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Jul 14, 09 - 02:44 pm Comment from: Anonymous©

Has Ballmer looked at his own company? He's got a desktop OS and a completely different mobile OS, unlike Apple's desktop OS and mobile OS which share much of the same Core code.

Jul 14, 09 - 02:45 pm Comment from: bond co. stooge

(bad Italian accent)

"laugh while you can, Monkey Boy!"

Jul 14, 09 - 02:48 pm Comment from: Demon

Microsoft = Lipstick on a Pig

Uh... Does Ballmer not realize that his company also has 2 very different operating systems on the market today? WinMo and Vista share almost 0 in common besides some color preferences.

I don't understand how is Android/Chrome OS any different than WinMo/Vista? (Besides the fact that Vista actually exists and can be bought. Which is a very large difference, but doesn't negate the point. )

Jul 14, 09 - 02:49 pm Comment from: Demon

You can't polish a Zune!

Sorry, my eyes skipped the first MDN take. Cudos MDN.

Jul 14, 09 - 02:51 pm Comment from: January 24, 1984

Fate will rebuke him.

let him laugh, just like he did with the iPhone...... will see who laughs last..

Jul 14, 09 - 03:01 pm Comment from: breeze

Apple's biggest asset is Balmer

Buster?

Jul 14, 09 - 03:04 pm Comment from: Doc4i

@ Bond co.stooge

No matter where you go, there you are!

Mr. Kettle, call on line two - it's Mr. Pot calling you names again.

Jul 14, 09 - 03:10 pm Comment from: Ferf Muckmeyer

Ballmer is oblivious to everyone challenging MS. Why is it that most IT departments have already stated that they are sticking with Windows XP rather than upgrade up to Windows 7? And how old is XP? Like 8 years old? IT departments consider technology that old to be superior to Microsoft's new "OS"? Something is wrong with this picture.

It's been said before on this board. Say what you want about GM now, but back in the day when no one thought Henry Ford's company was infallible, GM took them down. No company is indestructible, not MS for sure, not even Apple. But the cracks in the foundation at MS are clearly visible. We'll see who has the last laugh, monkey boy.

Jul 14, 09 - 03:11 pm Comment from: IKON

Watch your chairs!

Jul 14, 09 - 03:12 pm Comment from: ken1w

Not only does Microsoft NOT have just one OS, or even two, they have FOUR (that they are actively developing, selling, and/or supporting). Windows Mobile, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. OK... 7 and Vista are basically the same, so we'll say THREE.

If Balmer thinks they are all one OS because they have "Windows" in their names, he must also believe he is Steve Jobs, because they both have the same first name.

" FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A PHONE?" . . . laughing it off



Go Balmer!

Jul 14, 09 - 03:19 pm Comment from: jjjj

I know it's not AAPL news, but iCal it!

How is it possible that such a ... man is the boss of a software multinational.

Jul 14, 09 - 03:26 pm Comment from: theloniousMac

You'd think he'd learn.


Proper response: "Google is a fantastic innovator. We'll be watching very closely. We don't take anything they do for granted."

Jul 14, 09 - 03:34 pm Comment from: Hm...

I'm waiting for Comedy Central to have to start paying Ballmer royalties — he gives them so much good comedic material.

Jul 14, 09 - 03:43 pm Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

As Apple fans, here is a prayer we should all utter every night. (And if you don't believe in God, say it anyway, just in case you are wrong. It is worth it).

Please God, protect Steve Ballmer from calamity.

Be sure he stays healthy and well and lives to 100.

Guarantee that the Microsoft Board of Directors continues to have confidence in him, so he maintains his position as CEO.

Ensure that his confidence continues and his belief in the Microsoft reality rather than the Real World reality does not change.

Amen

Jul 14, 09 - 03:44 pm Comment from: Demon

If Apple had 30%, Google had 20%, Other startup OS had 10% and Microsoft had 40% of the Global OS market how would the landscape of the personal computer change?

Jul 14, 09 - 04:18 pm Comment from: Buster

@Breeze

Yup...if it was worth saying once it is worth saying it again...

Microsoft's biggest ass is Ballmer
(May he live forever)

Don't forget Surface, X-Box, Zune, those are all very different Microsoft OS's. Ballmer really has no idea what his company does. This would be bad enough if this was one of those temporary Golden Parachute CEO's, but for someone who has been around MS from the beginning is inexcusable. They are in trouble.

Jul 14, 09 - 04:26 pm Comment from: praus

@Demon
"If Apple had 30%, Google had 20%, Other startup OS had 10% and Microsoft had 40% of the Global OS market how would the landscape of the personal computer change?"

I believe most programs would become corss platform or platform agnostic like HTML 5 web apps are. Kinda like universal apps on the Mac.

remember when he tried to laugh off the iPhone. I have no idea what Chrome OS will do in the market but I do know Ballmer sure knows how to pick the winners!

Jul 14, 09 - 04:28 pm Comment from: Forrest, Forrest Gump

@Dallas

"Sorry, my eyes skipped the first MDN take. Cudos MDN."

Wouldn´t it be "Kudos"?

MS don't have just two or 4 client OS versions ... isn't there, like, 7 versions of Vista? and 7 of 7? So that makes, what, 20 client operating systems?

MW: hundred !

Jul 14, 09 - 04:56 pm Comment from: Tommyr

Ballmer is a ballbag. FACT.

Windows 7 = FAIL!

Microsoft also has Zune OS and XBox OS in its rotting stable.

And Balmer also laughed off the iPhone when Apple announced it.

Microsoft is SHIT SCARED, they now realise that the future of OS dominant market share is a web based OS - not an OS installed on a computer.

If I didnt hate Microsoft so much I would feel pity for them. A company that will not be around for the next generation of OS development.

In 10 years time Microsoft's global OS market share will be in single figures.

And what's more, no one will give a damn about it.

Jul 14, 09 - 05:14 pm Comment from: walk away Bill just walk away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5oGaZIKYvo

$500.00...... fully subsidized with a plan....... Doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard....

God iHope he stays the boss @ Microsoft forever.

Jul 14, 09 - 05:17 pm Comment from: Gordon Horne

ken1w wrote:
[H]e must also believe he is Steve Jobs, because they both have the same first name.

That would explain so much.

Jul 14, 09 - 05:39 pm Comment from: Gordon Horne

One of the things Ballmer said after MacWorld 2007, "Right now we're selling millions and millions and millions of phones. Apple is selling zero."

The problem is with "right now". We now have a new "right now", July, 2009. At this "right now" Apple is selling millions and millions and millions of phones (taking three repetitions of "millions" to mean more than three million per year). "Right now" is not what a CEO should be paying attention to.

Microsoft doesn't sell millions and millions and millions of phones now, nor did they then. Microsoft doesn't sell any phones. Microsoft sells Windows Mobile to phone manufacturers. Microsoft does not have millions and millions and millions of phone customers. Microsoft has a couple of dozen Windows Mobile customers. It's easy to loose a couple of dozen customers.

Now Ballmer is laughing at a company so clueless as to have two separate client operating systems for phones and desktops when that is exactly what his own company has. If Ballmer actually believes these things he says, Microsoft is in deep, deep trouble. If he knows better and only says things like this for public consumption, it's a strange PR choice to want to appear to be a drooling idiot to investors and partners.

Jul 14, 09 - 06:47 pm Comment from: Jubei

The reason you don't want Ballmer to laugh to loud is because he just might fart a big one. Thats bad, just when the HOLE on our Ozone layer has started to close up again.

Web based operating systems aren't the future. "Cloud computing" is nothing more than a new name for the very old concept of terminal computing, which was abandoned many, many ago in favour of these newfangled things called "personal computers".

Dumb terminals jacked into a mainframe is the way backwards by several decades. Renaming the mainframe to "the cloud" doesn't change this.

Ballmer's actually right to laugh off Chrome OS, although I doubt he actually understands in the slightest why Chrome OS won't be a success. He simply laughs off anything that isn't Microsoft. It's a case of "even broken clock is right twice a day".

This Chrome thing is interesting. I can't wait to see if it has a physical keyboard.

Jul 14, 09 - 08:47 pm Comment from: Olmecmystic

@breeze:

Truer, wiser words were never spoken.

Peace.
Olmecmystic

Maybe the good folks at Google will realize that ChromeOS should actually be a full Linux distro.

I hope they do. I hope this 'web OS' announcement is a red herring. That come delivery day they release a an OS capable of running 'real' software.

That scene, would surely cause Ballmer to shite in his pants.

Jul 14, 09 - 10:13 pm Comment from: Apple Cider

"Now we've got our strategy. We've got great Windows mobile devices on the market today..."
Bwaahaa haaa!!

Jul 14, 09 - 11:27 pm Comment from: Deus Ex Technica

Cloud computing will see growth over the next decade, as webtone gets more ubiquitous. I don't believe it will supplant the need for a device-local OS, but it will take a much larger role in the foreseeable future. As it does, it will most certainly supplant large chunks of Microsoft's dominance over various services.

Case in point: this week's announcement that a version of Office 2010 will be free as a cloud service. This was obviously a defensive tactic for Microsoft in response to Google's activity. Smart money says MS will include more and more features in the "free" Office service as time goes on just to keep up with Google's offerings, until there is no more "paid" version of Office (or at least very little demand for it).

Today, Office. Tomorrow, Exchange. And with their desktop and OS business already being chipped-away by Linux, OS X, and now potentially Google, it's easy to see a time when MS doesn't have any dominance in any particular service segment.

Ballmer continues to fiddle as the empire burns...

Jul 14, 09 - 11:58 pm Comment from: flappo

it's nervous laughter

his joke of a company has nowhere to go but

DOWN

remember when he tried to laugh off the iPhone

I certainly do. I didn't think much of Chrome before this, but if Ballmer's trying to dismiss it, it may be worth a closer look.

-jcr

WinMo and Vista share almost 0 in common besides some color preferences.

...and dismal reliability.

-jcr

Jul 15, 09 - 04:34 am Comment from: almux

This is, indeed, a very good sign for Google's OS chances... Mostly things Ballmer does laugh about is ending up to be a bright success!...

Jul 15, 09 - 06:05 am Comment from: hagar57

"'It won't happen for a year and a half and they already announced an operating system"
That would be better than the Longhorn/Vista mess. They announced Longhorn in 2001 to be delivered in 2003. Well, that turned into 2007, but how easy Sweats-Like-A-Pig forgets these little things.

So wait, MDN posts a few stories that ridicule Chrome OS (even long before we'll see it), but as soon as a story about Microsoft vs. Chrome pops, suddenly they go on the defensive by railing on Microsoft again.

Ballmer: 'It won't happen for a year and a half and they already announced an operating system,'

Sounds like Vista and Microsoft 7. Didn't they announce really early too?
Maybe MS is scared that it is only going to take Google 1.5 years to make a OS. MS better upgrade their copiers so they can invent a 'new' OS in 2011 to compete.

When ever he is troubled he laughs... sadly this solution will fail yet again... just as it failed when he laugh off the iPod, the iPhone and the OS X

Jul 15, 09 - 12:53 pm Comment from: HolyMackerel

Why isn't ChromeOS based on Darwin?

One thought that kept coming up when reading this is, what exactly does a "largely pro-Microsoft crowd" actually look like? I expect they all look like the photo of Ballmer supplied by MDN, except they don't have quite the grasp of reality he has. HOW he is the CEO of anything is beyond my understanding, but please, please, please MS keep him where he is.

I LOVE that photo of monkey boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!