Is M$ in that much trouble??

[jpaulb]

In a surprise announcement, Microsoft revealed that cofounder, Chairman, and former CEO Bill Gates will be giving up his day-to-day duties at Microsoft. Gates is relinquishing his title of Chief Software Architect now, but will continue to be involved in the company's operations on a daily basis until July 2008. He will then stay on as Chairman of the Board and an advisor on "key development projects" after the transition is complete.??

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060615-7069.html

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[benjaminq]

No, but I guess that the development of Vista was such a big "pita" that Gates found that life has to offer more than the next version of Vista.

Hasta-la-Vista ...

The timing of the announcement is very special, though. It is before the Vista-Release. Its not a "Here is our masterpiece, now I can go and use my fortune for good full time." message. Its more a "I want OUT before people realize that Vista is nothing but a SP3 with a shiny GUI" message, or a kind of "I have seen the problems of Vista and I cannot imagine how a software project of a size like this can possibly be managed by a single company" message.

My speculations.

Benjamin

[kmoffat]

It is my speculation that his wife put her foot down, saying "How about spending some of that green, Billy?" (seems like gates never gave a penny until she came along. (I could be wrong about that))

[jpaulb]

It is my speculation that his wife put her foot down, saying "How about spending some of that green, Billy?" (seems like gates never gave a penny until she came along. (I could be wrong about that))

Her famous words after their first night together
"Now I know why you named your company Micro Soft" :twisted:

[krp]

I suspect it maybe a combination of all of the above replies. I also believe that M$ just might be looking at some nasty storms on the horizon. Anti-trust action in the EU. Numerous other lawsuits globally. A stagnent stock price (note how *after* Gates made his announcement M$ stock price rose a little). The issue of lobbyist Abromoff(sp), Preston - Gates - Ellis, LLP law and lobbyist firm. There are more.

However, once Gates is out of the day-today picture at M$, it shall be much harder for companies and government agencies to play a litigation game of 'pin the tail on Gates' because he won't legally have "actual knowlege."

On the other hand ... I could be all wet.

krp

[benjaminq]

Another possibility: Lack of inspiration. As Chief Software Architect, what are the glorious innovations that come from MS? They have bought most of their ideas and whenever it came to deliver their own products they often enough have failed to deliver real innovation.

So either the CSA declares himself unable to be innovative or his ideas are simply not anymore realizable.

I am asking myself often enough: what can you possibly do to make PCs smarter?

- A decent speech recognition?
- Thought recognition (I just think of the words to write them down)?
- Translation engines that actually know what a language IS ...
- Inter-Gadget-Communication (why do I have the adresses in the palm, in the cell phone and in the computer and in the www at the ISP and I still cannot print an syncronized, actual adressbook on PAPER.
- why does an email not cost 0.001 $ ??? This would kill spam after a few days and could be easily afforded by any home user.

A few examples.

[tom_servo]

I think it is more like rats are always the first off the sinking ship. :) Everything I have ever read about Bill Gates says he is a first rate control freak. He isn't likely to stop interfering anywhere his ego leads him. Maybe his ego has led him to PR, or maybe he has the impression that some good PR can save the company from some of it's legal problems.

He might actually be actually right a little. So far the fines have been small enough that MS can just figure that all of their fines are part of the price of business, like buying permits, but the worse the reputation they get for being who they are, the harder time they will have getting anyone to work with them on anything. So my guess is that he is going to continue his plans for world domination (only half joking), while doing everything he can to stir up good publicity for MS, and himself.


Alain

[jpaulb]

It is almost impossible to speculate why Gates does, he is a master of
marketing, or deceit, really not much difference there.

Back in the dawn of GUI, apple announced their new baby the Mac, MS counter
acted saying their revolutionary new system would be shortly unveiled, there was
no need to buy an Apple. That was Windows 1, that was a still birth, Windows
2 what ever happened to that, Windows 3.0. you have to be kidding. All the
hype kept MS going, it was certainlly not their quality.

Maybe Bill is using the promise of steping down to side track the fact that
their are problems with the new MS wunder child Vista. Who really knows.


60% Of Windows Vista Code To Be Rewritten
http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Computing/Platforms?Article=/Computing/Platforms/
R7G5G6U4

http://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2006/06/16/2977

Vista delay aftermath: reorganization, but no "code crisis"
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060324-6453.html

[shivandeveloper]

Vista will be a flop, adoption will be agonizingly slow from MS' perspective. They ripped everything that was mildly interesting out and have basically written XP SE. It's junk and everyone knows it (or should). The only two things MS has going for them at this point are Server 2003 (getting dated) and a couple apps (their Office Suite and SQL Server which is an amazingly good product).

I really think the reorganization at a high level is really a cosmetic publicity stunt and really won't affect much in the end.

[hacked1o0o]

i downloaded a second beta version of windows vista last night and its around 94% done downloading (4.01 gb) it is 64-bit and i cant wait to try it.

[fos]

Good luck! :)

fos

[Mike]

I guess we can be too quick to assume that the world revolves around computers and software.

Now that the other shoe has dropped I think we can safely assume that Bill Gates' stepping down from Microsoft to devote full time to the charity foundation was a condition imposed by Warren Buffet when making that bequest.