Fortune magazine spread a rumor last week that Bill Gates, currently chairman of the board at Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is considering returning to a day-to-day position. A round-up of reactions from top experts on the Redmond, Wash., operation suggests you shouldn't bank on it.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley is highly doubtful, pointing out that Gates is pretty busy with his foundation, and that as late as this past July he said that he did not plan to return to the company. There seems to be a broad sense among people external to the company that it would do better to bring in some fresh blood, Foley writes.

Preston Gralla at Computerworld is even more convinced there will be no big comeback in Redmond: "Gates will never return as head of the company he founded," he writes. While there may be people who would like to see Gates involved once again in the nitty gritty, the man has been clear about his commitment to his philanthropic ventures. "Gates already more than made his mark in the tech world, building the world's most influential and wealthiest software company," and now he wants to focus on the other part of his legacy.

InfoWorld's Robert X. Cringely is equally skeptical but nonetheless offers 10 reasons Gates should return. My favorite are:

• "Because spending every day trying to end world hunger, eradicate polio and malaria, and raise the quality of education is a total bummer. Debating the merits of tiles vs. icons is a much better use of his time."
• "Because we're falling further and further behind Brazil, Russia, India, and China in the race for sweater-wearing CEOs."
• Because only "Gates has what it takes to finally close that Yahoo acquisition. At this point, Yahoo might actually pay Microsoft to put it out of its misery. That's what we call a win-win situation."

For more:
- see the Fortune article
- see Mary Jo Foley's post at ZDNet
- see Preston Gralla's post at Computerworld
- see Robert X. Cringely's post at InfoWorld

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