Who knows what the real motivation was, it could have also been because he is an American. In any case, he did not deserve that.

Well, "give the money back right now," sounds like an unmicrosoft comment, not an unamerican comment. More likely he bought Vi$ta Ultimate, and felt like he was due a refund, rightly so I might add. As far as he did not deserve a few eggs, this coming from Steve who has helped lay one of the biggest eggs in computer history, Vi$ta.

Not so sure that a few misplaced eggs is going hurt him. and perhaps that is what they get for their Robber Baron ways. Not that I would throw eggs myself, as that is just wrong. What is more disturbing, was that, according to Joe Willcox; "Nobody tried to stop the guy or tackle him afterwards. In fact, there was cheering as the eggs flung from his hands." When the group that you (Ballmer) hand pick to give a speech to, seems to agree, and like the egg thrower, maybe its time to look in the mirror, and say, have we done the best we can for our users?

Clearly in the mind of most people who use windows, Microsoft is ripping them off with poor products and high prices.

Joe,

Thanks for the link, and needless to say I don't approve of egg-throwing as a method of protest, even though I make fun of it in the post. (Hey, who could resist, especially remembering BillG's pie incident).

There's some background to the story: a Hungarian Government bid, supposedly skewed to MS vs Open Source, challenged via the Court system, Court trial suddenly rescheduled just as Ballmer arrived in Budapest..etc. So there may be a perception of the Bully lobbying there.

That said, they could have protested with banners, without eggs. Or displaying all those flashy Macbooks :-)

Hi,
I was there at Steve Ballmer's speech and saw this whole incident.
At first, when the guy started shouting at Ballmer, nobody understood what was really happening.
We only realized it when he started to throw the eggs.
You wrote: "In fact, there was cheering as the eggs flung from his hands."
I can assure you that nobody was supporting the behavior of this guy in the room. (at least there was no cheering)
We didn't understand why he wasn't thrown out of the auditorium by the security guys.
Actually it's really sad that Hungary is in the news because of this mad guy.

No, it was a clear: "Microsoft Corruption"
Please do not confuse Microsoft with USA

May be another one of those Linux people who think they can never come up and show their grudge by doing things like this! (I doubt whether that guy bought eggs or fought with the shop to get 'free' eggs,lol)

Why Microsoft Corruption?, some examples;

Microsoft's "embrace, extend, and engulf" business model
Microsoft Eliminates Competition Through Coercive OEM Contracts

Microsoft's legal behavior is consistent - consistently bad-

Three Microsoft-paid lobbyists, all wearing black suits, were pressuring members of the Senate
Committee on Governmental Operations

Forget about the WGA! 20+ Windows Vista Features and Services Harvest User Data for Microsoft

MS 5000 "Bloggers"

Why Did Microsoft Favor Intel Over Users?

Committee ignored the advice of the vast majority of the Nordic nation's software experts, was pressured by Microsoft and displayed "scandalous behavior."

--------

To bad he was such a bad shot I'd loved to see one
spattered all over the uniblabs head

Well, we must thank that student for some great PR here. Mr. Ballmer maintains his composure, more persons "and" Company's respect Microsoft's cool attitude and buys more Microsoft software.

Microsoft - +1
Loser Hungarian never bought software in his life piracy using software losing kid - -0

I remember when Bill Gates got the pie in his face. Did Microsoft stock fall? Did people stop using Microsoft's software? Nope, and has anyone heard of that guy since he did it? Nope!

That's so sad...

I'm no fan of Microsoft - particularly of late - but I'd only ever wish egg on the company's face (preferably by getting their ass whipped in competition); definitely not on an individual's face like Ballmer or Gatesy.

Well, at least Ballmer didn't throw a chair back at the guy.

Wow. I'm not a Microsoft fan at all - in fact I use Linux, but this is just disgraceful. You can disagree with a person or their company's practices as much as you want, but hurling objects is completely unwarranted. I wish that kid had gotten tased. D!ckhead.

Joe you should be angry, because you are clueless. Anyone who listens to you is just as clueless. Steve Balmer is an idiot, and a dangerous idiot at that. Microsoft used to be a benign behemoth....with dangerous rulers Microsoft is becoming a very powerful and evil behemoth... they were NEVER part of the 'cloud'...NEVER...only now are they stealing the opensource grid tools which have been developed over decades and researched by others....

First, Ballmer should fire his pathetic security team.

You have a guy yelling and throwing objects -- S...L...O...W...L...Y -- and his security can't dive in? Ballmer has to cower behind a table?

Next, the building's security doesn't act and detain this guy, either?

These could have been lethal objects -- with school shootings worldwide, it's not a stretch.

Ballmer smiles and makes jokes, but I'm sure later that day some heads rolled.

Marco wrote:
" No, it was a clear: "Microsoft Corruption"
Please do not confuse Microsoft with USA"

Actually it's quite easy. Microsoft exemplifies everything about the United States. Its dealings with competitors and customers are pretty much the same as the US with other countries and its citizens. Ditto for many other US companies.

Mike, when the people want to find analogies ALWAYS find it, but in this particular case there is nothing about of USA.
BTW: MS is a USA company and certainly its behaviour is not good American advertising

@Marco:

I don't quite understand why people flame Microsoft for their business model. That model was developed in Japan. It's nothing new. And the businesses that are performing it today to devastating effect? They're all in India.

People need to get off the anti-Microsoft kick. It's companies similar to Microsoft that infusing countries like Hungary with CASH, like it or not. You will never see any open-source initiatives that can actually prop up an economy.

You might get more mileage being on an anti-Exxon, or an anti-OPEC kick for a while, but I know that won't happen until the fad of being anti-Microsoft wears off.

Stewie:
If you are waiting for the anti-MS "fad" to wear off, be prepared to keep waiting a long time. I remember starting to see and hear it myself well over 12 years ago. It is a staple theme and element of our line of work. If anything, it has actually died down the last few years. MS made a lot of enemies and engendered a lot of fear and loathing during its rise to power as companies and careers were destroyed one after another. The recent decline in anti-MS rhetoric is, I believe due to the perception that MS has passed it's zenith and is well on its way to becoming what IBM is today, powerful, rich, important, but no longer the hegemon of the IT universe. In short, IT people aren't nearly as afraid of MS as they were back in the early part of the decade.

And one other thing I forgot to add: throwing eggs is juvenile and pointless. If anyone really wants to get Ballmer where it hurts, they should convince a friend to try Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office, a Mac, or Linux. Not quite as dramatic as egg throwing, but oh such more effective in the long run.

Stewie :My friend, some time ago I wrote :
I think that nobody in this forum resents either microsoft's success or money (nobody for example resents Google's success -on average-) what people resent is the "how", the lack of fair play, the manipulation ,the monopoly, the domineering attitude, the arrogance, the lack of scruples (and the lack of quality too.)
When you are the "King of the Hill" you got duties, Ms forgot it
------------

I resent the opportunity missed; if 10, 5 years ago MS has been, sincere, positive, and not merely opportunist with a policy to becoming rich at absurd levels ,the world could be a better place.
And why better place? because the education change to the men and the software is/help to the culture.
MS is a destructive and limiting factor in this equation.

Chips:"maybe its time to look in the mirror, and say, have we done the best we can for our users?"
Perhaps now the breakfast's eggs will remember it a Ballmer.

Carlos Hawes :"but oh such more effective in the long run"
True.

Obviously, the student is some liberal arts n00b, and not a CompSci major. Otherwise, his shirt would have read "Microsoft == Corruption."

Yes Marco. You got it in a nutshell. What people hate about the US is "what people resent is the "how", the lack of fair play, the manipulation ,the monopoly, the domineering attitude, the arrogance, the lack of scruples (and the lack of quality too.)"

I agree that the egg-throwing was inappropriate. From watching the video, it appeared to me as if a couple of security guards followed the student out the door, and appeared to be a very civil form of an escorted exit.

@Mike,
"What people hate about the US is..."

Yes, indeed. And for good reason. But as bad as the US is, the number of people who continue to stream in, risking fortune and life itself, show that however much the world hates the US, it hates a lot of the rest of the world far more.

But that's no reason for the US to become smug and complacent, of course!

@Philosopher: and your comments also play true for Microsoft.

(By Portuno)
So, what you're saying is; why did Microsoft go silent about Dynamics AX in April of 2006 when they should have been pushing that thing as hard as they could. And why are they opening up right now... two years later.

They're talking now. Two months before the court will decide between Microsoft and VCSY which company will be the likely winner in March 2009.

They should have been pushing the ability to "mesh" and to "dashboard". But they didn't. Perhaps they couldn't push it at all.

If they are just now getting to the point where they can design a dashboard (and they've had the Axapta software since 2002), then I get the drift why you're so suspicious about the dates. Why now? Are they going to go into this intellectual property hearing on a wing and a prayer?

One way of playing this is to announce you can do what the patents say you should be able to do, say you're working on it - it'll be out in 2009 - knowing that they can settle and pay at any time, meanwhile they can apply pressure to the IP owners while making yourself look like you can perform XML based web processing... when you've promised it for 2009 and others can do it in 2006.

Hmmm. Very interesting. I notice Microsoft has accepted the inevitable by promising to provide native ODF support in Office 2007... and basically leaving OOXML behind. Are they waking up? Or are they sleep walking? The Ballmer Bullseye egging incident is emblematic of a corporation that's only now realizing the world can fight back.

The Hungarians lost a revolution in 1956. That sucked. A childhood friend of mine escaped Hungary with his parents and their clothes. Intense guy. He knew what it was like to try and fail... but at least try. The others didn't have the courage to try so they lived enslaved by Stalin.

This time, one Hungarian and a bag of chicken fruit did what a whole lot of people would have to admit they would love to do... only with better aim.

http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/Stocks_V/threadview?m=tm&bn=33693&tid=4577&mid=4585&tof=3&frt=2

Joe - you promised to ban I-man for his constant VCSY spam. Please stand by your words.