Posted on 04/24/2008 8:44:30 AM PDT by Red Badger
Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday offered a glimmer of hope to fans of the company's XP operating system, saying customer demand may see the company reconsider a decision to stop selling XP in June.
But Ballmer was adamant that "most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista."
"That's the statistical truth," he told reporters at a press conference at Louvain-La-Neuve university.
"If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter," he said.
Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves by June 30 have papered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
Ballmer said the customers buying PCs with XP are IT departments who are having trouble shifting old machines to newer technology.
Some 160,000 people have already signed an online Save XP Web petition who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010.
Ballmer said he was very confident that Microsoft's US$44 billion (euro27.6 billion) offer for Yahoo Inc. was "a very good price."
He refused to say if the company plans to appeal against a fine of euro899 million (US$1.3 billion) that the European Union levied in February.
Microsoft has until the first week of May to launch a legal challenge against the EU decision that it had not obeyed a 2004 antitrust order to share communications information with rivals.
Joking with the press and even breaking into good French, Ballmer acknowledged that he's finding it hard to keep up with social networking on the Facebook Web site.
"I do have a profile on Facebook," he said. "It's hard to keep up. I get many friend requests from people I don't know."
"There's about 10 Steve Ballmers and I'm only one of them. I'm the one who actually has a picture that looks like me on it!" he said. "I'm hitting a golf ball, that's the real Steve Ballmer."
He was in Belgium to open a Microsoft innovation center in Mons that hopes to boost new startups in the country, creating some 200 jobs over the next three years.
Ping!.........
Too late. I went out and bought a MacPro. I spent 3 weeks trying to get Vista to connect to my home network. Never got it to work.
It took 2 minutes with the Mac.
I’ve reinstalled XP the two times I’ve replaced the hard drive on my current, 3-year-old PC. I usually upgrade to a new computer every four years. If I don’t switch to a Mac next year — a distinct possibility — I’m just going to use my old XP installation disks on any new PC.
I’m seriously considering a Mac................
"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
Doh!
That's because unless you either buy a Dell (through their obscure links for XP systems) or buy one preloaded with Vista then blow it away and install XP, you're stuck with Vista - warts and all.
Well, duh. If most of the pcs have Vista preloaded, it stands to reason people will buy Vista with the pc. It's not that they're all WILLING buyers.
>> But Ballmer was adamant that “most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista.”
LOL! That’s a good one, Steve.
Most people who kill their parents with an axe are orphans, too — and for the same reason.
“But Ballmer was adamant that “most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista.”
“That’s the statistical truth,” he told reporters at a press conference at Louvain-La-Neuve university.”
Because you don’t give the manufacturers any other choice of OS, you misleading scum-bag.
“If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter,” he said.
The thuggish Balmer definitely needs to get smarter.
Abusing and making your customers jump through hoops is a business modeal that can only survive because of Microsoft’s monopoly status.
Customers should be SERVED by a company not yearn for “a glimmer of hope” that their basic needs will be met.
I don’t know much about Balmer but he has always struck me as a condescending bully.
All three of us posted essentially the same thing within 20 seconds of each other!
Great minds think alike, although clearly I’m the slowest of them. :-)
I detest having to (FORCED TO IS MORE LIKE IT) buy “new” software versions for a new version of Windows. I spent hundreds of bucks just to get where I am and now they move the goalposts................
I have decided to hold on a new laptop just cause I dont want to deal w Vista
BTW your screen name now has me thinking
BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER .....
Thought I would just pass that along ;)
Ha ha now someone else has it .... ;0
Far from it.
Now ... the lack of print drivers for older hardware is another matter.
“or buy one preloaded with Vista then blow it away and install XP”
If you can get XP drivers for it. I tried that with a HP media center. The HP people lied and told me that there were no XP drivers for it even though that model PC was in production before the official release of Vista.
I returned the PC. No sale.
I have three computers. Two with XP, one with Vista.
I haven’t really had any problems with Vista.
"That's the statistical truth," he told reporters at a press conference at Louvain-La-Neuve university.
That's because there are few avenues the public's aware of where a new PC with XP installed can be available. Also, many may not know the option exists.
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