MS CEO Steve Ballmer Sez

[crokett]

"Corporations that stay with Windows XP for too long risk facing a user backlash"

http://www.computerworlduk.com/manag...S&newsid=13179

He is missing a few key points:

A) The reason IT shops are still on XP is because Vista is terrible.
2) User opinion is waaay down the list of things considered before IT shops switch to a new OS. In some places it is not even on the list.

That said, I agree with him and plan to move my laptop off XP soon.... to Linux.

[Alex Franke]

Yeah, but it's kind of true. Regardless of what's best for the company, people want to use the OS they use at home, and so users complain... and we just have to address more and more complaints because we, too, are sticking with XP. When it makes sense to the organization, we'll switch, and the users will find something else to complain about. I'm think we'll try to skip Vista altogether at work.

One thing that's certainly true, though, is that if you're in the business of writing and selling software, you pretty much need to stay on the cutting edge as far as operating systems are concerned -- at that point it's not internal users who are complaining, but rather paying customers... It seems like the moment any new OS is released -- even it CTP or beta -- I get an email asking when my stuff will be compatible!

[jackellis]

Microsoft has a peculiar marketing philosophy, which is to say some really inane things long enough that their customers actually start to believe them.

User backlash? Gimme a break. Ballmer's very transparent tactic is to stir up the troops in hopes the user tail wags the corporate dog. Not in this corporation.

I'll be in the market for a new laptop this summer and if Vista comes preinstalled, I will replace it with XP. If Windows 7 continues to get good reviews, I might wait. Linux is not an option at this point, though a Mac is always a possibility.

[cgallery]

Steve Ballmer has never struck me as the sharpest knife in the drawer. I know he went to Harvard w/ Gates/Allen. But there seems to me to be a disconnect between having grades good enough to get into ivy league schools, and intelligence.

[radhak]

Steve Ballmer has never struck me as the sharpest knife in the drawer. I know he went to Harvard w/ Gates/Allen. But there seems to me to be a disconnect between having grades good enough to get into ivy league schools, and intelligence.

I'd say what you have observed is the gap in common-sense, and in leadership qualities; and you are not alone thinking that.

I work in a major card company with around 70k employees. Anytime we are forced to go away from XP is the day there'd be user backlash !

More often than not, users don't like being stirred out of their comfort zone, and for good or bad, XP is that comfort zone currently. Even if 7 proves to be as great as everybody is hoping, moving out of XP is not gonna be an easy push. Vista never will figure in these plans, whatever Stevie says.

[germdoc]

I know how touchy people get about their OS's, being a Mac person primarily, but we got a new Dell computer preloaded with Vista, also installed Office for Vista, and I don't have any complaints. I think some of the recent updates might have addressed problems with the early installations. JMO--YMMV.

[sscherin]

Funny.. I risk user backlash if I install Vista.. Nobody wants it..

[Alex Franke]

Steve Ballmer has never struck me as the sharpest knife in the drawer. I know he went to Harvard w/ Gates/Allen. But there seems to me to be a disconnect between having grades good enough to get into ivy league schools, and intelligence.

With roughly US$15 billion in his wallet, he must be doing something right. Add another $15B for Allen, and maybe $55B for Gates, and it's hard to say they're not intelligent. Besides, I've always been impressed at the depth in which Ballmer and Gates in particular know and understand the entire breadth of their product line. And I wouldn't want to piss him off, either -- up close he's a freakin' giant!

[cgallery]

With roughly US$15 billion in his wallet, he must be doing something right. Add another $15B for Allen, and maybe $55B for Gates, and it's hard to say they're not intelligent. Besides, I've always been impressed at the depth in which Ballmer and Gates in particular know and understand the entire breadth of their product line. And I wouldn't want to piss him off, either -- up close he's a freakin' giant!

So, wealth = intelligence?

[jonmulzer]

He stressed that its faster performance, longer battery life and simplified security settings will be "a pretty good step forward in terms of what users care about."

Sounds like XP to me!!

Show me a corporation that is large enough to be a drop in the bucket to Microsoft's bottom line and I will show you a corporation that doesn't really care what their users think. In this job market, if there were to be a backlash (which there won't), no one would be foolish enough to cause much of a fuss because with unemployment so high they could be replaces with a moment's notice.

Typical FUD from the MS camp.

[leehljp]

"Corporations that stay with Windows XP for too long risk facing a user backlash"

2) User opinion is waaay down the list of things considered before IT shops switch to a new OS. In some places it is not even on the list.

This is precisely what drives Macs users to be considered as arrogant. It is their rebellion that drives them to arrogantly push for "choice". The IT's non-consideration of the user and disallowing "choice" is foreign to me. To me, a "satisfied user" that could focus on "the job that needs to be done (as simply as possible)" - instead of being forced into conforming to a "tightly controlled non-intuitive work environment" - would seem to make the IT job a lot easier.

[Alex Franke]

So, wealth = intelligence?

Of course not, but in my experience self-made wealth often implies it. I know a lot of intelligent people who are not wealthy, but I wouldn't consider any of the wealthy people I know to be unintelligent. (I don't know a lot of lottery winners, I guess.) And that's about as scientific as I can get with that statement.

[cgallery]

Of course not, but in my experience self-made wealth often implies it. I know a lot of intelligent people who are not wealthy, but I wouldn't consider any of the wealthy people I know to be unintelligent. (I don't know a lot of lottery winners, I guess.) And that's about as scientific as I can get with that statement.

I wouldn't go so far as saying Ballmer is self-made, though. Ballmer took over at Microsoft in 2000. If you look at a MS stock chart, you'll see 2000 is the year the stock flat lined.

I will go out on a limb and make a crazy-bold prediction: Gates will return to Microsoft to replace Ballmer within three years.

[crokett]

This is precisely what drives Macs users to be considered as arrogant. It is their rebellion that drives them to arrogantly push for "choice". The IT's non-consideration of the user and disallowing "choice" is foreign to me. To me, a "satisfied user" that could focus on "the job that needs to be done (as simply as possible)" - instead of being forced into conforming to a "tightly controlled non-intuitive work environment" - would seem to make the IT job a lot easier.

Push for choice? By choosing Apple, a company that is the most restrictive of all their options in terms of SW and HW? I understand what you are trying to say, but the irony is thunderous. Heck, if you want an iPhone, you have to go to Ma Bell. You don't have a 'choice' of providers. If you really want a choice, use Linux. If you don't like the current distros, you can roll your own.

I would love choice too. However, letting users run whatever OS they want can be an administrative nightmare. For instance, supporting both Windows and Mac users means you have to know two versions of SW, two OSes and what to do when one of them breaks. Plus you need at least two different HW platforms, etc. The list goes on. That said, my company has an official Windows client (they take the standard load and tweak it a bit plus add SW) a standard Linux client (or at least a standard set of packages you can install) and even a Mac client. Although, my company is big enough that there is enough demand for all of them.

[Alex Franke]

I wouldn't go so far as saying Ballmer is self-made, though. Ballmer took over at Microsoft in 2000. If you look at a MS stock chart, you'll see 2000 is the year the stock flat lined.

But wasn't he essentially business manager or at least a veep since MS went public back in 1980? I think he was even president for a while. Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong guy, but it seems he's been a driving force behind MS Success for quite a while now...

Regardless, we're still not installing Vista for everyone at work.