Big MS News: Gates to Retire, Ozzie to Take Over

Microsoft Corp. today announced that effective July 2008 Bill Gates, chairman, will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company announced a two-year transition process to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities, and said that after July 2008 Gates would continue to serve as the company’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects.

The company announced that Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie will immediately assume the title of chief software architect and begin working side by side with Gates on all technical architecture and product oversight responsibilities, to ensure a smooth transition. Similarly, Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie will immediately take the new title of chief research and strategy officer and will work closely with Gates to assume his responsibility for the company’s research and incubation efforts; Mundie also will partner with general counsel Brad Smith to guide Microsoft’s intellectual property and technology policy efforts.

Microsoft pushes back Adobe on PDF

Check out the Microsoft press statement about Adobe and PDF.

Here's the story. Microsoft has that wonderful "embrace and extend" strategy we've all heard so much about. In recent days, there were motions, rumors -- even threats -- from Microsoft, that they were going to do the SAME thing to PDF that they did to other "open" standards like Sun's JAVA, IBM's DOS (I know this is debatable), etc., etc.

Long story short, they would take PDF, extend its functionality so that a "standard Adobe" PDF wouldn't function inside the environment of MS Office -- but that PDF would become even "better" in the MS Office environment.

No, it's not playing fair. But that's what Microsoft does. They WIN. That's the point. Fuck the fairness.

What I like the most about their press release is the degree to which they are bowing and scraping before Adobe. Check these lines out: "Adobe is a participant in the 2007 Office system beta program and can see for itself that Microsoft has not extended the PDF specifications."

Furthermore: "To our knowledge Adobe has not imposed limits on how third parties support the PDF format or differentiate their products through extensions. Nevertheless, Microsoft wishes to confirm that it will not extend the PDF specifications published by Adobe. Microsoft hopes that, with this assurance, Adobe will withdraw its objection to including support for PDF in 2007 Office system."

As in, please, please, please don't tell all the users that we're EVIL again. That hurts. Please. It really hurts my feelings... whiners.

Scobleizer Setting Us Straight

Robert Scoble is leaving Microsoft. Scoble is joining PodTech.net, the podcasting network. He will be moving from Seattle to Silicon Valley, and will be bloggin about his life down there.

Big news for folks like us, who rely on the MS blogging community (internally) to keep us informed. No more Robert Scoble to kick around.

However, he posted a response to TechMeme about his departure, saying that recent articles there really "chapped his hide."

here's part of Robert's response:

I love Microsoft and Microsoft did not lose me — at least as a supporter and friend. I am not throwing away my Tablet PC or my Xbox or my other Microsoft stuff. :-)

.... no one at Microsoft has complained to me about my views for a very long time. In fact, the harsher I got the more support I got. Friday I visited with Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems. Management at Microsoft didn't say a thing about that. Imagine if your employees went to your fiercest competitor and had a very public lunch, wouldn't you be up in arms? Not at Microsoft. At Microsoft I am encouraged to change the world and make things better for our customers.

So these are good things to know... and why are you leaving Microsoft then, Robert?