HE DOES not rock on his chair when thinking (and sometimes saying) that a reporter's question is the height of stupidity, as Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder does. Nor does he jump about a stage, screaming �I love this company�, like Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive. Craig Mundie, the software giant's chief technical officer, is not a typical Microsoftie. He has even been known to say such reasonable things as: �We have no right to autonomous execution. We have to be a responsible leader.�

It all sounds a bit like Colin Powell on one of his rare trips to Old Europe. This is no accident. Although there may be only superficial similarities between Mr Gates and George Bush (relative lack of sophistication, accident-prone speeches), and Mr Ballmer seems more a fusion of Dick Cheney (power behind throne) and Donald Rumsfeld (tells it like it is), Mr Mundie is unambiguously the secretary of state of the United States of Windows. As such, he is yet another sign, alongside the restructuring announced this week to improve financial control and the decision to forgo share options, that the global software bully has, to quote Mr Mundie, �recently exited adolescence�.