Apparently we're not the only ones with hope for Microsoft! Wired Magazine published an interview this morning with Mary Jo Foley, author of the cutely-titled book Microsoft 2.0, about the future of the company as Bill Gates leaves the day-to-day ops in the hands of Steve "I walked away from Yahoo" Ballmer.

Her verdict? "It's dangerous for companies of any size to count them out. They're still good at figuring out how to come back into a market and steal everybody's lunch." Elementary school metaphors are always useful. Who can't understand a stolen lunch?

The most interesting part of Foley's interview sounds more like our college leadership classes, though:

There's always been this dichotomy between "Bill's guys" and "Steve's guys." Steve's guys have MBAs and their roots are in sales. Bill's guys have been traditional technologists. The people who are more like Steve will probably get more power and will run the show, so I wonder who's going to be the tech champion for Bill's guys. I think that's going to be a big cultural and noticeable change once Gates is out from his day-to-day duties.

Though business majors have always kind of annoyed us, with their smooth-talking, shiny-haired ways, we're relieved to hear that at least one published author thinks Microsoft is in good hands with Ballmer as CEO. It's not quite the dorky-tech-guy-perseveres narrative of which we're inordinately fond, but it'll do. It will have to do.

Photo of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, pumpkin-style, by Scott Heimendinger of Scott's Food Blog.Thanks!