Bill Gates to Step Down from Microsoft

Geoffreyerffoeg writes "According to Microsoft PressPass, Bill Gates will be leaving his role at Microsoft in July 2008. He'll be staying with the company, but is also moving to a more fulltime position with the Gates Foundation. 'Microsoft Corp. today announced that effective July 2008 Bill Gates, chairman, will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company announced a two-year transition process to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates' daily responsibilities, and said that after July 2008 Gates would continue to serve as the company's chairman and an adviser on key development projects.' CTO Ray Ozzie will assume Gates' role of Chief Software Architect, and CTO Craig Mundie will also take on more leadership responsibility."

Comments

He's not leaving

[Shippy]

He's going to stay chairman. This is a transition of his Chief Software Architect role. From the first line in the article:

Working full time at Microsoft through June 2008, Gates then will continue as chairman and advisor while increasing Foundation efforts; Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie to assume expanded roles.

Re:Whether You Hate or Love Him...

[vertinox]

Gates DID make computers affordable.

I wouldn't say that. He more or less make computers standard or in a sense... Got everything to run on the same operating system.

If you want to talk about making computers affordable... Then you'll have to give the credit to the Intel, AMD, and Cyrix price wars of 1995-2000.

(Although if you think about the saying "What intel giveth, microsoft taketh away." then maybe they caused a bit of motivation in that price and speed war)

Re:Thanks Bill

[WalterGR]

You should address your good wishes to Melinda. Gates did very little beneficial before he met her, and ever since they married, he's started spending more and more on philantropy. To me that's exactly the sign of a man under the soft but efficient control of his wife slowly turning him around to what she wants.

"You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature." (Source)

Correlation does not imply causation. Denigrating his generosity on account of when he was generous is just plain rude.

Re:Speaking of monopolies...

[bogjobber]

How many other billionaires have given many billions of their own money for such purposes? Wait, i'll answer that: None.

Wait, here's an actual answer: a whole hell of a lot of them. People have this misconception that because somebody has a lot of money that they are evil. Here are some billionaires that have given, or have promised to give, a huge percentage of their estate to charity: Warren Buffet, John Huntsman, Sr., Ted Turner, George Soros, Eli Broad, and Alfred Mann.

Also, don't forget the old robber barons (and family) who created some incredibly great things through their gifts to charity: Andrew Carnegie, John_Rockefeller, John_Rockefeller, Jr., Leland Stanford, etc. Stanford, Carnegie, and especially Rockefeller, Sr. were huge assholes in the way they gained their wealth, but gave much of that back to the people through important and enduring social and cultural institutions.

These are just people I can think of off the top of my head. There are plenty of people that I'm forgetting. My point is that you can't simply characterize a person by how much wealth they have, either in a positive or negative way.

Rich people are just that, people. Some are assholes, some are really great people. Some of them recognize that they are fortunate to be where they are and want to give back to the community. Don't be ignorant and assume otherwise.

Re:Holy Sh*t

[Anonymous Coward]

I assume you mean this program:

http://www.soundfamilies.org/

From the website:
More than 200 new transitional housing units were funded through the Sound Families Initiative, along with critical support services such as job training, substance abuse counseling, and child care services. Sound Families is a $40 million commitment to find
solutions to homelessness in the Puget Sound region.

Yeah, that sounds like a mediocre half-assed solution to me, obviously designed to increase the number of crack houses in the area.

Care to show any stats as to how the number of crack houses went up due to this program? How about a news article? A Blog? Maybe a napkin with some scribbles on it?

No, then shut the hell up.

When the richest man in the world commits to dedicating nearly his ENTIRE fortune to charity (his kid's apparently aren't due to inherit much...it goes to the foundation), I'm afraid I can forgive a hell of a lot of capitalist bullying.