Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, CEO Steve Ballmer - Windows 7 Preview

Wall Street Journal AllThingsD.com (excerpt) ^ | May 27, 2008 | John Paczkowski

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Switching gears. Walt asks about Vista and the lousy reception it’s been given. Is Vista a failure?

Ballmer: Vista is not a failure. Is it something we’d like to improve? Of course. Is it something that with 20/20 hindsight we’d do differently? Sure, he confesses. But Vista has sold a lot of copies, he adds.

Walt jumps in and asks about the percentage of Vista sales that result in downgrades to XP. Ballmer dodges. Gates looking a little depressed.

Walt asks if Vista has damaged with Windows brand.

Gates says Microsoft’s philosophy is to “do things better.” And Vista has given us lots of opportunity to do that, he notes. (Audience laughter.) There are plenty of lessons out of Vista–compatibility and other issues vendors are concerned about.

Ballmer says that according to consumer research, the No. 1 complaint about Vista was the change to the Windows user interface.

The conversation turns to Windows 7, which Microsoft hasn’t said too much about. Clearly, the company has learned from the media beating it took over the defeatured and perennially delayed Windows Vista. Indeed, in a post to the Windows Vista blog today, Microsoft’s Chris Flore noted that Microsoft is being very careful about releasing details about Windows 7. “What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows,” Flore wrote. “So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we’re trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience.”

Well, apparently this is the right time and the right audience, because we’re about to get a Windows 7 demo (Oh, one more thing …. Here’s hoping Microsoft shares only those aspects of the new OS that it doesn’t end up de-featuring at a later date.)

Ballmer says what we’re about to see is “just a snippet” of Windows 7.

~ snip ~

[max americana]

“Ballmer says that according to consumer research, the No. 1 complaint about Vista was the change to the Windows user interface.”

*****

quote of the year. Gee, Mr. Ballmer, you really know why we hate Vista (sarcasm), and you have the pulse of the Windows crowd (more sarcasm).

[HAL9000]

more...

So is this the next phase of how people will use their computers. Gates says it’s the beginning of an era of computing based on a new hierarchy of input systems. Today the machine is really set up for one person to sit at a keyboard. “We’re at an interesting junction,” he says. “In the next few years, the roles of speech, gesture, vision, ink, all of those will become huge. For the person at home and the person at work, that interaction will change dramatically.”

Windows 7 is apparently 18 months or so away.

Walt asks Ballmer if he’s worried about the next iteration of Mac OS X, which will likely be released before Windows 7. Is there a risk that the work you’re doing now with multi-touch will look dated when Apple releases its next OS?

Ballmer says he’s confident Microsoft will have fantastic Windows 7 PCs, regardless of what Apple’s got on the market. “There’s a lot in Windows 7, and our goal is to produce fantastic PCs with our hardware partners. Walt presses him, noting Apple’s recent growth in the PC market.

Ballmer notes the difference in scale between the two companies: “We sell 270 millions PCs a year, and Apple sells 10 million. They’re fantastically successful, and so are we.”

Walt hits on Windows quality issue, noting that he’s seen old Macs running significantly faster than new Vista machines.

Ballmer admits there’s room for improvement: Steve Jobs has a great business, he says. His model works well. But so does ours. 10 million people like his model. 290 million like ours.

Kara asks Gates how it feels to have Microsoft defined by Apple via its “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign.

Gates clearly isn’t happy with that question. Dodges. Ballmer jumps in. Hits that 290 million metric again. “Every share point Apple picks up is a share point we don’t like. But we like selling 290 million units.

Walt’s not letting him off that easy : “C’mon, you CAN’T be happy with the way this Vista thing has gone.”

Ballmer: “What’s an appropriate response to that question?” Gates bristles: “You’re repeating yourself,” he says, alluding to the fact that the question has been asked already.

[devere]

Buy Apple.
Microsoft has lost the mandate of heaven.

[tueffelhunden]

If apple ran the software I need, I would. My best bet is Linux. But I’m definately looking at the last windows operating system I will ever own.

Billy boy and his gang of raving lunatics can go piss up a rope.

[Buffalo Head]

"Ballmer says that according to consumer research, the No. 1 complaint about Vista was the change to the Windows user interface.”

I don't know what a "Windows user Interface" is. I do know that my Vista is extremely user unfriendly. Virtually everything takes more steps and is less intuitively obvious than my Windows NT. I wish that I had never down-graded to Vista.

[zert_28]

Funny that Microsoft doesn’t have a cute name for Windows 7. Maybe they are going to stop the B.S. and deliver a workable OS. I wouldn’t bet on it though.

[scott7278]

The obligatory Steve Ballmer video:

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

[HAL9000]

If apple ran the software I need, I would. My best bet is Linux.

A Mac might work in your situation.

Macs can host Linux natively with Boot Camp, or as a virtual machine with a product like VMWare.

Also, since Mac OS X and Linux use the same compiler (gcc), and can use many of the same libraries, many Linux apps can be compiled to run natively in Mac OS X, including X Window apps. In many cases, the software is available through a package manager, ready to download and run on Mac.

[Swordmaker]

Windows 7 preview - ". . . And there it is … well, damn if it doesn’t look pretty slick. Clearly the Windows dev team’s been busy with more than just Vista service packs. Quick side note: Windows 7, like other Microsoft OS’s before it, seems to have borrowed a thing or two from Mac OS X. This time it’s Apple’s Dock, which Microsoft appears to have borrowed. Multi-touch and a Dock. In Windows. Steve Jobs must be so proud.

Larson-Green pulls up a brand new app, “Touchable Paint.” She uses all 10 fingers to draw a tree. Then, she brings up a photo gallery. Noting that multi-touch makes it faster and easier to manipulate photos, she demonstrates … well, she demonstrates a lot of features that anyone who’s ever used an iPhone will already be familiar with: two-finger zoom, flicking through a slideshow, single finger panning through thumbnails . . .

The MS copy machines have been busy Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[SunkenCiv]

Possibly?

[SunkenCiv]

Ballmer: Vista is not a failure. Is it something we'd like to improve? Of course. Is it something that with 20/20 hindsight we'd do differently? Sure, he confesses. But Vista has sold a lot of copies, he adds.

Heh... "sure, we'd like to improve it, and wish we'd done it differently, but we've already cashed your checks, so [bleep] you."

[tallyhoe]

Somebody took a bite out of that Apple!

[MaxMax]

Walt asks if Vista has damaged with Windows brand.

Is this a book?, or a really really bad editorial?

[Westlander]

[AndyJackson]

Virtually everything takes more steps and is less intuitively obvious than my Windows NT.

How did they do that? Nothing is intuitively obvious on Microsoft products. I get so tired of having to look at almost useless help files to do simple ordinary things with their programs. Nothing extraordinary.

[HAL9000]

It was a typo during a real-time blog, but it sounds like Goatberg was openly ridiculing Vista, and mocking Gates and Ballmer.

The videos are online now -

VIDEO: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer Highlight Reel, Part One

VIDEO: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer Highlight Reel, Part Two

[MaxMax]

If I had two hours to spare in my life, I would watch the vids.
Thus far I only have time to read and scan. Soon, summer will beER here
on the east coast.

People here are so full of themselves that they don't know anything about politics.
They vote with one hand in their pocket. I know, because I meet them every day..

[Terpfen]

Yeah, I get a distinct iPhone/Multi-Touch vibe from the presentation. The Microsoft Surface is nothing more than a larger iPhone.

It’s amazing how Microsoft just has no clue. Were it not for the inertia of Windows sales (usually to businesses) and the popularity of Office, Microsoft would have died off long ago.

[tueffelhunden]

“Funny that Microsoft doesn’t have a cute name for Windows 7. Maybe they are going to stop the B.S. and deliver a workable OS. I wouldn’t bet on it though.”

Fat chance

[tueffelhunden]

Only problem is, we have over 2000 customers we’d have to switch over. That’s not likely to happen.

[kittymyrib]

Gates and Balmer are copy-cats. They are always behind the curve, waiting for Apple to innovate so they can copy its good features years later.
Vista is junk that should never have been allowed to be automatically installed on new PCs. We have regretted that we didn’t have Best Buy take it off before we bought our last machine.

[TomGuy]

I recall a live teleconference when MS was rolling out Win98.

The presenter claimed it to be ‘the most tested, the most stable’ Windows ever.

The presenter reached over to the laptop to press the magic key and reveal the marvelous Win98 to the watching techno world.

[Click]

[BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH]

It was a ROFLMAO moment that went down in computer techno history.

[TomGuy]

Ballmer notes the difference in scale between the two companies: “We sell 270 millions PCs a year

Ouch!

There was an article earlier this week that indicated MS has sold 140 million copies of VISTA, mostly on new pc's.

If they sell 270 million pc's (and OS) per year that is a drastically low number of VISTA sales. It also means that 130 million of those pc's had NON-VISTA OS.

[dalight]

Microsoft pushing multi-touch for 2 years from now is just going to sell mac’s which have this technology already today on the MacBook Pro’s and coming soon to the whole line is my bet if Microsoft does the marketing for this “feature.”

[TomGuy]

Quick side note: Windows 7, like other Microsoft OS’s before it, seems to have borrowed a thing or two from Mac OS X.

In the mid-90s, Gates was giving comments at a techno meeting. In it, he made this statement: 'good ideas are meant to be borrowed; great ideas are meant to be stolen'.

[eCSMaster]

“[BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH]”

I remind Free Republic of the real truth in this matter: the media. I was there during the “OS Wars” between Windows and IBM’s OS/2. By any measure, OS/2 was a better OS, more secure, more reliable, more efficient, more functional, than Windows.

OS/2 was based on a solid, modern object-oriented foundation. Windows was a kludge of patches tacked on to the ancient DOS foundation. Many of those patches are still in current versions of Windows.

But the media was in love with Gates, Microsoft and Windows. The media pulled the same crap on OS/2 and Windows as they now pull on liberals vs conservatives.

Windows flaws were not reported by the media. OS/2’s features were downplayed. IBM was “bad” while Microsoft was “good.”

I was there. I remember Mary Jo Foley and her ilk mis-reporting everything.

The media gave us Clinton, they gave us the current Democrat congress and they are trying to give us Obama.

Blame Gates and Ballmer, but the real culprits concerning your computer problems were the media. They are responsible for your “Blue Screens of Death” and your hours of wasted time trying to solve Windows-based problems.

[TomGuy]

If Linux would get its act together and come out with one ‘distro’ [whatever the heck that is], it might make some serious inroads. For example, if Linux came out with one desktop home version, they might effectively challenge MS’s Windows Home.

Every time I browse, Linux, I find a dozen different flavors of the OS and that many more desktop versions. That leads to confusion for non-technos (who don’t want to spend massive numbers of hours learning about all the different flavors) and those more interested in productivity than in programming.

Linux is working against itself by continuing the multitude of flavors. That may be fine for ice cream, but not for general computer use. All the variations makes the Linux world appear to be a disorganized playground rather than a serious operating system and desktop application software.

It was bad enough 20 years ago, when we had PC DOS or MS DOS or OS/2, GEM Desktop or Windows Desktop, WordPerfect or Word or Wordstar.

MS learned that lesson early on. They tried to make their productivity software (Office) so proprietary that it was incompatible with other productivity software. Corporate users told MS they would not buy their products without the capability to convert between MS products and other off-the-shelf products. MS balked, and their products wouldn’t sell. They finally capitulated and allowed ‘conversion’ programs to convert the productivity files.

I just don’t want to spend the time to learn Linux and determine the differences to find one version that best suits may usage.

[MarkL]

No kidding...

I remember when OS/2 v2.0 was released: It was amazing. Same thing with Novell. Technically a far superior NOS to anything that Microsoft had out. But what did I constantly hear? "It doesn't have a graphical interface!" IT DIDN'T NEED A GRAPHICAL INTERFACE!!!

Although in this case I do have to share the blame. Novell has pretty much killed every excellent product they've ever produced or purchased. They couldn't market space heaters to eskimos!

Mark

[Kitanis]

Tom

I understand your feelings.. but to me.. thats what I like about Linux.. If I want to operate in Fluxbox environment I can.. If I want to operate in GNOME desktop environment.. I can. Same goes as KDE... or Enlightenment.. or XFRE...

Its about Choice.. plain and simple. If you do not wish to use Linux.. so be it.

I myself do not like Apple because you are trapped in a hardware path that is overpriced for what you get. The software is fine and I do enjoy the BSD/Enlightenment type desktop environment.

I use a Linux box and a Windows XP box at this time.. again.. its about choice.. I dislike what MS did to their office environment so switched to another office suite..

[TomGuy]

If I want to operate in Fluxbox environment I can.. If I want to operate in GNOME desktop environment.. I can. Same goes as KDE... or Enlightenment.. or XFRE...

That is because you know Linux. You probably have spend years learning it.

I 'grew up' on DOS and was forced in to Windows in the 80s. I had to learn it and apply it to various jobs.

I just don't want to spend years learning Linux. Its an 'age' thing. -- MY AGE. I am comfortable with XP. Linux is cute, and has potential, but...

The quoted paragraph demonstrates what I see as the problem for the 'general user' -- which is what? What is the difference between GNOME and KDE and yada yada yada. I have become the 'general user'. I want go do some wordprocessing, some graphics, some spreadsheets, some Internet. I don't want to have to learn how to build a car just to be able to drive it.

[Westlander]

Good points. Ubuntu? Fedora Red Hat? Suse? Debian GNU? What the Hell-ux? System resource hog as it is, at least we know Microsoft OS’s will be there tommorrow.

[RayChuang88]

Windows 7--unlike Vista--will probably ditch a lot of legacy code in favor of faster operation. That means you can forget about running anything in Windows 95/98 emulation mode, which means true flat-memory model optimization to reduce code size.

[Calvin Locke]

You do know that Jobs copied the GUI idea from Xerox?

[Clock King]

I’m beginning to understand why other nations have the government have complete control of the media. Not that I advocate that for the US, but the MSM is a monster out of control that destroys.

[zeugma]

Ballmer says that according to consumer research, the No. 1 complaint about Vista was the change to the Windows user interface.

Just wow. It's not the bloat, the DRM, the driver compatibility issues or the huge resource requirements. It's the color of the lipstick on the pig that is the real problem!

This is why MS-Windows won't get better, folks.

[Clock King]

Won’t ever happen. I’ve been a Linux developer (SW/HW designer) quite a few years now. The power is Linux is its flexibility. That is what allows it run on virtually any hardware (PC, set-top box, mainframe, server, embedded device like cell-phones and automobiles). Different machines have different functions: your cell phone has very different functions and capabilities than your automotive unit.

IMO, Linux was never really for the desktop/end-user. It’s power is perfectly suited for use in the computing machines users never see: the servers and routers that run the backbone of the Internet, and embedded devices that you never open up or see.

[Golden Eagle]

In the mid-90s, Gates was giving comments at a techno meeting. In it, he made this statement: 'good ideas are meant to be borrowed; great ideas are meant to be stolen'.

It was actually Jobs who said that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0UjU0rtavE&feature=related

When I did a search for your quote on Yahoo, they were all attributed to you:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu9Z0Wz1IQGEAztBXNyoA?p=gates+%22great+ideas+are+meant+to+be+stolen%22&fr=yfp-t-501&ei=UTF-8

No malice intended, and if Gates did actually say that I apologize, but I just happened to remember Job's "Picasa" quote and looked it up.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Thanks for relating your experience. Extrapolating that (the media’s influence) into the social/political arena is also useful. I agree with you. Couple that with dumbing down our society through control of education and you see how close the left has come to total control

I also think the election system has been gerryrigged (voter fraud).

Are we suggesting that Windows is just another bad liberal idea, full of unintended consequences? :-)

[tacticalogic]

IMO, Linux was never really for the desktop/end-user. It’s power is perfectly suited for use in the computing machines users never see: the servers and routers that run the backbone of the Internet, and embedded devices that you never open up or see.

Historically, Linux is a server OS trying to work it's way out to the desktop. Windows is a desktop OS trying to work it's way to the back room.

[Golden Eagle]

IMO, Linux was never really for the desktop/end-user.

Poor Linus Torvalds, who moved here all the way from Finland but has recently said quote “I have never, ever cared about really anything but the Linux desktop.” Now he has to sit here and watch Apple eat his lunch.

[zeugma]

Ballmer jumps in. Hits that 290 million metric again. “

LOL. 

 

The proper response: "McDonanlds has sold billions of hamburgers. What's your point?"

[TomGuy]

The Jobs video was posted in 2007. It does not give a date (that I saw) of when he made that statement.

The statment I was referring to was made over 10 years ago at a techno conference/interview about technology and its development. I am pretty sure it was made by Gates.

[Golden Eagle]

Jobs comment was made in 1996 per wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Nerds

What’s your reference for Gates making it instead?

[AustinBill]

Agree. When Vista came out I decided then that XP would be my last Windows machine. I had hoped to move to Linux but for the reasons you cite (and others) have concluded that desktop Linux will remain a hobbyist market indefinitely. The Mac, however, has positioned itself as a universal platform. The general user can view it as a “better PC” (you really can’t appreciate the jaw-dropping difference in display quality until you see an iMac running side-by-side against Windows). The power user can view it as a universal platform that in addition to all the Mac goodies can run a network of virtual machines of any desired flavor. I run Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Linux simultaneously on my iMac (using VMWare Fusion) and everything just works. The iMac is beautifully designed and best of all is completely silent. I’m very happy with it.

[antiRepublicrat]

Windows 7--unlike Vista--will probably ditch a lot of legacy code in favor of faster operation.

I just read the latest -- no stripped, modular Windows 7 that finally ditches legacy. It will follow the XP pattern of building codebases, XP-W2K3-Vista is now Vista-W2K8-Win7.

[ReignOfError]

If apple ran the software I need, I would. My best bet is Linux.

What is the software you need? As HAL9000 pointed out, Linux runs just dandy on Macs, and a lot of software written for Linux (or for any *ix) has been ported to Mac.

[ReignOfError]

If Linux would get its act together and come out with one ‘distro’ [whatever the heck that is], it might make some serious inroads.

Not gonna happen. Distro is short for distribution. Linux is open source, and any Tom, Dick or Linus can distribute his own version.

For example, if Linux came out with one desktop home version, they might effectively challenge MS’s Windows Home.

[...]Linux is working against itself by continuing the multitude of flavors.

There is no "it," and there will never be a One True Linux. That's part of the whole open-source idea, which is the main reason Linux is free. But if one Linux distro could package its OS with a pretty interface and an easy install "wizard," then seal it in shrink wrap and bundle it with off-the-shelf PCs, you'd have something like what you describe.

The problem is, it's been tried, and it didn't cut into Windows' market share much at the consumer level. Never mind that Linux will handle the same documents, connect to the same servers, and browse the same Web sites as Windows, a lot of folks want to run the same binaries as all their friends.

It was bad enough 20 years ago, when we had PC DOS or MS DOS or OS/2, GEM Desktop or Windows Desktop, WordPerfect or Word or Wordstar.

Yeah, it really sucked when there was competition. Isn't a monopoly much tidier?

I just don’t want to spend the time to learn Linux and determine the differences to find one version that best suits may usage.

If you don't take the time to become an informed consumer, then you get whatever crap is easiest to buy. That's true with everything you buy.

[TomGuy]

If you don't take the time to become an informed consumer, then you get whatever crap is easiest to buy. That's true with everything you buy.

So, Linux and related is actually a build-your-own kit.

Okay. I finally understand.

[goldstategop]

All Linux distros may have differing package systems but they both have a variety of windows GUI environments. Microsoft offers only one. And I think choice is good. Microsoft wants you to think its bad. Linux is just fantastic in what it offers consumers - for free. You can't beat a large community of open source users, who make each new version of the OS. Product release cycles are both fast and predictable. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer can't say that about Windows. Here's a fact they don't want you to know: Linux can run on the new generation of low cost, low powered processor Netbooks with no problem. All they've got to offer you is Windows XP cause Microsoft dropped the ball on that end of the computing market.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus