Earlier quoted context omitted.
Answer to q3. Benioff (salesforce.com), Ellison (oracle), heck probably Ballmer as well, he certainly doesn't seem to get how to run product development.
Ellison was a programmer. Benioff was a programmer too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Benioff#Career Given the position Microsoft was in 2000, when Mr.B took charge, I don't think their position could be much worse.
And Balmer has certainly been around some leet techies enough to have a better understanding of technology than 3/4 of HN people.