Go Home, Bill

Robert X Cringely on Bill Gates’ retirement:

If we were to place the importance of Bill Gates in the history of both Microsoft and the personal computer industry he’d be up there with most anyone. I’m not here to claim that Bill’s contributions weren’t significant, because they were. At half a dozen points during the history of Microsoft Bill pushed or pulled in such a way to change the course of his company and the industry as a whole, there is no doubt of that. The question is whether he REMAINS as important, which he clearly doesn’t or they wouldn’t let him leave. If it would help Microsoft they’d prop up Bill like the body of Lenin in Red Square to motivate the troops and intimidate the competition. And he’d let them do that, too.