If Ballmer were ever no-nonsense, he would not have fallen into the arrogant group-think that led to the rolling Vista trainwreck.

Things that they just can dial back?? Let's have some specifics so we know if the in-your-face security mess of Vista is not going to be fixed.

Ballmer should call himself Monkey Boy because that is exactly what he is. He is simply not fit to lead an organization as large as Microsoft has become.

Joe, you know this story is BS.

I subscribed to your RSS feed because I expected meaningful insight. Instead I get a pointless rant. Don't be overly cynical. If people want to bash MS, there are tons of Apple forums to do so. We need you to be an objective observer, a monitor, not a wall of opposition to whatever MS does.

Question: Was Windows NT a "work in progress" until XP? NT was certainly a WIP for 3.1, 3.5x and 4.0. I would say that it was a WIP until Windows 2K, but XP was the convergence of those on the DOS line into making NT mainstream. So XP seems like the "final" version of NT, right? Hard to improve upon.

MacOS had a similar thing back in the day. When System 7 came out and everyone thought it was the Vista of the time, people stuck with 6.0.7 for a long time -- many until they got Power Macs. 6.0.7 was just a really solid release, and that multi-finder just seemed like a fad.

No mention of Vista disastrously user-hostile EULA, not to mention the "Let's-treat-every-user-as-a-criminal" WGA. But it's the costly hardware overhead that Vista demands that makes it unattractive to business and anyone without the cash to drop on a new, loaded system.

Meanwhile, GNU/Linux just keeps getting incrementally beter and better and better and runs on both small and old hardware without blinking. Surely Ballmer and Ozzie see that XP was peak user share for Microsoft and now GNU/Linux and Apple will continue their encroachment onto what's left of Microsoft's desktop share.

Joe, Ballmer failed to mention that the five years between releases was do to a technology gap.

You see, Microsoft is well known for stealing the intellectual property of smaller companies and then muscling the smaller companies into extinction. There is a lawsuit currently under way that alleges Microsoft has used that typical tactic against Vertical Computer Systems (VCSY). The lawsuit concerns two VCSY patents (6826744 and 7076521) that VCSY used to derive products for the software market. VCSY products presage Microsoft products during the period when Bill Gates was touting Microsoft's XML vision back in 2001 onward.

Perhaps the best thing would be for Yahoo to avoid acquisition by Microsoft, so Microsoft could eventually be broken up and the sum of their parts sold and spun off to retrieve value for their shareholders who are down 40%+ percent since 2000 when Ballmer took over as CEO.

Steve Ballmer

Want to be a knight in shining armor? Want to look good to the stockholders, to the millions of XP holdouts, to the anti-Vista bloggers, to the Microsoft fans, and maybe get some respect from the Mac and Linux world?

It would cost your company next to nothing, your company could gain back (some) respect and you can really compete with Linux and Mac.

The answer is called Windows for Legacy PC. It is a lean version of Windows XP meant to run on Windows 98 in the corporate sector. It is/was available to only MSFT's software assurance/enterprise subscription/enterprise agreement...only and was not sold OEM or to the general public.

Long before the quick rise of the EePC laptops, Microsoft made lean and mean version of XP. This could run on new high end machines, low end machines, tiny PC laptops and of course older, even Windows 98 type of machines.

MSFT was way ahead of the game, before there was a big demand for lean running distributions that have now been taken over by Linux.

The requirements are minimal, 128 MB RAM, 300 MHZ or better or 1 GB hard drive space. Sound good? Yes it does.

So here is what Steve could do. Re-release Windows FLP as either "Windows Classic" or "Windows Legacy" , make it available to OEM and to the general public. Sell it for $49 and offer to sell a family five license pack for $199.

This could be distributed through brick and mortar channels, through OEM and also through a ISO download. A huge ad campaign would not be needed since simple word of mouth would be all thats needed.

A ISO download would require no distribution chain at all. Anyone anytime could just buy it, download the ISO and install it on a computer all in a few short hours.

So if Microsoft is really concerned with the exodus to Apple and to Linux. For practically no added costs to the Castle of Redmond. MSFT could make a very smart business move at a time when some perceive MSFT as a troubled company who lacks direction and losing ground to other operating systems.

While Ballmer is trying to reassure the corporate sector, the stockholders and the computer world that "Vista isn't finished yet", maybe he really should be saying that "MSFT isn't finished yet"

So while I yet applaud the "save XP" movement, maybe there should be another movement, the "release Windows FLP to everyone" movement.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/benefits/fundamentals.mspx

Steve, the next move that your company makes is a important one, lets hope it is a smart move this time.

So lets get this straight:

Ballmer admits Vista isnt finished, and your kissing his ass for his 'honesty'.

Instead of ripping him a new one for completely screwing up windows, Microsoft, etc ?

---* Bill

Baldmer got that one wrong. Vista is finished in the minds of consumers & businesses.

better luck next time MSFT, with windoze 7, whenever you manage to get THAT out the door.

People are too harsh on Vista. I've used it since pre-release, and I've had fewer problems than when XP was initially out. SP1 has brought some good performance tweaks too - especially with network file copy. Yes you need a "modern" PC. But then Vista's a modern OS. If it was written for legacy hardware we wouldnt be moving in the right direction, would we!

I'm an applications developer, so I dont just use it for browsing the net either!

Its a good OS- give it a break and lets look at it sensibly, objectively and in context, shall we? Not just jump on MS's back because thats the "done thing". Criticism where criticisms due. Its not as good as it was hyped up to be, but nothing is anymore. Take a hard look at PR for that.

Operating systems are always a work in progress, the work is never done to improve them. Look at Apple, it took them 4 releases to get OS X right (10.0, .1, .2, .3). Windows Vista is a major release in a way that will define the Windows platform for the next 16 to 20 years. The architectural changes are meant to setup Microsoft and third party developers to work more efficiently, write better code, design better applications. I think Windows users are in a great position, they are getting this robust, well supported OS that will just get better and better over time.

@NJ:

You're missing the point. Vista is certainly usable, but it's far from good. Even with SP1, Vista runs slower than XP on my computers. Vista is a terrible resource hog, a lot of unnecessary bloat. While I agree that bugs can be fixed, nothing short of a total OS rewrite can fix Vista's bloat and performance issues.

So never mind the PR. Just look at the practical day-to-day reality. Vista is bloated and slow, compared to XP. Vista has an annoying security model (UAC and DRM). Vista has compatibility issues that may be fixed over time, but not real soon. And as for a "modern OS," OS X and Linux are modern, too, but they don't have Vista's problems.

(I use Vista, XP, OS X, and Linux, and OS X is my favourite.)

Andre Da Costa said:

Look at Apple, it took them 4 releases to get OS X right (10.0, .1, .2, .3).

I challenge that. Both Jaguar (10.2) and Panther (10.3) were solid releases. I ran Panther on several hundred Macs in a corporate environment with nary an issue. The upgrade to Tiger was rock solid.

If you want to bash a release of Mac OS X, bash Leopard. It's still a bit rough around the edges. Not as bad as Vista, but not where it needs to be, either.

@Andre Da Costa:

This is "old world" thinking. The future does not belong to the desktop, it belongs to mobile and handheld devices (via the Internet). The fact that Vista is setup for a whole new generation of desktop applications is much less relevant than ever before. Traditional PCs will almost disappear in the next 10-15 years, and the trend has already begun.

You are a dinosaur stuck in the past. You remind me of a guy back in 1990 who told me that he would never migrate to GUI because it was much less efficient than text-based apps. He could not foresee the future trend.

And neither can you.

You should change the name of your site microsoft-curse, rather!?
or something else to describe yourself like microsoft-watch-with-a-single-eye

Ok?

BTW, OS X and Linux are great for small mobile devices, too. Vista will never fit in such devices because of the way it's architected.

I guess I-Man has not made enough money off of VCSY yet. I-Man's promises that VCSY was going to win it's lawsuits in March didn't hold up. Guess we have to keep puting up with I-Man until he tricks enough people into buying the VCSY stock so he can sell out before VCSY goes belly-up.

I don't think enterprise consumers are too hard on Vista. The product was half-baked when it was rolled out and did not even integrate well with other MS products such as SQL Server 2005. I know this is fixed now, but at the time I was in the market for a new laptop. I could not buy Vista and wait on MS to the fix the problem. I ended up buying a XP Pro laptop and installed SQL Server 2005 on it.

When Vista could not integrate with MS own array of products when it was rolled out set off WARNING BELLS too me that this OS was not ready for the big leagues.

I'm sure Vista works great for the Joe six-pack average computer user who does not use it for anything but the Internet and some basic apps. Then again, XP does this just fine as well so why should Joe six-pack even bother let alone an enterprise environment?

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer should bear the majority of the blame. Not just some middle management that got canned from the fiasco.

Windows 95, Windows ME, or Windows Vista? Which one is better?

@Joe Wilcox:
hpk is right. All this Microsoft bashing has to stop. Up until now, it's been tolerable. But now you go and dig up an intolerable basher.

Poor, poor pitiful Microsoft. It's only doing its best as any poor struggling software company does. And then you quote some basher named Steve Ballmer who is telling us that Vista isn't actually done, it's bloated, and it's late. I mean, who is this chair-tossing Bozo anyway? Why would you want to quote him?

I suggest you try to find someone else to speak for Microsoft, and stay clear of this basher.

;-)

Gee....I think this another entry in the book of Revelations.

Everyone knows that every OS is constantly worked on...it's just that other OSes are held until they at least resemble a finished product. The WIP excuse just doesn't cut it when you're talking about big-ticket items. I suppose Vista supporters would be satisfied if they bought a new car that wound up having 10 or 12 recall notices and a couple safety warnings on it. Then to have the manufacturer say, 'Oh, we're still working the kinks out....sorry' would make it all better. I think not.

Microsoft is finally being made a victim of their own lackadaisical attitude toward the consumer...tough luck, eh?

@Richard Eng,

try doing CAD work or high end gaming on a mobile device.

the desktop isn't going anywhere.

@Al:

Compared to the *vast* majority of PC users worldwide, CAD users and high-end gamers are a small segment. There will always be a place for desktop workstations, but most consumers will be mobile within the next decade or so. And high-end gaming will be subsumed by ever-more advanced consoles (PS5 anyone?).

There's a reason desktop PC sales have tanked in recent years and laptop sales have skyrocketed. Traditional desktop applications are not going to be as vital in the future as you think they are.

Trust me.

@ Richard Eng

Not true, I use a wide variety of online Services such as the various Windows Live services like Hotmail, Spaces, Live Photo Gallery, Yahoo! Mail, FaceBook, Hi5, Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger.

So, I am not a Dinosaur, but as you so rightly noted in a later post, the desktop is not going anywhere. I believe the web will always be a hindrance to seamless computing. Thats why the combination of Software plus Services provides a reliable path forward to make that combination of the desktop and Internet work for the end user in a more intense and powerful way.

We consume information, but the way how the information is presented is very important, I don't think persons want to watch hi def video on an iPhone or an eeePC for the rest of their lives.

But I am sure a form factor such as the MacBook Air would be great to travel with, big enough screen, thin enough still with access to a full operating system and local apps in addition to the power of services that can be pulled down at anytime but still getting that seamless experience.

Is it safe to say that Windows 95 was more successful for Microsoft than Vista? At least in terms of marketing and user demand?

Does anyone remember the 'Start me' up song that MS paid so much money for when Windows 95 was released? Wasn't that song done by the Rolling Stones? Forgive me if I get the band wrong, but MS marketing has also been more successful in the past.

Apple's PC guy vs. MAC guy is a stroke of genius. It's fun to watch even for us non-MAC folks.

Notice what the Microsoft and Linux proponents are reduced to arguing: They contend the fat client is here to stay.

They have to. They don't have a platform without that fat client.

Before long, their favorite platform (take your pick, Vista/XP, OS X, Linux whatever) can be subsumed by a web-based commodity-component OS capable of squirting into a bare metal machine within seconds. Why buy? Why be locked in?

The projected lifetimes of the critical products these OS companies have nursed for years are dwindling before our eyes and the disruption hasn't even begun.

They are putting up the bravest defense of the desktop OS but their logic and the emerging facts show them to be wishful dreamers holding on to legacy because they have no new thoughts.

Quote; “Ballmer's admission comes weeks after the formal release of Windows Vista Service Pack. And Vista's still not finished.”
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But will Vista ever be finished Joe? Remember the early versions of Dos, when we used to hear: “All will be fixed in the next release, if you only have patience to wait.”

A commercial OS needs to have features that will want to make users buy it. Obviously, Vista does not, since the boxed stand alone versions have sold so badly, and MS was forced to reduce the price on those. Furthermore, another way to get consumers to buy the next release of Windows, is to promise to fix that which was broken in the last release. It was therefore necessary to break things, in Vista, rather than continue to sell and improve XP, which was already the best that MS could put out.

Vista like Windows Millenium . is at, or near its end of development. It really rather pointless if there will be a Service Pack 2 for Vista or not, as by this time, one should figure out that the motives of MS is not to fix it, but rather to sell Windows Seven.

Windows Seven (7 or Vienna) maybe Vista2, the more finished version of Vista. It will still have all the bloat, and the DRM that has affected everything from performance, games, crashes, etc. Until the DRM is removed, Windows will not be worth much.
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Quote Steve Ballmer: “"We have a lot of customers that are choosing to stay with Windows XP, and as long as those are both important options, we will be sensitive, and we will listen, and we will hear that. I got a piece of mail from a customer the other day that talked about not being able to get XP anymore, and we responded: XP is still available. And I know we're going to continue to get feedback from people on how long XP should be available. We've got some opinions on that."
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We already know that XP Home has been “saved” for the low powered low cost new laptops. But I re-state my opinion here, that XP Home was almost given to the OEM's for these computers, with the express purpose of making money by later selling them XP Pro. XP Pro would have to continue to be sold in some kind of fashion beyond the end of June, for this to happen. Reading the quote of Ballmer above, it seems like even he is starting to get it, keep selling XP.

The other thing is Windows Seven. Already there is a prototype of Windows Seven submitted to the Antitrust committee. Sound we just call this “prototype” an Beta, or rather an Alpha? Cause that is what it really is. Expect we will know a lot more by the end of June. This will be the time for MS to either kill or extend sales of XP, and also to start the “beta” testing of Windows Seven. Figure it will take MS about a year to get Seven though the beta testing bugs. This is the minor release, not the major release, it should go faster than the Vista beta testing.

This new release is about a step away from declaring Vista to be the equivalent to "new coke". Which... so far that's what it's looking like. As enticing as the online o.s. sounds, it's still out there a bit. Business users still need a solid core o.s. to run basic business applications and functions, even if the Internet is down for some reason. Something like xp or windows 2000 is all most businesses need or want for that though. Even for home users, you still need to be able to boot up and play the kids games and retrieve whatever personal data or pictures etc. you have put into the pc, even when the cable modem is down. Which, depending on where you are is no insignificant factor and I think even home users would consider this. So, we still need some core o.s. But, nobody IMHO needs another Vista or another o.s. as equally bloated. I am still hoping for a Linux based "windows 2000" desktop equivalent by the time my home XP's go away.

Ballmer is a bullying thug in a three-piece suit. His arrogance and lack of decency in his business practices is appalling. It's a pity he can';t be jailed for Micros$oft's acts of theivery.

As far as understanding innovation is concerned, he's Mr. All Nonsense. he has no understanding of what real innovation is and how to encourage it.

Ballmer and Gates are the tow people who are keeping Micro$oft chained to the past. They -- and their amoral attitudes -- should be dumped to set Micro$oft free.

@Joe
....I like Ballmer. He's Mr. No Nonsense. Anybody who calls himself "Monkey Boy" deserves an A-plus grade for brash and directness.....

But then if he is a "monkey boy" then this must apply? Time for some Bill Gates sayings,

Let's face it, the average computer user has the brain of a Spider Monkey.

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.

At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.

In this business, by the time you realise you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.

About three million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

If you can't make it good, at least make it look good. (this one applies to Vista)

another famous Bill Gates quote'

One thing we have got to change in our strategy - allowing Office documents to be rendered very well by other peoples browsers is one of the most destructive things we could do to the company. We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office documents very well depends on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities.

Quotes about Bill Gates,

The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place.

* Douglas Adams
There never was a chip, it is said, that Bill Gates couldn't slow down with a new batch of features.

* James Coates, The Chicago Tribune

Bill Gates is a monocle and a Persian cat away from being the villain in a James Bond movie.

* Dennis Miller (attributed)

* He is divisive. He is manipulative. He is a user. He has taken much from me and the industry.
o Gary Kildall, in notes for an unpublished memoir Computer Connections.

Got Vista on a new PC. I have been having files vanish and can't understand what is going on. This started after Service Pack 1. I did the upgrade of memory, hardware (new scanner), and newer versions of several programs. Vista is need of lot of fixes no matter what Bill Gates says.

Vista = Millenium II - Now we have two operating system disasters from Microsoft. The next MS release had better be great or it will be strike three with Linux running the table. What good is having 90% of the desktops if they are all loaded with a defective MS OS?