same w/out "King Billy" @ the helm... but, I'd wager he STILL has a HUGE SAY (if not controlling stock interest @ 51% or better, in MS, no matter what)...
APK
P.S.=> I don't get it though, why folks "hate" Mr. Gates... he's literally changed the world & how we think & communicate!
E.G.'s - Windows is VERY reliable now, & getting better all the time... Office apps are great stuff, period, & the MOST widely used in fact in that arena! Ms development tools, good stuff!
Yes - MS 'brain drained' Borland SO BADLY over the past decade or so to make it so, & even other companies like DEC too (Windows NT-based OS chief architect & his team from Digital in Dave Cutler)...
From Borland they succeeded in "stealing" one of the best designers in the world from Borland in Mr. Anders Heijelsberg in fact (designer of Delphi, best tool there is imo still) & he designed Visual Studio & C#, which are good stuff (though interpreted, this bugs me some, slower & more bloated, but VERY sound code development & more because of it)!
Also, yes, Ms bought up a LOT of software or licensed code for it legally (FrontPage, SQLServer (w/ Sybase iirc), Visio, & more in licensing like Terminal Server (Citrix), Executive Software (native defragger in NT-based OS since Win2k), Symantec code by the droves since Win3.11, etc., Virtual PC & more).
Sure, MS pulled a "dirty deal" on Apple, definitely... but, Apple tried to do the engineers & entire Xerox corp. wrong imo, but they were freely allowed to do so!
However, in the end? If you have seen the film "Pirates of Silicon Valley", you see the end... Gates was RIGHT (addressing Steve Jobs about "We have a rich neighbor, in Xerox... you went to rob his house & steal his T.V. but only found you were too late: I already got the loot!")
ABOVE ALL, Try to remember this saying guys: "GOOD Artists COPY - & GREAT ARTISTS STEAL"... or in Ms' case many times, buyout great artists ideas.
You want to "hate" folks in this field? Look @ ALL THE DISASSEMBLERS & CODE THIEVES OUT THERE PASSING OFF OTHERS' IDEAS & HARDWORK AS THEIR OWN... some 'great accomplishment'? B.S.! It's thievery, point-blank...
Want me to name a few names practicing this & getting fame for it? Just ask...
Lots of this goes on, it is laughable, but as long as we get better tools from even THAT (disassembly)? Well, we benefit as consumers... let the legal folks handle the code-thievery!
The ONLY "legit" use of disassemblers (code debuggers like NuMega stuff, & yes, MS CodeView) is for checking on how VIRUS of all types work & perhaps 'tracing' your own code, but ONLY YOUR OWN CODE... other than that? None... apk