Friday was Bill Gates last day at Microsoft.....like you were able to miss the biggest retirement since Bill Clinton (not that I am comparing Ballmer to George W!). I have to write a small thank you to Bill, as without him I would not have a job, the passion I have or the vision for the world I do.
I think there are many people in the world who have passion for technology like Bill Gate`s. Most of us do not the opportunity to take that passion to the same level Bill has. Equally I believe there are a number of business savvy people around the world on par with Bill. What differentiates Bill Gates from all others, other than maybe Steve Job, is his extreme ability in both of these fields. He is an uber geek and a ruthless businessman all rolled in to one, and it as been awesome to watch.
I received my first home PC computer in 1984. I used to write basic applications to help my dad’s company cost out products it manufactured and keep track of the average cost of the year’s production. I was just entering university and there was a limited number computer classes but I was enrolled in them. I ended up leaving university after the 2nd year to go to work for a while to try and find my focus but kept working on computers.
It was from this point that I started to use predominately Microsoft products. DOS, the early releases of Windows, Windows 95, 98, NT, the early releases of Office and Windows Server. Sure I learned some UNIX, Novel, Corel, Adobe and Apple along the way, but the reality is that what I have been using, like most of the computer world is Microsoft’s products. No other software company has been able to find a niche in almost every single computer field. The bread and butter is the OS business, on the desktop and server side but the dominance in the browser, development tool set and framework, productivity tool sets, email solutions, mobile solutions and gaming systems is unbelievable. While they do not own some of these markets, they are usually 2nd in all other niches.
Sure there have been some failures along the way (see Bob, ME, URGE, TabletPC, UMPC and some of the hardware they have pushed) but they tend to succeed way more than they fail.
I love technology and the possibilities it provides, and for this I thank Bill Gates for his vision of a world with a computer in every house and on every desk. Some said it was crazy, but in some areas of the world it is the norm. I have had 20+ years to watch the evolution of the PC and computing in general, and can’t wait to see where it goes. Gates fingerprints are all over this…..for good or bad some may argue…but no one can argue his impact.
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