I never said Gates reported to Ballmer. In fact, it was the other way around. Gates didn't have day-to-day business responsiblities. That's the job of the President and CEO (Ballmer), not the Chairman (Gates).

Mary Jo Foley has written a book on the post-Gates era. I haven't read it yet, but plan to soon. It's called Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft Plans to Stay Relevant in the Post-Gates Era

>http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/002278.html
>
>I'd say Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 were the last great Microsoft products.
>
>Gates did not "report to Ballmer".
>the tech guys are subordinate to the biz guy.