Hear hear.
Could be quite interesting.

Bill Gates will always have a say so in what MS does or doesn't do. Even if it was said that he will retire and move to BFE I believe he will alway "run" things.

Bill Gates will have a strong voice through the shareholders' meeting, as he's sure to have a big voting block.
But he won't be running the company (and in fact hasn't for a long time) or deciding on technical direction.

His influence over his tenure has gained much strength and those close to him will rely on it for direction and not out of fear but loyalty. I won't say that 100% of those close to him will rely on Bill Gates but I am willing to bet the the percentage will be high.

He is actually still going to be on campus once a week. He will absolutely have a large influence on the decisions made, and even though he is steppping down, MS will ultimately go in his direction. Good luck Bill trying to solve the worlds many problems. It sounds as though his charity work is tremendous. I am looking forward to seeing what he is going to accomplish!

it is. The Gates Foundation is one of the, if not the, largest charitable organisations without a political agenda in the world.
And it's all founded by the income generated by Microsoft, income Gates spends on his foundation rather than personal luxury (of which he, in his own opinion, quite enough already even though most people in his position would live far more extravagantly).

"Without a politacal agenda"

is what makes all of it so inspiring

yeah. I really think Bill has been really charitable and well i understand why he would retire. I mean he would be super rich. Its not like he needs to save for his super annuation is it!

As if Bill's retirement will keep him away from microsoft.He has done a gr8 job to be fair. And as for the charity...supurb!! thats anyways small change for him even though its alot
He should give me charity money.lol

Good job Billy