Posted on 07/15/2009 11:51:22 PM PDT by libh8er
Microsoft Corp's chief executive attempted to laugh off the challenge of Google Inc's planned computer operating system on Tuesday, conceding only that it was "interesting".
"I will be respectful," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said to laughs from the audience at a conference for the company's technology partners in New Orleans, which was broadcast over the Internet.
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"Who knows what this thing is? To me, the Chrome OS thing is highly interesting," said Ballmer, choosing his words carefully and drawing more amusement from the largely pro-Microsoft crowd.
"It won't happen for a year and a half and they already announced an operating system," he added, referring to Google's Android system for smartphones.
Last week Google said it was planning a computer operating system based on its Chrome browser, aiming directly at the core business of Microsoft, the world's largest software company, whose Windows operating systems are used on more than 90 percent of personal computers.
Microsoft takes on Google as Office moves to Web
Google's plan, based on the theory that access to the Internet is now the most important feature of any computing device, would be separate from its Android system already available for smartphones and soon for small PCs.
"I don't know if they can't make up their mind or what the problem is over there, but the last time I checked, you don't need two client operating systems," said Ballmer. "It's good to have one."
Despite the jovial tone of Ballmer's public remarks, Microsoft is taking Google's challenge seriously. Its new Bing search engine is a concerted attempt to take market share from dominant leader Google, and its announcement on Monday that it would offer some versions of its Office application on the Internet is a swipe back at Google's move into free, online software.
Ballmer's previous attempts to make light of new competition have not always been successful. He also derided Apple Inc's iPhone as too expensive, but it went on to take a significant share of the smartphone market.
Microsoft shares fell 15 cents to $23.08 on Tuesday afternoon on the Nasdaq.
Ballmer can afford to laugh, Chrome OS isn’t targeted at Windows, despite the media template on that one.
Chrome OS is a joke. Just a press release that a lot of journalists went ga-ga over. Similar to Obama.
He’s right to laugh at this point. Give Google a few years? We’ll see.
In an unrelated story, Steve Ballmer sells all of his stock in Microsoft. Ok, maybe not.
Google Docs is actually pretty good for what it is
Right, it's not like Vista took about 6 years to get done from the Longhorn announcement to RTM. Ballmer, you're such a douche.
Google Docs is terrible and I think not very usable by most people who use Word.
Here is the issue. Google is stuck in the 1990s using JavaScript/HTML/and the bastard of all time...AJAX. As long as they are mired in that world, they cannot produce a decent experience. They want so desperately to overthrow MS but they don’t have the language talent to make it happen.
I am curious to see where it goes but MS has been making a lot of inroads on languages and developers. What Goolge has shown so far is a browser-centric OS which is not going to fly. It seems like a stop-gap measure from a bunch of idealistic web guys who think the web solves all of the world’s problems.
Clue-toss: the web doesn’t work for loads of systems issues. Well, ok, the BULK of systems issues.
my WS Word isn’t working. I downloaded OpenOffice... it loads slow but its OK... the problem is it won’t do doc files very well, especially interactive ones.... and neither will WordPad or Google Docs.
I am pretty stuck.
Ballmer does have a point though. It doesn’t make sense to announce an OS specifically for netbooks when Android is already going on some netbooks as-is. Also doesn’t make sense to announce it a year out, at least not without talking about some substantive features.
I’m also not sure Chrome OS will make a dent against Windows 7, which runs pretty well on netbooks.
I would agree that Chrome OS is a bit puzzling given the existence of Android. But Ballmer has no room to start jumping on other companies about vaporware. Except for maybe the guys making Duke Nukem Forever.
Vista did come out... eventually. And with Windows 7 having a relatively short turnaround time, I think he’s absolved of that particular sin.
That said, I think he’s Microsoft’s biggest problem right now.
OS’s take time to fully mature however I would keep a watchful eye on this if I were Ballmer.
Jim Allchin lost his job over Vista but most folks don’t realize what they did in Vista and why it took a long time. most of the carping is from users and not developers. That said, they tried to reach too far which is a management problem. Ray Ozzie operates very differently.
Look at Silverlight and the 6-9 month release cycles between major versions.
Good article. I skimmed over parts but got the gist (despite a bad economy, I am actually overloaded right now).
I think Silverlight addresses a lot of web shortcomings. It is 200x faster than JavaScript, communicates to the backend using REST, SOAP, etc., is very easy to develop with, and works in all major browsers and on all major O/Ss.
I don’t think we are in a pure ‘X-Windows’ world but we are definitely moving into a bizarre hybrid world.
What i can say is that Microsoft has the best language developers on the planet. MS develops languages and then capitalizes on them. People misunderstand MS if they don’t recognize where they spend their brain power: languages.
When I see an app like Chrome OS (yes, I have used Chrome), I look at the base language and technology. Google, like many other companies, wants to stick it in MS’s eye and ignore their languages so they don’t support them. Google should put a best foot forward and develop using .NET and try and beat MS on the app level and simply adopt the MS language level and call it a day.
My penny’s worth and it ain’t worth much.
Back to coding...
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