Goodbye Bill....Thanks for era!

Some weeks back, Bill Gates or BillG (dats his e-mail add in MS) decided to leave MS for good, meaning he is leaving the operations of MS for good. He is still part of some of the projects and he will be a part time Chairman and BOD member. However, he is leaving nonetheless. There has been a lot of press out on Bill in de past and he has been labeled a genius by loyalist and anything from the evil one to the anti-Christ by cult people. People who can't compete with him or MS.

I for one mourned his leaving MS for 2 reasons. For those of us who were with MS during the trying years where we competed with everything on the IT market, he was simply inspirational. He refused to let us be berated, lose focus and be de-moralized. For those of us too young to remember or just to IT-phobia, pre-Win95 was scary. MS Office had only 33% market share compared to WordPerfect. Windows NT was only 25% to Novel's NetWare. Exchange was almost non-existent as WordPerfect Mail and Lotus slugged it out. IE was hardly 10% compared to Netscape's huge 90%. SQL Server was another non-entity.

Coming to work was like going to war but Bill and team and all our managers, made it fun, inspirational and most of all, pretty darn fist pumping to see our actions and activities through. To go to battle with someone like Bill and come out not only unscathe and alive but totally victorious and successful is an experience you cannot compare or put in words. This feeling is not shared by everyone in MS. Only those of us who went through those formative years. I contacted by god-brother in Seattle who works for MS at Corp HQ, and he feels the same. Not everyone can share your sentiment. Its like losing your meat pattie when you ordered a Big Mac and you are ready to sink your teeth into some juicy burger when you realize the lose. But seriously, its like losing a limb and losing that inspiration.

The other reason is that anyone worth their salt in IT, can understand that it is an end to an era. He started the PC revolution which really turned things around. He has left us where we can only dream of. The PC era created millions and millions of jobs around the world. It created jobs for those cretins who criticize him and his so called unfair business practices. A genius is never fully appreciated in his time but I think Bill got his fair share. He is now working full time on his philanthropy work ensuring children get the right education and health benefits.

I had my best years in Microsoft which I will never forget and I will take with me. Much of it goes to my co-workers and managers but there will never be another Bill Gates. Goodbye Bill, thanks for the memories, for the era.