Bill Gates: Transitioning into the Future

Posted By: Charles | Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 8:58 AM | 127,969 Views | 27 Comments
Bill Gates has been at the helm of Microsoft for the entire existence of Microsoft. It's the only place he's worked and he's getting ready to step down from his day to day responsibilities in his office on the Redmond campus. Bill's employment future will be centered around running his philanthropic enterprise, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill is fundamentally shifting his focus from achieving his dream of "a PC in every home" to helping realize the vision of "healthy people in every country". He talks about how each one of us can help make this dream come true by donation of time, expertise and, of course, money.

Charles caught up with Bill to discuss his transition from full time at Microsoft to full time at his global philanthropic foundation (he will still be involved with major decisions given that he will retain his post as the Chairman of Microsoft and his email address will still be functional Smiley).

Questions addressed in this conversation include: What's on Bill's mind as he prepares to step away from his full time responsibilities at Microsoft? What was his rationale for making the decision? What was behind his decision to put Ray Ozzie in the role of Microsoft Chief Software Architect? What does a CSA actually do? Why is Microsoft so focused on competing with Google and is search as important as we think? What's top of mind for Bill that Developers who target our platform should pay attention to now and in the next decade? How can Microsoft become more agile given the complexity that arises from so much asynchronous innovation spanning disparate product units? Why does Windows still matter in an Internet world?

Enjoy. This is a good one. Thank you again, Bill, for your support of C9 over the years, the incredible innovation you brought to market and the incredible generosity of your foundation.
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#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 9:49 AM
Bas
Bas
It finds lightbulbs.
Awesome. Downloading now.

I suppose it'd be a step too far to have Bill post here just once...

...right? Tongue Out
#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 10:03 AM
SlackmasterK
SlackmasterK
I write my OWN blogging engines
C9 supports pingbacks now?  This is gonna be interesting.  At least it was an MSDN blog Smiley

Haven't been watching the video page lately; linked here from Jeff's twitter.  Thanks Jeff.
#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 11:02 AM
TommyCarlier
TommyCarlier
I want my scalps!
Cool interview. I'm surprised how much different topics were covered. He sure knows his stuff.
#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 11:04 AM
Bas
Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

Wait wait wait, there's some sort of cloud services thing Ray Ozzie has been working on that isn't Mesh, and is secret enough to bleep out even the codename? Spill the beans, man! We can't wait until PDC!

Great interview, Charles. Really informative. Bill remains one of the most interesting people in IT.

#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 11:16 AM
Charles
Charles
Welcome Change
Thanks, Bas. I really enjoyed this conversation. Bill was very engaged and ready to speak his mind. The breadth of his knowledge is staggering.

Come to PDC 08 to learn first hand about [bleep]! Smiley It's incredibly cool... There's a lot we can't talk about right now. You can bet that when we can, we'll go deep into it right here on C9.
C
#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 3:18 PM
Omen
Omen
I still dont get it. My feeling is that OSs are about providing APIs and not providing services and applications to the user she didn't ask for.

My statement is: Keep it simple. Let the user decide and let the developers provide.
#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 3:49 PM
aL_
aL_
Rx ftw
awsome Big Smile bill is like a rockstar for guys like me Smiley (yeah im a geek, Tongue Out )

but who bleeped him? Tongue Out if anyone should be allowed to say whatever they want it should be him Wink

also, a post from bill in this thread would be really really cool Wink
#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 4:26 PM
stevo_
stevo_
Human after all

Ayyy, incredible guy - watched him on bbc the other night (I think there was a comment about channel9 briefly on it), I have to admit- I assumed bill would be like most "managers" (for lack of better word) and would have lost contact with the users and those that really develope the software.. but that certainly isn't true.

Also Bas, isn't one of the big features in windows 7 suposed to be a native web services communication layer?

#Jun 23rd, 2008 @ 7:24 PM
Cyonix
Cyonix
Me
Bas, i'm guessing that [Bleep] is what Mesh is built on and that Microsoft are going to provide that API to the rest of us. They have hinted at this in the discussions about Mesh.
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