'a person that loves technology and can inspire, excite, and drive the company'

And this type of person grows on trees?

Even if MS could find such a person, would the shareholders allow them to run the company the way said person would want to? How long before the share price starts to flag because the investors and analysts can't see the way forward, the shareholders panic and the new CEO is toast? Look at what happens to the Apple share price when they don't bring out 'the new iPhone' on the date the analysts predicted (but Apple never mentioned) and stories abound of 'new iPhone is late'. Tim Cook was chosen by Jobs, he's been in the post a very short time in the great scheme of things, he's introduced investor-friendly dividends and share buy-backs and there are people calling for his head - and that's with the Apple share price on the way up (as of last Friday, haven't checked since).