Gates' Last Day At Microsoft

mrogers writes "Today is Bill Gates' last day as a full-time employee of Microsoft. After 33 years at the company, the one-time richest man in the world will be retiring at 52 to spend more time guiding the charitable Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. What would you buy him as a retirement gift?"

Comments

Retirement Gift

[ilovegeorgebush]

Blatantly a tux toy.

For all my *NIX & FOSS zealotry, I can't help but respect what he's brought to the world. His & MS's achievements have been broad and they've paved the way for multiple industries. Maybe I wouldn't be writing this on a Linux box if it wasn't for Windows :)

Re:Retirement Gift

[stretch0611]

...MS's achievements have been broad and they've paved the way for multiple industries. Maybe I wouldn't be writing this on a Linux box if it wasn't for Windows :)

I do not agree with that assumption. First off, Unix was not created because of MS and/or Windows and Linux was created as a Unix clone, not specifically to compete with windows. If the pc hardware was not around it would have been built on different hardware.

Next, even without MS, IBM would have still been looking for an OS for its new computing platform. Because it was IBM, which at the time was the de facto standard/monopoly, there still would have been a clone market even without MS's help. If the clone market did not provide enough cheap hardware, there would have been cheap hardware from either the computers running CP/M or even the home market (Amiga and/or older 8bits computers)

Linux evolved from someone's desire to clone minix, not from a need to use something other than windows.

So...

[Anonymous Coward]

When can we look forward to a day without Ballmer? That would truly be a day to celebrate.

Re:So...

[Zwicky]

I know you're joking ("funny cos it's true" humor?), but - and maybe I'm not giving Ballmer enough credit here[0] - I really can't see Ballmer keeping Microsoft afloat in the long-term. Call it a gut feeling. The man is but an ogre really.

If anything saves Microsoft - aside from its stockpiles of cash - it will be Bill's advice imparted on his one-day-a-week-on-Microsoft-business.

I am certainly not enamored with Gates by any means, but I do recognize that (in my view) he was the brains behind the outfit: Ballmer is Robin to Gates' Batman; Cashman and Dobbin? "Holy developers, developers, developers, Cashman!"[1]

Personally unless Microsoft pull something exceptional out of the bag I expect to see them decline as 'market leaders'. I am interested in hearing others', perhaps more informed, thoughts.

Anyway that's how I see it from my point of view but IANABA (business analyst).

[0] Stop laughing, I'm trying to be impartial :)
[1] That right there is why I don't write comic books.

Re:So...

[drsmithy]

Remember "It ain't done 'til Lotus won't run"? That's not apocryphal.

Indeed, it's a myth without the slightest shred of credible evidence to back it up.

"DOS ain't done until Lotus does run" would be a more accurate reflection of reality.

Hell, I ran into undocumented functionality with the first non-trivial Windows program I tried to write. It was a little utility to manage and assign icons in Program Manager, but I could never figure out how to extract the icon resources from executables because... it wasn't documented anywhere. At least in 1990 or so when I was doing this.

Undocumented functionality, in and of itself, is in no way evidence of "monopolistic abuses". It is completely normal in any non-trivial piece of software.

Re:So...

[hairyfeet]

Look at how many PCs sold VS how many copies of Vista,and that will tell you the true story. When my 67 year old mom who don't know squat about computers comes to me and goes "What is Vista and why does it suck?" you know you have a problem. Also look at the emerging markets of green PCs and netbooks,neither of which will EVER run Vista. And how many billions are they losing on the x360? I know Sony lost 3.3 billion on PS3 and after that recall and warranty extension I doubt they are doing better.

Trust me,I am no Linux or Apple fanboi,having used and made money off MSFT products since the days of DOS and Win3.1. But the simple fact is even teeny boppers that don't know the difference between a PC and a VCR come with their parents to get a new PC and I mention Vista I get an EXTREMELY loud EEEEW!,like I took a crap in front of them or something. Even my local Wal Mart has been making it clear that on every sale of a laptop they'll at no extra charge put XP on it just to keep from losing sales. And after being given a copy of Vista for being a beta tester and giving up after nearly a month to get that POS to run decent on my 3GHz Celeron I gave up and gave it away,only to find out later that it keeps changing hands like a bad fruitcake. So far I've had 4 people install it just to go "Yuck" a week or two later and go back to XP and pass it off to someone else.

The simple fact is inertia can let them go for awhile. But I've had more businesses lately start asking about "This Linux thing"(which for some reason they insist on calling Lienucks no matter how many times I correct them) than I have ever had before. If Win7 doesn't come out a lot more like XP and a lot less like Vista then I predict that those with money will be switching to Macs and those without will either pirate XP or come to someone like me to build them a PC from scratch with XP on it. I just hope that after Jan 2009 I'll still be able to find XP OEM cds or I might be buying a lot of used barebone systems just for the XP CALs. But so far my customers are willing to pay extra NOT to have the Vista "experience" on their new PC. And as always this is my 02c from out here in consumerland,YMMV

The ability to seperate himself truely from..

[gQuigs]

Microsoft and proprietary software. What is good for Microsoft and proprietary software conflicts with a lot of good charitable work.

Giving any poor organization the first copy of Microsoft software for no cost isn't going to help them in the long term.

To do this, he needs to get rid of his stake in Microsoft stock.

Re:The ability to seperate himself truely from..

[corbettw]

Bill Murray once observed, if you want to be rich and famous, try being rich first. See if that's enough.

Possible Retirement Gifts

[Eberlin]

1. A gaming rig so he can keep pwning n00bs.
2. an iPhone, a mac, and an iTunes account.
3. some GOOG stock 'cause you gotta take care of that 401K SPECIALLY after retirement.
4. A seat in the OLPC project's board of dudes that make decisions...it's only a matter of time.
5. Ubuntu...and by that I mean "humanity to others" -- actually, a wish of good luck as he concentrates more in philantrophy. As much as I (and c'mon, I can't be alone here) enjoy Microsoft bashing, I think the Gates foundation could (continue to) actually do a lot of good.

Re:Ooh! Oooh! I know!

[stretch0611]

What would you buy him as a retirement gift?"

Nothing. I have already given him enough money by paying for his OS when I want to run linux.

Re:A handshake.

[intx13]

How does this myth stay alive? There were personal computers before Bill Gates: Macs. There were personal computers during the early rise of Microsoft: Macs, OS/2, Suns. There were personal computers throughout the Bill Gates glory days: Macs, Linux, (and Suns, kinda). And there are personal computers today. And there would have been personal computers without Bill Gates.

That's not to say his contributions are worthless, but let's not start patting him too hard on the back just because he's retiring. He used questionably ethical business practices to produce and sell products of questionable quality.

On the plus side, he's going to spend the rest of his life giving away enormous sums of money to charity - there's not much to dislike about that!

Re:Ooh! Oooh! I know!

[bloodninja]

The man should be given a Nobel Peace Prize. Windows has done more to make technology available to non-tech experts than anyone else.

The man should be given a Nobel Peace Prize. Windows has done more to make money for techies due to the unnecessary complexities imposed on non-tech experts than anyone else.

There. I corrected it for you. No you dolt. Press control X. Everyone knows that. Pay up.

I credit Windows for bringing the price of consumer hardware down, especially Vista. Just think, if Vista were not so HW-heavy would we have today Dual- and Quad- core processors and _Gigabytes_ of RAM for so cheap? People who use an OS that does not need all that (Ubuntu, for instance) can literally have a system that is four times as powerful as they need, for the same adjusted cost of what a regular system would have cost only three years ago.