Well, he’s gone.

Or good as gone.

Bill Gates is out.

Mr. Buffett, the second richest man in the world, is giving him billions of dollars for his charity foundation.

That is probably the best thing that Mr. Buffett has done for the world.

By getting Bill Gates out of the corporate world and into charity Mr. Buffett has done great things for the world economy.

There is no guarantee that things will change at Microsoft.

Maybe the new CEO Steve Ballmer will run things the same.

My friends call him ‘that screaming, hopping, monkey-man’ - in an affectionate sort of way, of course.

Perhaps now we will begin to see real advances in software for business and scientific use.

Can we look forward to a flowering of software companies across the nation that will now be free of a company whose main product seems to have become litigation rather than innovation?

Mr. Buffett has given Mr. Gates a chance to correct what he wrought with his army of lawyers. He will dole out cash to hungry and starving men and women that might be doing well right now if his company hadn’t worked so hard to stifle competition and interfere with the operation of our court system.

The man with the golden touch is going to touch the poor.

Let us hope they do not wither and die under his attention like competition and fair trade have done.

‘Ding-dong, the witch is dead. Which old witch? The wicked witch.’