

Ask HN: Should Bill Gates come back as the CEO of Microsoft? - sk2code


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agibsonccc
As crazy as it might sound, I think many tend to forget Gates was still quite
involved with Microsoft. As chairman, and Ballmer as CEO, it was still
effectively a Gates regime as far as vision goes.

He's a smart man doing great things, but he's not perfect. Microsoft needs a
new direction. Their assets are still valuable and have a huge potential for a
great upside.

It's easy to play armchair CEO, but overall I'd say some new blood is needed.

For example, Mayer at yahoo may have been controversial, but she's turning it
around.

I don't think some new ideas would hurt the company overall.

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badclient
_but she 's turning it around._

Source? She's trying to turn it around for sure but it is way too early to say
that she's been successful. Her wins have largely been pr-wins which I
wouldn't discount but there is only so many times you can cite your awesome
weather app as evidence of a turnaround before people begin asking what more
she's got besides the weather app.

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agibsonccc
Fair enough. I won't get in to a long drawn out battle about it. I should say
she's getting people talking about Yahoo again.

Relevance is at least a start. You also can't say she's run it in to the
ground as of yet either.

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badclient
Agreed!

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bobx66
It seems like there is very little upside for him and frankly the rest of the
world.

He is doing great work now and taking over the reigns of Microsoft would be
like the president of the United States running for congress after he
completed his term.

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jaredsohn
More like the president of the United States quitting and running for congress
_during_ his term.

(An even better analogy would be if before the person was president they were
involved with a different group of people, such as a theoretical President
Ross Perot leaving the presidency to help rebuild Perot Systems.)

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fiatmoney
Compared to what he's spending his time on now, I'd imagine the idea of
seizing a few (or even a bunch of) percentage points of marketshare away from
Google / Oracle / Sony / etc. seems rather trivial.

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groundCode
No - Bill Gates is spending his time doing far more useful things

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pearjuice
"If I were him I would never-ever take that position as a CEO ever again."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6304463](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6304463)

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orionblastar
No Bill Gates is done, he is enjoying retirement and giving out vaccinations
to people in the third world.

Microsoft should just buy out Valve Software to get Gabe Newell back, and then
make him the new CEO. Gabe knows how to get stuff done, and he knows how to
fix Windows and make great software.

Either that or buy out the old Atari in Europe to get Noland Bushnell as CEO
of Microsoft.

Steve Wozniak is available for CEO as well, he seemed to like the Windows
Mobile 8 phones.

Marc Andreessen formerly of Netscape has become a Microsoft fan and would make
a good CEO.

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stewartjarod
No. He has been done with that for years. He is happy where he is. The leader
of the board.

