I'm a bit sad to see Mr. Gates not being actively involved in Microsoft any longer.
Bill Gates, is probably the best CEO a tech company could ever have. Yes, I know Steve Jobs is excellent as well but his arrogance has already lead Apple close to the grave once. I'm betting he's learned a lot from that but Bill Gates has always had his head straight and knew exactly what was needed.
Now is probably the time that Microsoft needs him more that ever with Apple (with the O/S) and Google (with the Internet) hitting Microsoft from both sides. Someone like Bill Gates is needed to put the company back in direction. Ballmer doesnt have much respect in the industry and I can bet you that Mr. Jobs and Mr. Schmidt would constantly be on their toes if Mr. Gates was leading Microsoft.
Without him, we have "Snow Leopard" arriving from Apple. They know Vista isnt that great and thus dont need to focus on being innovative for a while. And Google is busy seducing Yahoo instead of creating something as successul as AdSense.
I will certainly miss him.
-a