What laptop does Microsoft’s CEO use for his presentations?

A picture is worth a thousand words…

 

View the original on Flickr.Com

Ballmer: Vista is ‘a work in progress’

 

As PC users clamor for Microsoft to continue to support Windows XP, company CEO Steve Ballmer called the Vista OS “a work in progress” at an annual Seattle event on Thursday.

“It’s a very important piece of work. We did a lot of things right and have a lot of things we need to learn from. You never want to let five years go between releases,” he said.

While Microsoft recently extended the date when the XP software will be available for low-cost PCs, it doesn’t plan to listen to some other complaints, including that Vista is too big. “Vista is bigger than XP and it’s gonna stay bigger than XP,” Ballmer said. Read the full story on MacWorld.Com

 

Top Analysts: Windows collapsing under its own weight; Radical change needed

 

Microsoft’s Windows juggernaut is collapsing as it tries to support 20 years of applications and becomes more complicated by the minute. Meanwhile, Windows has outgrown hardware and customers are pondering skipping Vista to wait for Windows 7. If Windows is going to remain relevant it will need radical changes.

That sobering outlook comes courtesy of Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald. Half of a full room of IT managers and executives raised their hands when asked whether Microsoft needed to radically change its approach to Windows. Read the full story on ZDNet.Com

 

Microsoft top brass ‘burned’ by Vista problems

“Private Microsoft emails unearthed during a US court case have revealed that even the software giant’s own executives struggled to get Windows Vista running smoothly.”

“…One executive, Mike Nash, complained he was “burned” so badly by compatibility issues he was left with “a $2100 email machine”.

Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft executive in charge of Windows, struggled to even get his home printer working with Vista.”

“Jon Shirley, who experienced compatibility problems with his Epson printer and scanner and his Nikon film scanner.

He could not even get some of Microsoft’s own MSN software products to work on Vista and refused to upgrade his other computer to the operating system.

“I cannot understand with a product this long in creation why there is such a shortage of drivers,” Shirley wrote to Ballmer.

Other emails from various Microsoft executives show that even they struggled to work out what “Vista Capable” and “Vista Ready” meant when buying a new PC.

“Is it true that Vista Ready doesn’t necessarily mean Aero capable? I got a Dell Latitude that is Vista Ready but doesn’t have enough graphics [hardware],” Sinofsky wrote.”

Read the full article on SydneyMorningHerald.Com.Au

See also this article on the NYTimes.Com

Court docs reveal Vista requirements lowered to help Intel sell incompatible chipsets.

“So now that the “Vista Capable” lawsuit is a full-blown class action, the judge has unsealed all 158 pages of emails between Microsoft execs trying to sort out what went wrong with the sticker program. While bits and pieces have been blacked out, what remains is still fairly incredible — although Intel’s 915 chipset was initially rejected as incompatible with Vista, MS execs flatly admit that “In the end, we lowered the requirements to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics embedded” and “We are caving to Intel.” Read the full story on Engadget.Com

Soviet Microsoft: How Resistance to Free Markets and Open Ideas Will the Unravel the Software Superpower.

“…Somewhat ironically, one of the most financially successful capitalist companies of the 90s has positioned itself as a modern counterpart to the old communist Soviet Union. Microsoft’s ideological contempt for and resistance to free markets and the open expression and propagation of fresh ideas and technologies is not only a close parallel of the old USSR, but also a clear reflection of why Microsoft is currently failing and why its troubles have only just begun. Here’s a comprehensive look at why this is the case.” Read the full article on RoughlyDrafted.Com

Microsoft’s Latest Invention: The iPhone

Patent application from Microsoft. Words fail me. Read what Wired.Com had to say.

Looking for a good movie to rent?

I posted this a while ago but I’ve decided to refresh the post since there are a lot more readers now than when I first posted this.

Look for a copy of ”Pirates of Silicon Valley”. Based upon the book, Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer, by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, this film documents the rise of the home computer/personal computer through the rivalry between Apple Computer and Microsoft. Here’s a clip…

Mother’s ire puts Ballmer on defense over Vista

“I’m one of those early adopters of Vista,” said Yvonne Genovese, an analyst who was interviewing Ballmer along with fellow analyst David Smith on stage at a conference forum. “My daughter comes in one day and says, ‘Hey Mom, my friend has Vista, and it has these neat little things called gadgets — I need those.’”

Said Ballmer: “I love your daughter.”

“You’re not going to like her mom in about two minutes,” said Genovese, while the crowd laughed.

She went on to explain that she installed Vista for her daughter — and two days later went right back to using the XP operating system. Read the full article on ComputerWorld.Com [via Hasta La Vista, Vista]

Watch Bill Gates answer to the Dept. Of Justice [video]

Here is a snippet from an 17 hour DVD set which you can obtain by contacting the poster. “What we’ve got here is Bill Gates raw, lively, on the hot seat and uncensored like no interview you’ve ever seen before.”

Dvorak: Microsoft: End of an Era

Personally, I wonder if the company can survive without Gates there on a day-to-day basis, berating the masochistic coders with his chiding. Two of his favorites include, “Do we actually pay you to work here?” and “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve EVER heard.” People always complain that Steve Jobs is a big meanie to the staff, but Gates is just as bad. Read more.

iPhone a True Threat to Windows Mobile

Microsoft has reason to fear the iPhone, both for its sales potential and its disruption of Microsoft’s traditional business model of proprietary protocols and customer lock-in, a Blackfriars Marketing analyst wrote Monday. Read more.

If Microsoft made toasters

I believe that Microsoft’s domination of the PC software market has dulled and altered our expectations of the ‘fit for purpose’ and ‘use from the box’ aspect of all - not just computer software - products we now shell out our hard earned for. Read more.

A thought from the author: PC vs Mac

I came to a realization the other day while surfing around the net looking for things of interest. I happened to read a comment on a site from a PC user to a Mac guy. It was a very biased and ignorant comment that left me envisioning this PC user as a 5 year old kid with his index fingers in his ears yelling “Lalalalala. Macs suck. Lalalaa I can’t hear you!”

But then it hit me. I used to be one of those guys!

Microsoft’s security leaks and dirty business tactics since 1999

I stumbled across this site this morning. Although the author decided to abandon it in 2005, it’s currently serving as an excellent historical record of Microsoft’s doings. If not for this archive this information might have been forgotten by the public with it’s short-term memory. All the information contained there is pretty overwhelming (ie: long read) but it only takes a quick browse of the archives to be reminded of just how and poor quality their software is, and how corrupt the management is. Is Microsoft above the law? Read more.

Researcher: [Microsoft is] the key architect of the greatest financial pyramid scheme this century.

Bill Parish, a respected Investment Management and Researcher is authoring a book on some of the business practices of Microsoft. His page makes an interesting read. Here’s some snippets:

“I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft.”

This is old news but I’m posting it for those that may not have ever stumbled across it. Did you know that Jim Allchin was Co-President, Platforms and Services Division of Microsoft. Did you know that after 17 years with the company, he retired on January 30, the day Vista shipped to consumers. The reason?

Vista sucks.

Here is the famous internal e-mail he sent:

Former Microsoft Insider Speaks Out

It is quite a rare thing for someone who was an employee of Microsoft to openly speak about the actions of a company that in the past tried to eliminate any potential competition.  He states that GNU and Linux are superior to Microsoft Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer. Read more.

The Top 15 most colorful, controversial Microsoft statements ever

In the pantheon of controversial Microsoft comments CEO Steve Ballmer’s quote this week about the Apple iPod: “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item,” ranks right up there. But Between Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates that comment would be hard pressed to crack the Top 15 all-time most controversial or even colorful things the two of them have uttered in the past oh, 20 years or so.  Read more.

Microsoft CEO Claims iPhone Will Be Bust

“In an interview with USA Today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed there is no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. The article also deals with Microsoft’s friction with the Justice Department, friction with Google, and the profitability of MSN.

Microsoft Wants to ‘Kill’ Open Source

Microsoft has already begun collecting payments and gaining access to the patent portfolios of companies that use the open-source Linux operating system in their products. The list includes Novell (NOVL), Fuji Xerox, and Samsung Electronics.