Bill Gates confirms that he's not returning to Microsoft

Bill Gates today squelched all rumors (that have surfaced in the last week or so) that he was considering a return to being the head of Microsoft. During an interview with Fairfax Media in Australia, Gates stated that “I made the transition to work full-time on the [Bill & Melinda Gates] Foundation, and that’ll be what I do for the rest of my life.” Well, folks, I guess that’s it. The Microsoft co-founder (and once richest man in the world) will not be returning to the helm of the software company he built from the ground up.

However, Gates stated that he’ll continue to to act as an advisor to Microsoft, since he has left the software giant to be involved in full-time philanthropy with his foundation (named after him and his wife) in 2008. “I’m part-time involved with Microsoft, including even being in touch this week to give some of my advice but that’s not going to change – the foundation requires all of my energy and we feel we’re having a great impact.”, he said.

We wonder how much input into Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 8, Gates himself has personally put in. The public beta of Windows 8 is reportedly coming out in February of next year, and the official operating system, sometime around the third or fourth quarter of 2012.