Bill Gates, 3G iPhone, UK top CIO, Firefox 3, XP and more…

This month silicon.com looked at the amazing career of Bill Gates as he stepped down after three decades of running Microsoft.

Gates wasn't the only high-profile Microsoft departure, however, with Windows XP disappearing to the software store in the sky.

Stories of the month - June 2008

Click on the links below to read the stories everyone is talking about...

UK students outsource IT coursework to India

Photos: Bill Gates through the ages

Universities blamed for games industry skills crisis

Clock is ticking on Windows XP

Minority Report: The 3G iPhone has landed

Exclusive: UK's top CIO revealed

Firefox 3: "We're ready", says Mozilla

Holograms on handsets by 2010

O2 offers business tariffs for 3G iPhone

"Boring" school IT curriculum slammed

But as one iconic piece of software dies, another is reborn, this time in spectacular fashion as internet browser Firefox 3 racked up more than eight million downloads in one day on its launch.

Meanwhile the world was dissecting the nippy new 3G iPhone, with silicon.com providing expert analysis of whether it is the smart phone you should be buying when it hits UK shores on 11 July.

Telecoms operator O2 is setting its sights higher than just diehard Apple fans this time round, offering business tariffs for the iPhone to lure in the suits.

Those holding off upgrading their mobile have an even greater treat in store according to Indian tech giant Infosys, which revealed its holographic handset that it hopes to launch on the unsuspecting public in just two years.

silicon.com also went back to school this month, with the revelation that resourceful IT students were outsourcing their university coursework to graduates in India and Romania for as little as £5 a go.

Their behaviour could explain some of the frustrations in the games industry, with academics warning that the IT industry was "going to hell" because of the poor quality of graduates.

But it seems they should count themselves lucky to have any graduates at all, as a growing number of schoolchildren are turning their nose up at IT, saying they find it boring.

At this rate it's difficult to see where the UK's next generation of CIOs will come from but in the meantime just enjoy silicon.com's round-up of the country's top tech leaders in our annual CIO50 list.