Jobs was right
Whether we like steve jobs or not one should admit that he was spot on with regards to Balmer.
It's a different Microsoft leaving the first decade of the 2000s compared to the one that entered it. The year 2000 was a safe and secure world of the client and the server - and closed source code. Ten years later, Microsoft is grappling with open-source and - as ever - a successful internet strategy. Also, it has just …
Without the coffers of gold in their basement, this company would have been dead in the water around 2007.
And Windows 7 is overrated. It's just a bit better than the worst OS of all time, and that don't make it good.
So these bastards rule our lives, but that doesn't mean I need to love them. I don't care what slimy, underhanded trick they use next to take our choices and freedoms away and push their crappy products on us - does it matter if it's Bill, Ballmer or anyone else pulling the strings?
What's next? They bring the cloud in our homes and can see all our thoughts. Windows 7 has a massive vulnerability that causes half the world to black out, but we're not supposed to talk about it because it has cloud DRM on it so their stock goes to $500. They release Windows 8 which doesn't even boot, but reviewers everywhere praise it for not booting better than the previous version and the sheeple flock to buy it. They make a zune phone that fails abysmally at competing with the iphone and gphone. Their decision engine, Bing, decides that it sucks so it renames itself to Bong. They add a pink ribbon to Office, and also connect the paperclip to a speech engine.
So, next time, buy British - ARM FTW.
I really have no idea why many people believe that Steve Ballmer is so intelligent.
I personally haven't seen any evidence of it in his 10 years as CEO of Microsoft.
In fact Steve Ballmer has essentially ruined Microsoft through idiotic business decisions and scoffing at the competition.
The acting like a complete mad man and screaming and flailing his arms around and making absurd and asinine statements to the press part doesn't help either I am sure.
Take all the money away and he is just a low class, loud mouthed fat man who acts like he is insane.
So where is the evidence that he is so intelligent?
The Microsoft name and reputation doesn't instill much confidence in people or businesses.
Poorly made and unreliable hardware products, insecure and grossly overpriced software products and horribly unethical business practices taken straight from the philosophy of Niccolo Machiavelli's book "The Prince".
That is what Microsoft has come to mean to me and no doubt a lot of other people as well.
As I read this, there's a logo for Google's Android, with its little green Android character. I had this horrible thought that it looks a bit like Ballmer, with its smooth chrome-dome head.
Microsoft is still playing dirty. Still not supporting open standards. Refusing to adopt HTML 5, in an attempt to make the web work with its own Internet Explorer browser, and look bad on everyone else's browser.
I'm surprised that Microsoft is continuing this nasty strategy. Soon, the most popular client for accessing the internet will be the mobile phone, where Microsoft has failed and is out of the game, and where Webkit browsers will rule the internet. Microsoft's Internet Explorer can only keep sliding further into the abyss.
Mary Jo sounds good and confident on the podcast. Gavin sounds like he's fumbling around in the dark.
It's too easy to say things like "Microsoft don't get it whilst Adobe does" without stating on what basis you make that assertion. Business is generally about the bottom line and Microsoft's looks a bit better than Adobe's?
Equally, it's easy to say that "Apple came and hoovered up users". But Apple's share was tiny and is still tiny.
Equally, it's easy to say "Microsoft refuses to adopt HTML 5". But then there seem to be a lot of people from Microsoft on the HTML 5 working group - http://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=40318&public=1 and there's already some HTML 5 features in IE8 even though HTML 5 is not a finished spec.