It might still be a decade before Bill Gates and Steven Ballmer retire, but New York Times thinks Eric Rudder is the heir apparent at Microsoft. From what I can see, Eric Rudder is doing an amazing job in the server business. Other names mentioned: Steven Sinofsky (Office), Chris Jones (Windows), Yusuf Mehdi (MSN) and J Allard (XBox).

"Bill and Steve see a lot of themselves in Eric," said Mr. Silverberg, who is now a venture capitalist.

Mr. Rudder's group has grown at 15 percent to 20 percent annually for the last few years, reaching $10 billion a year in sales. It has become Microsoft's third big business by expanding at roughly twice the pace of the more mature desktop divisions, the Windows operating system and the Office software package. Microsoft's server group has posted faster growth than the software businesses of big corporate rivals like I.B.M. and Oracle, and has not suffered much so far from Linux, the popular free operating system.

Someday, Microsoft's fledgling divisions could also be big and profitable, like its Xbox video game consoles and software, and its MSN e-commerce Web sites and search. Young executives from those groups, and others, are also in the running to head the company someday. They include Steven Sinofsky, a senior vice president leading the Office business; Chris Jones, a vice president guiding Windows development; Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president in charge of MSN; and J Allard, a vice president who heads the Xbox team.