Bill Gates bids farewell to Microsoft
Summary
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates joins CEO Steve Ballmer at a town hall event Friday, Gates' final day as a full-time Microsoft employee.
Topics
Bill Gates' farewell speech to Microsoft reminded employees that the company knows how to come from behind as well as to lead.
"In some cases, those are the ones that bond you the most," Gates said, recalling some of the tougher times. "You know when IBM decides to attack you or when some legal ruling isn't quite right, and you have to do a press conference afterward."
Click to see photos.
Gates, whose voice cracked at times, thanked Microsoft's employees for all of their dedication as he marked his final day as a full-time Microsoft employee. (Note: I was not at the event, but Todd Bishop at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has posted an audio clip on his blog, from which these quotes are taken).
"You've made it so much fun for me," Gates said. "There won't be a day in my life that I'm not thinking about Microsoft and the great things that it's doing."
For more on the event itself, check out reports from the Seattle P-I and from Reuters.
And for lots more coverage of Gates' transition here, check out this page, as well as this video on Bill Gates hits and misses.
Talkback Most Recent of 32 Talkback(s)
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Bill Gates bids farewell
A fine speech from a magnificent man! He had visions, he had missions, he had it all! The IT industry is going to be in a sore decline for the next few years as it tries to recoup from the missing legend known as Bill Gates.
Loverock Davidson27th Jun 2008 -
Speaking of legends...
...that of Dracula--otherwise known as Vad the Impaler for his favourite means of execution, impaling people on wooden stakes--comes to mind.
Henry Miller29th Jun 2008 -
iMiss Bill
iWill miss Bill. He brought a lot to the computer world!
exxtraz27th Jun 2008 -
He brought a lot to the computer world!
Yeah, vicious predation, greed, and arrogance.
Henrik Moller29th Jun 2008 -
RE: Bill Gates bids farewell
"He brought a lot to the computer world!"
Yeah, like second rate software, a wide and easy road in for
malware, astronomical costs in IT support, endless amount of
trials, etc.
Now if MS could go away too....
Mikael_z27th Jun 2008 -
RE: Bill Gates bids farewell
"He had visions, he had missions, he had it all!"
A vision of a MS-only world and a mission to crush every
other company standing in its way. Lucky for us his vision
will never be a reality and MS will likely shrink in size over
the years. Good riddance Gates!Mikael_z27th Jun 2008 -
Green is the colour of
the money Microsoft has made...
Just like every other company. I don't think they're good guys by any strech, but that doesn't mean Novell, IBM, Apple and Google are chummy good folks. In fact, they aren't anything except a bunch of shareholders, a board of directors, and employees. Trying to take every possible dollar you'll give them. Hating a company for making money is like hating the sky, good luck with that.
..it's also the colour of envy, and doesn't look good on anyone. You may have some irrational hatred for Microsoft, but Gates was a good CEO -- he made his shareholders money, and that was his job.
beoz27th Jun 2008 -
Origin of green
"..it's also the colour of envy, and doesn't look good on
anyone. You may have some irrational hatred for
Microsoft, but Gates was a good CEO -- he made his
shareholders money, and that was his job."
The green (puke) color comes from years of support of that
second rate platform with its million (at least) deficiencies,
and knowing it doesn't have to work this badly. That's
absolutely rational, having demands on what I want to
work with.
I don't like how they have done more bad things than any
other company I can think of, like distorting standard
dataformats and protocols and left more corporate corpses
behind than most others, being worst bully in town in
other words.
No, I don't envy them nor do I hate them, contempt is the
appropriate word for the feeling.
And btw, why are you just talking money and shareholders,
not a word about software quality (or lack thereof) and
what it has costed the world? Last I heard was that it costs
13-15 billion dollars worldwide just to manage windows
malware. Hardly a description of great software, if you
understand that better.Mikael_z27th Jun 2008 -
The man, the myth, the legend...
Ah yes, my rep and I are now at the BillG farewell party and the tears are swelling all over the place. Three people just collapsed from dehydration. I am managing to keep my composure but it won't be easy. Today I took one more look at the BillG shrine I MANDATED our MCSEs build in our offices. I had all of the media from Windows NT 3.51 (when I started here and THREW OUT ALL UNIX). I especially looked fondly at the Windows 2000 CDs, as this was one AMAZING release. I will never forget the years it took us to deploy Active Directory. To this day, I still swell up when I get a call from a user who is located in Rome, Italy and authenticating against a server in Seattle, WA. Ah, what a time to be alive!!!
Mike Cox27th Jun 2008 -
Translation-time
"Ah yes, my rep and I are now at the BillG farewell party
and the tears are swelling all over the place. Three people
just collapsed from dehydration. I am managing to keep
my composure but it won't be easy."
Yes, who cares.
"I took one more look at the BillG shrine I MANDATED
our MCSEs build in our offices. I had all of the media from
Windows NT 3.51 (when I started here and THREW OUT ALL
UNIX). I especially looked fondly at the Windows 2000 CDs,
as this was one AMAZING release."
Yep, you'll have to be completely clueless about technology
(and history as well) to be a fan of that cult.
"I will never forget the years it took us to deploy Active
Directory. To this day, I still swell up when I get a call from
a user who is located in Rome, Italy and authenticating
against a server in Seattle, WA. Ah, what a time to be
alive!!!"
Yes, windoze never was very good and even the most
simple things could be an adventure to even try to do.Mikael_z27th Jun 2008 -
haha, he caught you
he is just being sarcastic and you are the new bitter idiot at ZDnet who does not know Mike!!
markbn27th Jun 2008 -
Enough
Can you lot shut up, please? You're a pair of 4 year olds.
Every time there's a post about Microsoft, its instantly full of arguments, started by one person with his head up his rear shouting something like "I dumped my girlfriend for UNIX".
CreepinJesus28th Jun 2008 -
wha??
"I dumped my girlfriend for UNIX"
Thanky you,
Made my Sunday
Suicida|29th Jun 2008 -
You know Bill is a winner just by ...
observing how many loser clowns coming out of woodwork spreading bitter cr@p about him.
LBiege27th Jun 2008 -
Please;
The same could be said about Castro, Hitler and Stalin.Suicida|29th Jun 2008
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