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Bill Gates: Windows 8 is doing "well" without him

Ex-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates thinks the company's latest offerings are doing very nicely without him, thank you very much.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
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Joe Svetlik
2 min read

How is Windows 8 doing? Microsoft says it's sold 60 million licenses for the latest version of its operating system, though according to other reports, it's performing nowhere near as well as the company would like. Bill Gates, however, seems pretty chuffed.

Asked by CNBC whether he'd ever return to the company as CEO, Gates replied that Windows 8 and the Surface tablet are doing "well" without him, The Verge reports. But then he would say that, wouldn't he?

You can watch the full interview for yourself -- the interviewer asks the question just after five minutes in.

Gates points out he's engaged with Microsoft on a part-time basis, but he's very focused on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"Microsoft has got a lot of exciting things going on," he said. "It's a competitive field. Windows 8 has done well, Surface computer is doing well, so I share lots of ideas where Office should go, and I think the field as a whole should feel proud of how quickly it's moving, and Microsoft will lead in a lot of those areas."

Asked which devices he uses, Gates said he reads on a Windows PC, while Windows Phone is "a fantastic product" and a "great tool".

In just a few days Microsoft will hike up the price of Windows 8 by some 400 per cent -- so if you're umming and aahing about whether or not to upgrade, it's make your mind up time. It's also just a couple of weeks before Microsoft launches its Surface Pro tablet -- the one everyone has been waiting for -- which runs Windows 8 instead of Windows RT.

In the interview, Gates also gave an update on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has given away $28 billion to help combat health crises around the globe like Malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.

Have you tried Windows 8? What do you make of it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, or on our Facebook page.