>Saying that .NET will take 4 to 5 years to mature is a wonderful headline, but the starting point was 1998/1999, not 2002.

Um, no. What Gates is talking about here goes way beyond VS.NET or the .NET Framework. Funny that wasn't mentioned in this thread. I'm pretty sure when Gates says "4 to 5 more years" he means "at least 5 years". If it were anything else, he'd let you know.