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Windows 10 out, users happy, PCs upgraded, my work here is done – says Microsoft OS chief

Joe Belfiore to take a year off snapping more family pics

Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's head of operating systems, is going to take a year-long leave of absence from the biz once Windows 10 has rolled out.

By November, Microsoft should have finished emitting Windows 10 to smartphones, completing the play Redmond is making for a single operating system to cover all possible computers and devices. Once that's done, Belfiore will be gathering up his family and heading for the high seas.

"SO ... after dreaming about the idea for years ... and with our kids getting ALMOST too old for something crazy ... we've decided that we are going to take our family on the EDUCATIONAL TRIP OF OUR LIFETIME," Belfiore wrote on his Facebook page.

"In January – we're heading out on SEMESTER AT SEA for a journey around the world, along with 600+ college students and a handful of faculty and 'lifelong learners' like us. We think a floating college campus will be an amazing environment for everyone in our family to get a chance to see and experience the diversity all around the world and better appreciate what we have here."

The Semester at Sea program crams teachers and students onto a ship and takes them around the world for field projects. Belfiore will be setting off in January for a three-month trip from San Diego to Southampton in the UK, with stops in Japan, China, India, and several African countries.

Belfiore is adamant that this is merely a sabbatical, not a decision to leave. But he has been with Microsoft for over 25 years (joining in 1990 as an OS/2 programmer – that old) and could probably do with a break.

Usually when a politician or executive leaves to spend more time with his or her family, it's a code phrase for "I've been sacked." But in Belfiore's case it makes perfect sense. There has never been a Belfiore presentation where he didn't get a mention of his family in there, or get his family snaps out to show off some photo software. Perhaps he ran out of images to show. ®

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