Goodbye Bill Gates....Or so he says....

Over the years, we have all come to either love or hate Bill Gates. Much of the hate was based on the fact that he had managed to become the richest man in the universe in the life span of many of those around him. And now that he has come to the end of his time with Microsoft, the company the he and Paul Allen started in 1976, many are beginning to ask "What Next"?

Well, for starters, we will all have to put up with Steve Ballmer from now on. Not only is he more hated or loved by those around him, he doesn't seem to care about whether people love or hate him. The only person he really cares about is Steve Jobs, the man he most likely loathes more than the devil himself.

Then again, the love-hate relationship between Cupertino and Redmond has always been at the forefront of the technology world. Just look at the way in which Office Mac 2008 has been released. No fanfare, no applause, not even hardly a press release. Most of the mass media didn't even pick up on the release and unless you dug into Apple's web site, you wouldn't have even noticed it.

We did however, dig around and did find the new office product. And in true Apple-Microsoft tradition, there will be the lovers of the product and the haters because it is a Microsoft product running on the Apple. Oh but wait, Microsoft always has had a product that ran on Apple's ever since SoftCard CP/M and The Language Card for the Apple II series computers. Yet people still hate Microsoft and still for some unknown reason hate their products. But is it really Just Bill Gates that they hate? I am not sure but since Bill Gates says he is leaving, there might be hope for a truce. But then again with Steve Ballmer in the wings, probably not.

Do we say goodbye for good, or will he likely appear in almost every talk show on technology or become some goodwill ambassador in the way that Bono has done? Or will the two of them appear together almost everywhere you go? You can almost bet on it as they both are involved in philanthropy to the extreme and don't seem to be slowing down.

And if you don't believe that he is gone, just check out the following video and let me know if you still think he will have his hands in Microsoft after this one.