Today, Bill Gates officially resigned from Microsoft. It boggles my mind to think of a Microsoft without Gates. For Gates to no longer be the driving force for technology at Microsoft, and hence a driving force in the industry, is a huge end of an era. Maybe as a programmer, this change is more significant than others would think.
Microsoft has been part of my programming life since even before the IBM PC and DOS. I recall seeing the Microsoft name show up when using the various TRS-80 computers that were part of my introduction to programming. As I understand now, apparently I was actually using a BASIC interpreter that was written by Gates himself.
Which leads me to one of the things that I respect about him. In fact, the story of how Gates and his business partner, Paul Allen, pulled together the first BASIC interpreter for the Altair is now the stuff of legend. They built the interpreter without actually having an Altair to use or test with. Allen built a simulator of the chipset using nothing but Intel documents. Gates built the interpreter using the simulator. When Allen finally demonstrated the BASIC interpreter to MITS, the company building the Altair, it worked the first time -- amazing! Even more amazing was the fact that Allen remembered on the flight to to MITS that he had forgotten to build a loader for the interpreter, so he hand coded it in machine language right there on the flight. While I have respect for the current superstar duo of Silicon Valley, I tend to have more respect for this early duo given what they accomplished in the early years of Microsoft. But I digress.
Gates was a programmer at heart, a geek who was thoroughly a geek back when geek wasn't "sheik". To see this geekish programmer attain the distinction as the wealthiest person in the world was certainly an encouragement to many. My guess is that much of the motivation during the dot com era was from those seeking to be "the next Bill Gates".
Gates stuck with the company even as other early founders left, including Allen. With the exception of Steve Jobs, I can't think of anyone else who founded a significant technology company in the 70s and who was still with the company this year.
I've read a number of books over the year about Microsoft and have learned some interesting things. Gates in the early years had temper issues, hygiene issues, obsessive-compulsive issue (apparently he has had an obsessive rocking habit -- something I can relate to), and was extremely competitive. But I admire that he walked the walk he expected others to walk. The early days of Microsoft are notorious for demanding long work hours from programmers. But Gates also typically worked eighteen hour days himself. He also valued intelligent people. While many who found companies tend to avoid hiring people that could threaten their dominance, Gates wasn't like this. He wanted to surround himself with the smartest people he could find.
I have no doubt that a number of people have legitimate gripes with the man. I, myself, could say plenty about the things I dislike about Microsoft and its products. But pointing out the faults of Microsoft and Bill Gates doesn't take much though or effort, and therefore is not that interesting. Microsoft has become like the thing they used to ridicule (IBM), and given their success, its expected that others (such as my own company) are gunning for their business, and will naturally point out any faults they can find.
On this day, i choose to look at what Gates, and those who have worked alongside him, have created, opportunities they have made, and ultimately, the significant role Gates has playing for us programmers and the "micro-computer" industry.