Bill Gates has officially stepped into the next phase of his life, one dedicated almost exclusively to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. After doing the same job for over 30 years, Gates admitted that the new direction would not be easy; however, he stated that he is ready for the change. Microsoft's co-founder and now part-time Chairman also added that moving on and focusing on philanthropy does not mean that he will lose his edge, and promised that he would continue to be "pretty hardcore".

Gates admitted that the evolution beyond Microsoft would not come easy from the perspective of letting go of the company after having been at the lead for over three decades. Still, gates is not retiring, and far from it. Microsoft's Chairman will take on new responsibilities with the wealthiest philanthropic foundation worldwide and, in fact, will travel across the globe, and as far away from Redmond as possible. This, in Gates vision will help him go on a Microsoft-free diet. "I think I'll do a good job at only helping out where I'm explicitly desired," he stated.

Thinking back, Gates indicated that the levels of Microsoft's initial ambition to put its software into computers running on every desk in every home were beyond what he actually thought achievable. But in the end, the Redmond giant actually surpassed the initial expectations.

"Many of Microsoft's successes are things that took more than a decade to develop. The idea of talking to the computer, interacting with pen, and touch, we still believe in those things, and it's our perseverance to take that research and get it right that I think will drive our future success," Gates stated, adding that he could not pick a single application where Microsoft was most successful at. "Office is one that would be very high on the list. I think the thing we're most proud of is that we've created this platform first Basic, then DOS then Windows and a whole software industry grew up around it."