Jeez, the first worthwhile non-DW related thread to be posted for a long time and you guys immediately revert it back to being DW-related.
There's a forum section for that stuff you know... :S
Bill Gates does very little in the running of M$ nowadays. In fact, I'd be surprised if he does anything at all. There are a hell of a lot of big wigs that surround him and do most of the top brass work themselves.
They have mighty fine salaries and a good enough business knowledge to not f*ck M$ up so it's likely the company will have a firm hold on this market for a long time (notwithstanding any major changes in the public opinion of their competitors (i.e. Linux suddenly become uber popular, Apple suddenly becoming the suite that every home user wants)).