Sleepless in Seattle: the Gates' plot has entered the final chapter

If you asked Americans who inspired the most fear and loathing - Microsoft chief Bill Gates or late Serbian warlord, Arkan - the vast majority would be hard-pressed to choose.

Mere ignorance, perhaps, but that kind of public hatred is hard to take after a while. So little wonder that last week Bill Gates stepped aside in favour long-time colleague and Microsoft president, Steve Ballmer.

Gates has become a personal magnet for Microsoft-bashing. The only sensible thing to do is to move him out of range before anyone else gets handy with the metaphorical (or real) custard pies.

So why all the hype about this internal restructure? Gates is simply going back to his roots in creating the software his company sells, rather than creating a company that sells software. He's not always had the dual roles of CEO and chairman.

So that's not what we should be focusing on. What is key now is whether Gates' the programmer can make the party swing again. While any attempt to improve Windows is a worthy cause, it's doubtful whether Gates is the man for the job. He seems to think he is going where his company needs him most - back to the minutiae of coding. After all, Microsoft has lost the Internet plot, a point never articulated better than when younger, faster rival AOL announced its intention to merge with Time Warner.

Gates' company is doing little more than riding its own coat-tails at this point, insisting that the Web isn't possible without Windows. And that's obviously not true.

The big threat to Microsoft is that Windows will be pulled asunder from Explorer - and just because Gates is no longer CEO is hardly likely to deter the DoJ, however personal their crusade had become. The Gates vision only works if Microsoft products are the gateway to the Internet. The whole phenomenon is unmanageable without the dominant OS underpinning that.

But unfortunately for Gates et al, Microsoft does not produce the best Internet products on the market. It's arguable that they don't even produce the best operating system on the market. Can Gates the business titan return to his routes as Gates the coder king, eat pizza, drink coke, stay up all night and reinvent Microsoft?

Gates had the big idea, and the vision to see it through. But he is now a man with nothing new to say - and the hatred he has aroused over the years won't die down just because he's changed his job title.

How long now until he gives it up entirely and devotes all his energy to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? Enough already, Bill. Take the money and hand it out. Full time.