After 33 years on the job, Bill Gates' tenure as a full-time Microsoft employee ended June 27. Gates will still be spending 20 percent of his time on Microsoft-related projects, but the other 80 percent of the time he'll be working to change the world through philanthropic work, in ways that don't necessarily involve software.
Gates chose to mark his departure with humor; first with the hilarious 'Last Day At Work' video shown at CES 2008, and later, in his emotional farewell address to employees, where he looked back at some of the challenges Microsoft has overcome.
"Even the times that were the toughest, in some ways, those are the ones that bond you the most," Gates told the gathering of some 800 employees. "You know, when IBM decides to attack you, or when some legal ruling isn't quite right, and you have to have a press conference afterwards."
