When Big Things happen at Microsoft, the Big Media give us a call. We're local and we're Linux: two angles for the price of one phone call. So when Bill Gates "stepped down" yesterday, the phone rang. I missed the call, but I got the message: "How will Bill Gates be remembered?" My first thought: is he dead? And which of his several million enemies did him in?

After I gathered the facts, I called back with a great one-liner: "Bill Gates will be remembered as the Mozart of business and the Salieri of Software." It was a great line, but it was too late. The story had closed.

But it isn't over. Bill's new job is Chief Software Architect.

Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal and co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto.