<p>So, some investors want to oust Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates because he supported Steve Ballmer while the company missed the tablet and smartphone revolutions? The VAR Guy gave this story a few days of thought. Instead of pushing Gates out the door, geeks and businesses should thank him and keep him in Microsoft's board room. Here are 10 reasons why.</p><p>1. Freedom from RISC Unix: Anybody else remember expensive Unix offerings running on RISC hardware from HP, IBM, Sun, Digital and many others? Under Gates' leadership, Windows NT Server freed corporate IT departments from the costly RISC-Unix combo.</p><p>2. Freedom from NetWare: Anybody else remember file and print servers? Sure, NetWare never crashed. But Novell got arrogant and never really pushed beyond file, print and directory services. Here again, Windows NT Server gave us freedom.</p><p>3. Freedom from Apple: Anybody else remember how bad Apple hardware and software became in the mid to late 1990s? Mac OS System 7 -- ouch. Apple offered customers the "wonderful" combination of bad software running on expensive hardware. Under Gates' leadership, Windows 95 combined with Intel's Pentium changed all that.</p><p><a href="http://thevarguy.com/business-technology-solution-sales/fire-bill-gates-10-reasons-microsoft-investors-dare-not-do-it">Keep reading...</a></p>