If you were to ask Bill Gates what life will be like when he stops working full time at Microsoft, he'd have to get back to you.
That's because, so close to the transition, he still hasn't slowed down his pace. If anything, things have picked up as he tries to have one last meeting with all the leaders and projects that are important to him.
Gates, who dropped out of school more than 30 years ago to run Microsoft, steps down from full-time work on 27 June. He'll remain chairman and a part-time Microsoft employee.
The Microsoft co-founder did take some time out of his schedule recently to sit down and offer some reflections on the early days of the PC market, as well as thoughts on where Microsoft is now and what technologies he will need in his new role, working full time for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In the interview, Gates shared some little-known stories from the company's early days, including the fact that Microsoft seriously entertained combining with Lotus but talks ended when that company's chief executive pulled out. Gates also noted that Microsoft was invited and then uninvited to the launch event for the first IBM PC.
"We'd been invited, and then they decided not to invite us," Gates said. "Well, we had been working night and day... That was a little bit of a downer."
Q: As you've been thinking about the transition, what are the kinds of things that have been on your mind the most?
A: Well, for 33 years I've worked at Microsoft and come in every day, and thought about the new things we need to do, and what's my personal role in that — [there's been] a lot of email, lots of meetings [and] lots of product reviews. So, in a sense, it's hard for me to project what it's going to be like for me or Microsoft when I'm not here.
As long as I'm here, I'm still sending a lot of email and in a lot of meetings, and so the real change, in terms of people having an opportunity to step up and do things, to some degree, [will come] after 1 July, when my involvement is only a very specific involvement on particular projects, as opposed to the overall strategy thing.
Everybody likes to pick the current competitive battles that we're in and kind of think: "OK, those are the big things". For me, I'd pick the tablet or interactive TV — things that are, according to me — but I've been over-optimistic before — on the verge of big, big impact. So, I've been sending a lot of mail to the tablet and interactive TV team — sort of sending now the mail I would [otherwise] have sent three months from now — just giving them encouragement. Because, you know, [as regards] all the big successes, whether it's Office integration or Windows, it takes a long time for those things to get established.
We thought it would be a good idea for me to go to the Windows 7 group and go see the work, and I was thrilled. Steven Sinofsky [senior vice president in the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group] took me around and showed me what they're doing.
So, you're going to product group by product group?
Well, in terms of big meetings, that's pretty much done. Like the Windows group had a meeting and the Surface group had a meeting, but this is more just sitting down with the top executives: [for example] Stephen Elop, Craig Mundie, Kevin Turner.
The timing is actually pretty good. We just did our business reviews. We do the business planning, which is for the next fiscal year, which starts 1 July. So, we have the plans in place, and I sat through that last set of reviews, but it's a perfect example of something that, as just a board member working on projects, I won't sit in those business-plan reviews in the future. I mean, Steve [Ballmer] may ask me to sit in on one that touches directly on something I'm doing, but the default is that I'm not there at all.
I hear search is one area you're still pretty enthused about.
Yes. That doesn't mean I'd necessarily go to their business-plan review, but…
Talkback
Dear Bill.
30 years! Is that how long it's been? It's a wonder you can still see after all the time you've spent staring into glowing computer screens.
I for one now require glasses after years of getting ever so closer to the screen. I'll never forget those early days, hunched over a desk, wee hours of the morning, staring into the ever flickering monitor.
Because of you, most of the world now spends an enormous amount of its time glued to the front of a computer screen whose takeover of that other great screen of ubiquity, the television, is nothing short of astounding. Who would’ve ever thought that the ‘Great Box that Speaketh’ would ever take a backseat to the computer? Loved by millions – watched by millions. So many shows over the past 3 decades come to mind. I have on occasion wondered if you watched any of them.
In fact, did you even have a favorite show? Did you ever watch any episodes of the Brady Bunch or Lost in Space? Did you see the episode where the Robot grew so big that it was going to die and Will and Dr Smith decided to go inside and restart its failing heart? Can you recall the 2 (yes there were two!) Lost In Space musical themes? Did you see 2001: A Space Odyssey? Man that film was beyond inspiration!
And what about the names Arnold Horshack or Vinnie Barbarino? Do they ring a bell? Or what did you think of the Partridge Family or Happy Days, Welcome Back Kotter or JJ from the Goodtimes? And where were you when 130 million of your fellow Americans grabbed a chair, gobbled popcorn and sat down to watch the Arthur Hailey inspired, epic drama, Roots?
I haven’t forgotten the day War and Peace first aired - 1972. Though only 9 at the time, I was amazed at just how many people jostled for position in an upstairs master bedroom of a modest New York apartment to gaze in awe at the tiny screen in the corner. Was it 20 maybe 30 people, some smoking, some nibbling, some whispering – all glued to a small, light emitting screen? It was crazy!
What exactly was the importance of this all talking, all singing all dancing box? Why was everyone so interested in what it had to say or do or show?
But times have changed and now the Great Box that Speaketh has been overshadowed by a far greater box, one with far greater capabilities – reaching out to over a billion people worldwide and growing at a phenomenal rate - "A computer on every desk and in every home."
From vauderville radio to cinema, TV and now the rapidly approaching ultimate, super box – the Teleputer! (pronounced telé’puter) - a fantastic fusion of all media, accessible through one universal medium and one universal protocol. I’ve no doubt it’s going to happen. It’s only a matter of time. And you led us here and now you’re leaving.
I wonder if you’re still interested in content? You did have a foray into that area of activity but it never seemed to eventuate (or is that what we know as MSNBC?). Imagine if you had been successful in buying one of the major networks or film studios or even created your own version of a DreamWorks. I wonder what kind of content you had in mind or what kind of entertainment you would have produced? Even so, there are a plethora of models yet to be realized as we move ever deeper into the new datashpere where the mass is the media.
I guess you’ve realized it’s out of control, that the fracturing of communications is changing the community. I still have a news clipping from 2004 in which you claim that Spam will eradicated by 2006! Yet here we are midway through 2008 and overflowing with enormous amounts of often irrelevant information, desperately trying to process more and more from a seemingly endless stream of disparate devices each and every day.
As a composer, producer and analyst of media it still amazes me just how ‘non-human’ the computer still is. The features, functions, and overall dynamics of the system continually frustrate me to bits! I often see ways in which to make the computer more simple, more user friendly, more adept at adapting to the inherent nature of the individual trying to control it. But to turn those thoughts, diagrams, visualizations into reality? Hell, that’s an art all of its own!
And that’s where you are a truly amazing individual. Being able to make form from thought is your gift. It’s one skill I would dearly love to master.
Though I can manipulate sound and visualize the future, I have for the most part remained a zero in the computing world rather than a force. But because of you and your sheer determination to battle against the odss, people like me find reason to press on; to reach beyond our boundaries and limitations and overcome our obstacles, fears and weaknesses - to rise above the noise.
It's strange to think that we actually have something in common, even though we’ve never met. Here I am using a device you are largely responsible for creating.
Throughout my life I have noticed how few people deliver on their promises, even if small or seemingly insignificant, like, “I’ll call you back!” Yet you had a magnificent vision and followed it through and made it real. Beyond the PC you have delivered the megaphone for the small voice. Now anyone, even little 'ol me, has the potential to be heard, be seen or be known.
I hope you begin to enjoy life beyond the computer and the new experiences that you will no doubt be able to have without it's constant influence.
Anyway, all the best wishes for your next endeavors.
thinkfeeldo2001@yahoo.com
Here's something that shines a light on Gates's thoughts on usuability, at least--an internal company email he sent complaining about his experiences trying to download Moviemaker. The <a href="http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821.asp">full text</a> has been posted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, but here's a taster. To set the scene, Gates has been trying (and failing) to download the software via the Microsoft.com Downloads page, and has turned in frustration to company staffers working on it:
"<i>So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).
I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.
I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.
In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.
This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?</i>"
I couldn't have written a better rant myself.
Remember all the ways Gates has helped computer users, Gave us un-secure software, the registry, defragmentation, allowed virus writers open doors to our systems, malware, trojans, adware, took away our choice
of OS"s when buying computers off the shelf, Thanks Bill, for turning me on to Linux which does it the right way.