John,

I'd take it more along the lines that Tod, being able to move up through the ranks at MS successfully, made a wad of dough. Being competitive enough to so rise as high as he did among so many other smart folks either means he's smarter or more cunning in my mind. Either way my bet is that he wanted to go higher and since Bill wasn't about to step down... <g>

I see this as natural agression and competitiveness.

I do also think that there's pleny of room outside of MS to develop competing Internet technologies.

>I was reading my latest VBPJ and saw that Tod Nielsen is no longer at MS. For those of you who don't know who Tod is, he is the one famous for his top-10 lists. Tod for some time, was in charge of Fox. And while I may be mistaken, I think Tod may have come to MS via Fox. It has been so long now, I don't remember this one with certainty. My thanks in advance to anyone who can clarify this.
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>In any case, Tod was a major envangelist for developer tools and the Windows Platform. His latest venture is that of CEO for Crossgain Corp. www.crossgain.com. Here is the main blurb from the home page:
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>At Crossgain we are laying the foundation for the next generation Internet. Radically simplifying how people build and deploy applications on the Web, we are solving problems that others think are impossible.
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>What is interesting about this can be found in the careers page. I challenge anyone to find MS-related technology in support of this new venture.
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>
>Just an interesting observation......
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>< JVP >