Steve Ballmer has offered a glimmer of hope to fans of the company’s Windows XP operating system, saying the company could reconsider its decision to phase out XP in June if customers show they want to keep it but so far they have not.
Mr. Ballmer was adamant that “most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista.”
“That’s the statistical truth,” he told reporters at a news conference at Louvain-La-Neuve University. “If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter.”
Mr. Ballmer said the customers buying PCs with XP are IT departments who are having trouble shifting old machines to newer technology.
I’ve actually heard of corporations that considered their existing base of users as – you guessed it – customers. Making them happy brings in new customers.
Is there any end to this man’s buffoonery. Of course people are buying new PCs with Vista instead of XP, because in most cases they have no choice in the matter.
There should be an “I Just Don’t Get It” award.
It would be very difficult to determine who should get the first award.
Either:
A) Ballmer for killing XP in favor of Vista.
B) Ballmer (again) for the Microsoft-Yahoo mess.
or:
C) Microsoft for Vista.
#3 Ballmer in general just doesn’t get it. He needs to go if MS has any hopes of regaining any of its past glory.
#4 – I agree – the rate of the pack is determined by the speed of the leader.
[edit: duplicate]
I think MS was really blindsided by the ASUS EEE (I’m typing on one now). They have no product for this radidly emerging market. Of course they will be trying to put one together, but the first question is – do they base it on the Vista code base or XP? Ballmer said that Vista is bigger than XP and will remain so. That spells trouble.
I am getting a new laptop at work soon and I am afraid it might have Vista on it. If that is the case I will remove it and replace it with Linux and run WinXP in emulation. I will not have Vista on any computer under my direct control.
[edit: duplicate – mostly]
Is it just me or does anyone else get the impression that Ballmer was a Top Notch attack dog for Bill Gates but really has no business really running the show?
I mean I don’t know the guy and you NEED those personalities on your team but those guys doing the overall planning is always a disaster because they can’t listen. They get it done.
Where I work we have a policy of selecting the cheapest OS option when purchasing a new computer. We then blow away that OS and put our own build on the machine including OS. (I believe we have an enterprise license that allows us to do this.) So if a vista basic OS was $5 cheaper than XP home, we’d select that option. Thus skewing the vista vs XP sales records. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones doing this.
Ballmer’s resemblance to actor David Ogden Stiers in appearance, as well as his role as the pompous, arrogant ass who refuses to believe anyone but himself as Major Winchester in “MASH” are both remarkable for their accuracy.
#2 Brian – Jumped the shark?
I have been running XP Pro on 8 systems on my desk and some laptops. In the last three years I can count on one hand the number of times they have blue screened or crashed with a finger or two left over.
I purchased two new laptops 4 months ago over the holidays from two different vendors and those two machines have crashed more in 4 months than my 8 XP machines have in 3 years.
It’s bloated crapware and if my hardware vendor had the drivers I would XP or Ubuntu on both of them.
Is Vista bashing deserved? Well duh. Of course it is. It’s a piece of shit.
Is MS bashing deserved? Well double duh. They promised a lot with Vista and delivered bupkus.
@#2
As I sit here on the 14th day without a reboot on my XP machine I cant help but wonder why I should upgrade.
Vista more stable? Stability isn’t always a function of the OS. Back when windows 95 first came out I put together a stable machine running 95, office, Novell netware client32, and the person was in a command prompt all day working in xywrite because the newspaper I worked at wouldn’t upgrade(most of the newsroom was still on dos and 386’s). Stable? He did not reboot the machine for over 1 year. I finally did it to update and patch.
A lot of people don’t seem to understand, the instability of their machines is 90% the crap they put on them.
wow, 99% of new car buyers tend to stick with the factory steering wheel. thanks for the insight.
vista is fine, but it’s not $200 nice. “b-b-but it works for me” is hardly a value proposition.
Everyone loved “new” Coke – so there’s no need to keep “old” Coke. In fact the vast majority of people who buy soft-drinks at a store (instead of hoarding them in the basement) are buying “new” Coke (because there isn’t anything else).
6 months later: we’re keeping “new” Coke because it’s so popular. But we’re also bringing out “Classic” Coke – for the older folks.
1 year later: what the hell is “new” Coke?
I’m just glad I don’t have any M$ shares. With an idiot like Ballmer running the show, I’d be preparing for bankruptcy. What are these people smoking? Have they lost touch completely with reality or is this some sort of massive joke in poor taste? M$ has lost it in a big way.
Mr. Ballmer was adamant that “most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista.”
ouch. I just fall off my chair.
I’m an IT guy at a large university. I’m sitting here typing on my good old XP ThinkPad watching my VISTA Desktop struggling to load a Thai language pack. I don’t speak Thai, I didn’t ask it to install Thai, but it insists upon it being a “required update”.
My XP laptop zips along at 2 Ghz and 512 MB RAM. My VISTA PC huffs and puffs on 3.1 Ghz and 2 GB RAM.
Why do I waste a perfectly good new machine running this crap? So I can support the users who receive machines with VISTA because they now have no choice. All but one HATE VISTA. If for nothing else, a gratuitous “Upgrade” of OFFICE which essentially “moves the furniture around” for our uninitiated users.
If I had a choice, (I don’t because all new machines tend to come with VISTA) I’d never let VISTA in the door. It’s bloated, hard to use for visually adept users and requires new equipment I can’t afford to buy.
There must be a special circle of Hell for Ballmer and Gates. I’m going home to work on my MAC and order a EEE!
PICTURE CAPTION: When you wake up you will have an irresistable urge to dump XP and buy Vista, and you won’t even consider OS-X or Linux… 3-2-1, your back in the room.
Do you think that Bill Gates and Tony Blair sit and watch world events and tut knowingly to each other?
I recently bought a Dell with Vista. In many ways I really liked some of the new features and interface – especially the new Windows Task Manager. Several years of work on a new operating system did show.
That said I found that:
1.0 I could not successfully update to the first service pack – this is on a new machine two weeks old.
2.0 My development system was a ‘known’ incompatible program. No issues with it in WinXP. I found out when trying to install it.
3.0 Several other continuing install issues.
Dell was very good at sending me another system with WinXP – no questions asked, no extra charges. Did make me wonder about how many did this too – almost too easy.
Balmer’s statement only proves that paper will not refuse ink, or air words.
I choose XP over Vista because I need to get work done and I don’t need the OS getting in my way.
If I wanted worthless bells, whistles, and eye candy then maybe Vista would do that job…
Even when given a choice, people are curious to try the latest Windows… When people don’t know they tend to want the newest and latest…
we can always wake up smarter
I want the pills that make this happen.
I nominate this photo be inducted as a new DU banner. Legendary!
#2,
I haven’t seen the BSOD since I installed SP2. About the only time I ever boot is when I upgrade Zone Alarm or another MS security update. And if I’ve been using Roxio a lot.
The only thing I would like from WIN XP is a little more speed. Fuck the fancy eye candy.
Well, if Alienware would let me configure a system that had both a blu-ray drive AND XP…
By Ballmer’s logic, the US needs a new OS called Diplomacy. And dumping the old one called War. But does anyone really think that’s going to happen? There’s way too many careers and businesses who’s bottom line depends on the War OS, to allow a switch to Diplomacy OS. Our leaders would consider this a downgrade. Even though it makes sense, in the long run. The switch from XP to Vista is likely more about selling more hardware needed to run it properly. As simply improving XP to be more secure, doesn’t tax the old PC design enough. Aeroglass is just a bad imitation of something I’ve seen Linux do (without the blurr). And shouldn’t be so big a deal for adopting Vista. I really can’t see why anyone would need Aeroglass. A blurring, unreadable mess, behind the front most pane, is of any real use. And then there’s the real reason of Vista, the DRM control.
This guy Baldmer has discovered the fountain of stupid!
As said above – the customers want it but MS is forcing the manufactures to only sell Vista.
I just bought a new laptop – I tried to get on with Vista but I wouldn’t work with my other machines and devices.
So I’m biting the bullet and switching to Ubuntu. Yes I know it will be harder to get everything working with it but I will eventually switch everything over to Linux. I’m saying Bye, Bye to Windows and they can say Bye, Bye to my money!
Well done Microsoft, you are destroying your customer base!