There has been a lot of press coverage about Bill Gates leaving his day-to-day activities at Microsoft to focus on philanthropy. As I have been reading them I have been thinking about what it will mean for Microsoft. I have seen several companies where the founders have left. In most cases the transition was smooth because everyone understood their jobs and realized that what they were doing wouldn't change. Over time, however, the new leadership started to change things and the companies took on a new feel. This transition happens every day on a much smaller scale when a manager leaves a team or sometimes even when a new member joins a team. What makes this so newsworthy is the size of Microsoft and the effect that it's products have in our everyday computing life. I would venture to say that even if you have never used Windows (say using *nix or the Mac exclusively) you are still influenced by what Microsoft does just because people will ask you questions about their Windows machine.

I wish Bill Gates the best of luck in his new ventures and hope that his work will have a huge positive effect on the world. It would be nice if we could see some of the diseases that have been eradicated in the United States completely eradicated in the world, learning opportunities for more of the people in the world, and technology solving more problems that don't revolve around profit and loss. I don't know that it will lead to world peace but we can always dream that someday all of the efforts of the good people in this world will lead to something like that.

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