Coincidentally, I pointed to JJ Allaire as a great programmer, and previously mentioned that I use the Perl-based Movable Type to power this site because it's easy to install on a Windows server and supports Live Writer.

I found out last week that JJ went on to build a company that got bought by a bigger company that gave him an environment to create a product named... Windows Live Writer.

He's that good.

PS- Some props are also due to Nick Bradbury, who created HomeSite, the most usable, adaptable HTML editor available on Windows (I qualify that so that you Emacs zealots don't freak. :)).  He probably also makes the "most wanked" list, since he probably sold Bradbury Software to Macromedia for a million, only to see them sell millions of dollars in HomeSite and then get bought by Adobe.  Hopefully he had some options, but I doubt it.