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Story: Microsoft moves beyond the Gates era

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With Bill Gates retiring, it is now even easier to criticise and blame Microsoft for all the ills in the modern computing. Yes even I am guilty of offering the odd anti Windows, anti Gates sentiment as I discover the blue screen of death or my latest program/hardware is not compatible with my system. However I can remember what it was like without this standardisation. The days when your operating system was nothing more then a Basic interpreter, and you were required to learn programming just to access your latest mass storage device, a floppy disk.
With first of all the IBM PC and dos, followed by Windows, computing finally had a standard set of rules to work by. Because of the standard rules, hardware and software developers were able ensure there product did the job on one platform. Admittedly Microsoft now operate a near monopoly, but I can remember the days when the Japanese were haled as the new computer gods when they devised an operating system called MSX to run on all new computers. This too would have lead to a monopoly but one everyone seemed to welcome at the time. This did not take off for a number of reasons both technical and aesthetic.
So good luck Bill and enjoy your retirement. It has cost me plenty. Still not a fan but grateful for the achievement.

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