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Ballmer - Trusting Vista and Battling Google

Carnivore24 wrote to mention a C|Net article discussing Steve Ballmer's morning keynote at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo. From the article: "'I have never, honestly, thrown a chair in my life,' Microsoft's CEO said ... Ballmer also touched on a variety of areas related to Microsoft's competition with Google. The software maker will compete 'the good old-fashioned way, with innovation,' he said. 'There are many things--who knows?--Google may or may not do. If you read the papers today, other than curing cancer, Google will do everything.'"

30 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. If by cancer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    he meant Microsoft, then more power to Google!

  2. Google To Cure Cancer! by hsjones · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sorry, Steve. I have it on good authority that this is also in their roadmap.

    1. Re:Google To Cure Cancer! by enrico_suave · · Score: 5, Funny

      what do you know...

      http://cancer.google.com/ resolves! (no i'm kidding, don't bother)

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    2. Re:Google To Cure Cancer! by Spetiam · · Score: 3, Funny

      /me waits for someone to sincerely suggest Google can cure cancer.

      Seriously, Google seems to have a cult following at times.

      Now watch me get modded down.......

      Q.E.D. :)

    3. Re:Google To Cure Cancer! by Eberlin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Microsoft claims Linux is Cancer
      Google uses Linux
      Microsoft repeats claims that Google cures Cancer
      To cure cancer, you make cancer go away.

      Therefore Microsoft claims Google will make Linux go away.

      Since I like Linux, should I be using MSN search then?

    4. Re:Google To Cure Cancer! by Tinidril · · Score: 5, Interesting

      OK, I'll bite. :)

      The massive clustering infrastructure google has developed sure could help with protein analysis. I would bet that their idle cycles could easily match or exceed what is being done today with United Devices or Folding at home.

      They may not cure cancer, but I could see them partnering to help those that will.

      --
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  3. Rootin for Google by LilGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll root for google up until the day they become too big for their (b)riches, at which point I'll root for the next underdog.

    VIVA AMERICA!

    --

    You're nothing; like me.
  4. The good old fashioned way? by UnderDark · · Score: 5, Funny

    Um, wern't the "old fashioned" ways using teams of hired mercs to wage priovate wars with? Or am I just reading too many M-rated books?

  5. Chair tossing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    'I have never, honestly, thrown a chair in my life,'

    First stage: Denial

  6. Honestly... by Dante+Shamest · · Score: 5, Funny
    "I have never, honestly, thrown a chair in my life,"

    What he means folks, is that he has thrown a chair dishonestly.

    1. Re:Honestly... by linumax · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nope! He meant it was not a single chair. He is actually capable of throwing more at once.

    2. Re:Honestly... by kidgenius · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ah...the ever deadly double-chair throw. Ballmer has more ninja skills than I gave him credit for.

  7. Yeah right. by failure-man · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "I have never, honestly, thrown a chair in my life."

    Sure Steve, and I'm not the guy who hacked the announcements system when I was in high school. Face it. It's what you're famous for. Make use of it.

  8. Developers Developers Developers! by camelmix · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, MS a bit scared of the little search engine that could. And my good old competetion we mean being bullies and playing monopoly.

  9. What is Ballmer's Slashdot ID? by obender · · Score: 5, Funny
    If you read the papers today, other than curing cancer, Google will do everything.

    From the comment above I suspect he's been reading Slashot on a regular basis lately.

  10. In other news..... by 8127972 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Steve Ballmer was quoted as saying "Fucking Mark Lukovsky a is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Mark Lukovsky for starting that chair rumor!" after he denied throwing a chair.

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  11. It's built right in! by Valacosa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the article:
    "...such as efforts to improve the Web browser and make the operating system more resilient."
    Uh - could I uninstall one and keep the other? I doubt it.

    --
    "Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
  12. Chair, hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I work for Steve Ballmer, so I am reading these comments with great interest and no small amusement. He most certainly did not throw a chair. He threw his whole fucking credenza into the hallway and kung-FUDded it to splinters.

  13. Cancer? by utexaspunk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hey, google could be working on that, too...

  14. Well... by Sheetrock · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I think that, as yesterday demonstrated, the future of computing should not rely entirely on access to online services. That alone may very well determine the winner in this struggle.

    For decades we've had to face losing important work to power outages. But Internet outages are just as menacing -- and indeed, where one can get a battery to power their digital workhorses there is no such analog for Internet power. Not to mention the inherent threat of viruses spyware or hackers that comes from Internet connectivity, or frankly the less than cohesive user experience and unconsistent interface websites present.

    Despite being oft (and many times unfairly) maligned by self-proclaimed computer experts Microsoft has irrevocably broken the yoke of the client-server relationship that has held computing back and is single-handedly responsible for the microcomputer revolution. The last twenty-five years would not have been impossible without them, and it's pure fantasy to suggest otherwise.

    Consequently, I don't think it will be a question of whether or not we will be using Vista but merely how Microsoft will have managed to improve upon the mostly unimproveable experience of Windows XP. If they compete with anything, it will be their own success.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




    1. Re:Well... by JasonKChapman · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Despite being oft (and many times unfairly) maligned by self-proclaimed computer experts Microsoft has irrevocably broken the yoke of the client-server relationship that has held computing back and is single-handedly responsible for the microcomputer revolution. The last twenty-five years would not have been impossible without them, and it's pure fantasy to suggest otherwise.

      That's a bit revisionist. Microsoft rode the personal computer wave. It didn't create it. Z-80-based CP/M machines had already broken the client-server relationship and had proven that stand-alone, even portable, computers would find business users waiting with open arms. Those of us who were selling, ready-to-go with WordStar, SuperCalc, and custom dBase applications, had already seen the future. It was coming no matter which OS came down the pipe.

      And if any company can be said to be single-handedly responsible for the microcomputer revolution, it would be IBM. It was the weight of that name that got the second wave of people believing that there just might be something to this "personal computer thing."

      --
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  15. the good old-fashioned way by zapatero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Let me extrapolate on Balmer's Microsoft competes the "Good old-fashioned way":

        We will own more congressman and senators than Google, and then we will make Google against the law, and then make it illegal for them to index any Class-C address web-site, and then we will buy all Class-B addresses and then patent them, and make it so only Windows machines can reach a Class-B address. After than we will have our congressmen and Senators pass a law making IP-v6 illegal, thereby protecting our hold on addresses. Then we will go to Europe and outlaw X.25.

    That's just a good old-fashioned microsoft technology battle.

  16. Can we sue Google by RingDev · · Score: 3, Funny

    For not curing cancer?

    -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  17. Hmmmm. Would people here trust MSN? by hey! · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've never tried Microsoft's search engine. This article made me pause a bit and ask why.

    The reason may not be entirely rational, but I just don't feel like I can trust MSN. It isn't just a blanket mistrust of Microsoft; writing a memo on Word doesnt' make me uneasy. I think the issue is that Microsoft has such an obvious lust to control the economic and technological ground on which information is created, processed, stored and distributed, my subconscious impression is that I couldn't rely on their search results as not having some kind of strategic agenda embedded in it.

    Of course, may not be wise not to trust Google either, but they are in the informaiton as information business, not in the business yet of setting themselves as the ground on which all transactions have to occur. The most important asset they have is user trust. In many ways, Google is the closest thing we have to the old newspaper business model: we give you information, and support that service by advertising around the information. Newspapers these days tend to be part of media empires with financial interests that go beyond the old fashioned cussede political biases.

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  18. Too late for them by Buran · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm sorry ... but MS has burned us all so many times that no matter what they say, I will never trust them again. I also don't like their attitude and the attitude of their staff (one of their reps described a tech support policy I find abominable, I said I'd never do business with their employer, the rep snottily said 'okay, remove all MS software from your computer', I responded that I long since quit using their crap and that I'm a Mac user... never got a reply. How predictable).

    They ignore antitrust rules (most recently, Microsoft Pulls Its Head Out), they make software that ignores standards (IE), they assume their customers are thieves and demand all kinds of crap from us to prove we aren't when no other major OS vendor does that, and they are a convicted abusive monopolist and should have been broken up but are still operating.

    Sorry, Ballmer. Sorry, Bill. You lost me a long time ago. You had lots of chances, and that time is way past over. You dug your own hole. Rot in it.

  19. Vista doesn't trust YOU!! by RentonSentinel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How can I trust an OS that doesn't trust me?

    Vista doesn't trust my monitor enough to stream my glorious Blu-ray DVD to the screen... so how can I trust Vista?

  20. Oh my gawd! by DaveM753 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FTA:
    "I'm going to trust Vista on day one," Ballmer said. "I bet most people in this audience will trust it day one--on their home computer," he joked. "I'm trying to be honest among friends."
    /FTA

    Sure he'll trust it. He profits from it. I just can't believe anyone would fall for this line of B.S.

    Yeah, like he's one of our friends. And the worst part is, TONS of people actually DO fall for this B.S. There are too many sheep on this planet.

    Blah! Okay, I'm done ranting now.

  21. People say 'I'm going to MSN you' by rubberbando · · Score: 3, Funny

    And I respond with, "Please don't." (:

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  22. Google Toolbar Curing Cancer! by fbg111 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hate to break it to ya Steve old boy, but Google is curing cancer. The Google Toolbar includes Google Compute, which contributes unused CPU cycles to Folding@home, the Stanford research project on protein folding. Potential payoffs of the research include curing some types of cancer.

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  23. I remember that by geekoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    Steve: Whats over there?
    Me: It'a a credenza
    Steve: What's it doing?
    Me: Nothing, it's a credenza.
    Steve: I watch it, what's it do?
    Me: Nothing It's a credenza
    Steve: I grab it and throw it in the hallway.
    Me: ...Ooookay... Now what?
    Steve:Does it do anything?
    Me: No IT'S a credenza!
    Steve: I kung-Fu it's ass!
    Me: Like a chair?
    Steve: Hell Yeah like a chair! Except I'm going to fucking kill it! You HEAR ME credenza! I'm going to FUCKING KILL you!!!!

    or maybe I'm confusing that with another story.

    --
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