Steve Ballmer names Windows Vista as biggest regret while CEO

[9Nails]

"...he isn't quite sure where the next chapter of his life might lead him."

That should be sailing on a yacht! He's earned some R&R, and I hope that he enjoys his next adventure.

 

[captaincranky]

If we critique Vista vs. Windows ME, I think that he did ok.

Yeah well, like I was saying above, M$ likes to use the buying public as their beta testers, and the "Mistake Edition" was certainly no exception.

It also makes a great deal of sense that Ballmer would cite Vista as, "his greatest regret". After all, he can "share the fail" with Bill Gates. Window 8" however, is a turd all his own. I wonder if retiring in this case, could be likened to walking away without flushing the toilet.....

...[ ]....That should be sailing on a yacht! He's earned some R&R, and I hope that he enjoys his next adventure.

Since he's going to bail and not, "go down with the "SS Windows 8", many of us look forward to him going down for real with his next ship.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

I love how people conveniently forgot how much they hated Vista now that Windows 8 is around. How many have used both? Heck, how many of you have used either? I hate "hate bandwagons". Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of experiencing a problem with either OS. But any unbiased person would see that clearly the incompatibility problems that I personally didn't have to endure with Vista make it, BY FAR, the worst OS. Windows 8, on the other hand, I've gotten more then used to. I think the charms bar is refreshing and actually quite useful. Metro start menu is still kinda meh to me because I don't like ADHD tiles all over my screen but I see how many should actually like it.

I like the way you say that you "got used to it". LMFAO. That tells the whole story right there. You never heard anybody saying that about any previous operating system. "Yeah, after 6 weeks I am finally getting used to Windows 7".

Bugs can be fixed. Operating System UI design choices made on purpose cannot be fixed. I would rather use an operating system with bugs versus an operating system that I have no interest in at all. Enjoy your "dumbed" down operating system. Nothing wrong with a chimpanzee interface. I just don't happen to be a chimpanzee. Enjoy.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

"...he isn't quite sure where the next chapter of his life might lead him."

That should be sailing on a yacht! He's earned some R&R, and I hope that he enjoys his next adventure.

That's funny. I was thinking more of a conviction for perpetrating a fraud on the american public, trying to pass off Windows 8 as an actual desktop operating system. Good thing I am not in charge of his retirement benefits.

 

[Guest]

"Windows vista is the biggest regret? Not windows 8?"

Hahaha my thoughts exactly. Hopefully this fiasco Windows 8 brings for them results in a much more appealing Windows 9

 

[BMfan]

I was one of the few people that liked Vista 64bit,never had problems running it,probably because I didn't believe the recommended spec's.I started running it just after it became RTM,was never really a fan of XP.

I started trying 7 when it was still beta and I stuck with it since. Since 8 has come out I have tried it 3 different times in the hope that the updates will make it better but they did nothing and from what I've seen of 8,1 it's not getting any better.

 

[Nobina]

I still think of Windows XP as the best OS released. And I hate both Vista and 8, but will still use Vista over 8 any day.

 

[cliffordcooley]

You never heard anybody saying that about any previous operating system. "Yeah, after 6 weeks I am finally getting used to Windows 7".

Every OS has a learning curve that requires them to get used to it. I was growing tired of XP during the last part of 2008. I started dual booting Windows XP and Vista. During a month or so while I was still learning Vista, I discovered Windows 7 was in Beta and could be downloaded. I then started dual booting Windows XP and Windows 7. There was less of a learning curve with Windows 7 than for XP, in my opinion. But there was still a learning curve, that required getting used to. The only difference with Windows 8, I don't want to get used to it.

 

[Guest]

Windows ME was bad. Windows Vista was bad. Windows 8 is worse than bad.

 

[Guest]

Xp ? Are you serious ?
Come on ... evolve.. learn.. you'll see win 8 is your friend... win 7 was your friend all along..
don't be shy, don't live under the xp rock...

 

[Guest]

Ballmer was the CEO when MS made the most quality operating system, the Windows XP. Before Windows XP Microsoft didn’t had prestige as a company. The Windows 95 was very unstable for the role of the global computers operating system.
I don’t think that Microsoft will go better without Ballmer as CEO.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Vista wasnt that bad. It was just the issues with compatibility that broke the OS.

 

[soldier1969]

It should be Windows 8 then Vista.

 

[Camikazi]

Windows ME was bad. Windows Vista was bad. Windows 8 is worse than bad.

I can't take you seriously when you say that Windows 8 (a different yet fully usable OS) is worse than Windows ME (and OS that would literally crash for no reason). Your opinion means nothing until you learn to think and speak rationally and not emotionally.

 

[MrBungle]

Vista was given to India to see if MS could have everything done there (cheaper).
Windows 7 fixed the India debacle. Windows 8 is far superior to Vista, just get Classic shell or from a dozen other start orb replacements. I run 7, and 8 on another machine (not new hardware) and Windows 8 desktop (with Classic Shell) is just fine. I won't get into the tpouch UI on a non-touch screen, that is another story

Products should be judged by how they work out of the box, not how they work after they are modified by 3rd party add ons.

 

[MrBungle]

I think one of Vista's biggest issues was that people were buying computers that were just too slow... Vista really needed a minimum of a dual core CPU and 3GB of memory and at the time many people were buying budget boxes with single core CPUs and 512MB/1GB of RAM and it ran like crap.

 

[Guest]

Good riddance, Ballmer, and don't let the door hit your fat butt on your way out. Also, I hope MS itself doesn't take too long to follow you out of History's door.
Psycho CEO of a dishonest company selling crappy products, no one will be sad to see any of you go (except perhaps the suckers that invested in your stock).

 

[Guest]

@ Camikazi: Actually I was one of the lucky ME users, I didn't have severe crashing. I did however return to 98 SE as my computer was extra slow with ME (similar to Vista when it came out).

Windows 8 is essentially Windows 7 with minor improvements but touch screen features forced onto desktop users. It may be a good tablet OS, but on a desktop computer, Windows 7 is the obvious choice.

I am not even using Windows at all any more. I've switched to Ubuntu. The whole Microsoft leaking exploits ahead of patching them kind of activated my tinfoil hat mode.

 

[EEatGDL]

I was one of the few people that liked Vista 64bit,never had problems running it,probably because I didn't believe the recommended spec's.I started running it just after it became RTM,was never really a fan of XP.

I started trying 7 when it was still beta and I stuck with it since. Since 8 has come out I have tried it 3 different times in the hope that the updates will make it better but they did nothing and from what I've seen of 8,1 it's not getting any better.

Wow, that's pretty much my own experience. The only issue I had with Vista 64-bit was that I couldn't ever get to work a TV card I bought for it even when there were drivers for my system, updated .NET framework and tryed for almost a year to get it to work and it just worked without problems when I migrated to 7 on the first try. Other than that... the other hardware, games (from Age 2 to World in Conflict), software ran well.

For the time I bought a comfortable system to use it with (4 GB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo), problem is when you tryed to run that with 1 GB of RAM and low/mid processor like my father's laptop (1 GB of RAM, Pentium Dual-Core @1.73 GHz and Windows Vista Business 32-bit), Windows updates were a headache on that thing.

 

[Guest]

Windows Vista Version = 6.0
Windows 7 version = 6.1
and yes, these are almost the same thing.

Best windows you can get at this moment: Windows XP Mode under Windows Virtual PC
and yes, this is almost as good as Windows XP native.

 

[Guest]

People are misunderstanding this comment. Windows Vista wasn't a failure the way the Vista-haters think it was - it was a much needed overhaul and laid the foundation for Windows 7 (which is 99% identical to Vista). What Ballmer is referring to is that Longhorn was meant to be much, much more than what Vista ended up being (essentially playing catchup with the rest of the OS world). A huge amount of resources were committed to it, whilst XP stagnated and looked increasingly dated in comparison to OS X, and even Linux, and ultimately their designs for a ground-up redesign of the entire OS fell through.

 

[Guest]

God still so many babies crying about Windows 8. Learn to work with the new tools presented to you. It's a very nice os.

 

[cliffordcooley]

God still so many babies crying about Windows 8. Learn to work with the new tools presented to you. It's a very nice os.

Why does everyone assume it is trouble adapting that is the issue? For the record I wouldn't have trouble adapting. I don't want to look at the **** called Windows 8.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Microsoft customers name Steve Ballmer as biggest regret while CEO
How Win7 snuck in there, I'll never know....

 

[mojorisin23]

Every time I hear something about microsoft, I just think, what have they done lately? and by lately I mean the last decade?? other than xbox, they haven't done squat. their hayday was the 90s. but after the internet bubble burst in 2000, they have become irrelevant as far as innovation goes.