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Great, Now We're Left with Ballmer

via Mashable! by Steven Hodson on 6/27/08

So, today is the big day, huh?
Big BillG finally makes his retirement from Microsoft official and goes to work on getting himself a Nobel Peace Prize. As a side note, just what do you buy someone like Bill Gates for a retirement gift? It's not like a gold watch will really cut it. Anyway, back to the topic at hand - what happens next?
Well probably nothing and that is the problem. The fact is that Bill Gates hasn't had much to do with Microsoft's day to day operations for sometime; even though he is rumored to have stepped in on the Yahoo deal. In the area of software he might have been the company's Chief Architect, but Ray Ozzie and Steven Sinosky have been dealing with that for some time. During this time, Microsoft's stock value hasn't gone up any appreciable amount, Vista is still a WinME wannabe and now they want to play in the computing cloud.
More than a few folks on the Web have wondered aloud recently if Steve Ballmer is even up to the task of running the company without Bill Gates in the background or if at this point we might even see Microsoft seriously consider splitting into separate companies. My feeling on the second is that while it might be a good idea, it is one that I just don't see happening as long as Ballmer is at the helm. As to whether he is up to the job of singlehandedly steering Microsoft forward, he will probably have no problems as he is a corporate beast who works best with other corporations.
The problem I have with Ballmer being in charge is that I think this is the one single thing that will move the company to even more stagnant waters. He might put on a good show, what with throwing chairs around and ranting things like "developer, developer, developer," but in my opinion it would have been better for the company if he was the one taking that long retirement walk today.

When BillG was the software force behind the company, once he handed the CEO responsibilities over to Ballmer he was still a power to be reckoned with inside of the company regardless of his position. Now with him gone Steve Ballmer has more control over the company than before, regardless of the titles being held by Ozzie and Sinosky. Microsoft is now in the control of a man who has no experience with software other than selling it and his interests aren't in making better software only in making it more profitable.
BillG may go on to do great things with his foundation and I wish him all the best, but I think that he still had it in him to do great things with software. He may have done some things wrong trying to achieve his dreams with the company, but I think Microsoft will not be the same with him gone and that could end up being our loss.
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