The Cornerplay: Explaining Steve Ballmer's Microsoft

[Jeffrey Yuwono]

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[newwindow=https://www.techspot.com/article/860-explaining-steve-ballmers-microsoft/]https://www.techspot.com/article/860-explaining-steve-ballmers-microsoft/[/newwindow]

Please leave your feedback here.

 

[VitalyT]

No matter what they say about Windows 8, I think it was the right move for the most part, which did take courage and vision.

 

[turnipweed]

Ballmer is so smart that he retained 18,000 employees that were dragging down MS, he made bad choices in mobile and Windows 8, and got him fired. OK.

 

[Guest]

Why they ignore complaints so much? EVERYBODY was hating on windows 8 metro and lack of start menu, the bad reception to that was OVERWHELMING , yet they ignore and ignore and ignore cause they needed to get an app store up and running and catch up with mobile, business reasons that affected usability and ruined the product....Gameplay first Ballmer...

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

In fact Baller is so bright his parents calls him sun.

 

[Guest]

They are Brilliant, super smart and plenty rich but these guys need to learn presentation skills and look appealing and translate their intellect into words that people like me will understand

 

[Guest]

Um... by word of mouth, I should be assured he is super smart... but by all the proof I have in these videos, in his quotes, and in his results, I am to believe that?

 

[mel lertz]

If Ballmer is so f-bombing smart, why does Win* still have a registry structure? Never have used a Win machine that didn't need restarting 4-5 times per day, mostly using only MS software. Custom software was usually better, but still once a day restarts. Same custom SW on linux ran 444 days and on OSX had to be restarted 3 times in 4 years.
Windows? (head shake)

 

[Guest]

Looks like someone has been downloading a lots of malwares
I dont even remember when I last restarted my Windows 7. Why on earth wud someone need 3-5 restarts a day!

 

[Guest]

Ballmer is so smart that he retained 18,000 employees that were dragging down MS, he made bad choices in mobile and Windows 8, and got him fired. OK.

He was not fired. Where did you get that idea from?

If Ballmer is so f-bombing smart, why does Win* still have a registry structure? Never have used a Win machine that didn't need restarting 4-5 times per day, mostly using only MS software. Custom software was usually better, but still once a day restarts. Same custom SW on linux ran 444 days and on OSX had to be restarted 3 times in 4 years.

Bullshit. I have used Windows for over a decade now. None of my Windows PCs ever needed restarts like that. And in the last four years, since I moved from desktops to laptops and now I can just close the lid and let it sleep/hibernate, my PCs have been running without a restart for days or weeks on end, and a restart very rarely is needed. Your senseless, completely unbased complain screams "I have zero actual experience with Windows". Or "I just want to bash this company for no actual reason to look cool/smart".
Also, there is nothing wrong with the Windows registry. Well over 95% of Windows users won't ever have any reason to even be aware it exists.

 

[Guest]

You're doing something wrong if you are needing to reboot Windows 1 or more times daily. Either that or you have a short between the keyboard and chair.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

So smart that he chose to resign right after the release of Windows 8? Okee then!

"The man grew Microsoft from $8 million to $78 billion in annual revenue, from 30 people to almost 100,000." And this is cold hard facts and not just speculation, right? I always thought Bill Gates was responsible for most of Microsoft's success. Guess I need to do more research.

 

[Guest]

Nice read thanks for sharing.

 

[Guest]

I always wondered why persons like to badmouth him so much. Those same persons happen to don't own or run a major company the magnitude of Microsoft or have been in the industry as long. Sometimes persons need to do personal introspections before commenting on other people.

 

[Guest]

Growing a company to that size always takes more than one strong leader.

Even at Apple -- it wasn't just Steve Jobs' taste that made the company successful. Without Tim Cook's discipline and supply chains expertise, Apple devices would have cost a lot more than it did and have more shortages.

 

[Guest]

Without Tim Cook's discipline and supply chains expertise, Apple devices would have cost a lot more than it did and have more shortages.

Tim Cook doesn't have even half the importance Jonathan Ive has on Apple. No matter how much supply chain experience Tim Cook has, without Ive products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad wouldn't even exist to begin with. Let alone the colored policarbonate iMac line that pulled Apple out of the red for the first time in a decade after Jobs returned.

 

[WangDangDoodle]

I've never actually bothered taking the time to watch a video with Ballmer on stage before I read this article. That man is crazy! No wonder Microsoft went the way it did. I'll be the first guy to get behind a lively show, and I really like that kinda passion for things, but that doesn't mean I'd let this clown run my business! He may be a clever clown, but he's still a clown. I get it now, why he'd buy a sports team. It doesn't take much to imagine him running around a field with foam fingers, screaming his head off.

They should have focused more on desktop computers and key features like DirectX and Games for Windows Live. Nobody likes GFWL, but that's only because it's terrible. Imagine if they had a major team working on it from the start, right? They'd have something resembling Steam. Microsoft still has PC gamers rooted to Windows, and that's a serious advantage. Their lack of focus on PC gamers has led to AMD developing Mantle, and Valve is working on Steam OS. Everybody's fed up with Microsoft dragging their heels, and now there's competition for both Windows and DirectX, and I don't know what the hell is going on with GFWL anymore. I don't think developers will be making games for GFWL after Microsoft said they were killing (despite the fact that they did a 180 on that). Microsoft risks losing their iron grip on PC gamers, and that's just about the worst thing they could have done. Then again, PC gaming is a threat to their Xbox franchise, so they're actually competing against themselves. That's why they should sell their Xbox division. Consoles come and go, but PC gaming will never die! All these morons that keep predicting the death of PC gaming have no idea what they're talking about! Just play through "Game Dev Tychoon" and you'll understand why.

Windows 8 is plain terrible. The lack of a start bar was stupid, but designing the entire OS for touch screen interface is just about the dumbest move ever. When I first heard about Windows 8, I tried to imagine sitting in front of the computer with my arms stretched forward, fingering the monitor all day. That was my very first reaction, and that reaction has kept me from even trying Windows 8.

 

[Guest]

His results are shown in the revenue and earnings of the company, and those grew insanely with him at the head.

 

[Guest]

$78 billion is $78 billion...

 

[Guest]

Tim Cook doesn't have even half the importance Jonathan Ive has on Apple. No matter how much supply chain experience Tim Cook has, without Ive products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad wouldn't even exist to begin with. Let alone the colored policarbonate iMac line that pulled Apple out of the red for the first time in a decade after Jobs returned.

Without Tim Cook, Apple would just be another NeXT. Great product, but horribly expensive. I mean, you can argue Macs are basically NeXT computers. It was a failure when Jobs was on his own, a hit with Cook there to help make the product a practical reality.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

His results are shown in the revenue and earnings of the company, and those grew insanely with him at the head.

That still doesn't prove that he was responsible for any of it. When a vehicle is moving at 80mph and you do something stupid like switch drivers the new driver get's all the same momentum of the vehicle. It's already in motion.

 

[Heihachi1337]

If Ballmer is so f-bombing smart, why does Win* still have a registry structure? Never have used a Win machine that didn't need restarting 4-5 times per day, mostly using only MS software. Custom software was usually better, but still once a day restarts. Same custom SW on linux ran 444 days and on OSX had to be restarted 3 times in 4 years.
Windows? (head shake)

I believe the error you are experiencing with the Windows machines is what is called a PICNIC error. You may need to look into it.
I have never, ever, had to reboot a single Windows machine I have ever owned had to reboot a computer even remotely that often.
Generally, only had to reboot after updates, the once a month routine.

 

[dividebyzero]

"The man grew Microsoft from $8 million to $78 billion in annual revenue, from 30 people to almost 100,000." And this is cold hard facts and not just speculation, right? I always thought Bill Gates was responsible for most of Microsoft's success. Guess I need to do more research.

You probably do.
Ballmer was MS's thirtieth employee and first business manager. He and Gates closed the deal with IBM for what would become PC-DOS while Paul Allen got the dirty job of grabbing QDOS off Seattle Computer Products for the lowest lowball price in history* since MS was in the language program business not OS's, and SCP didn't know that IBM was shopping around for an OS for the Model 5150 Personal Computer.

* SCP signed a contract for MS to pay on a per license basis ($10K per contract + $15K if source code was included) on the understanding that MS had an order book full of customers. In reality MS had only one, IBM. $25K spent to build an empire, not too shabby even if the ethics were.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

You probably do.
Ballmer was MS's thirtieth employee and first business manager. He and Gates closed the deal with IBM for what would become PC-DOS while Paul Allen got the dirty job of grabbing QDOS off Seattle Computer Products for the lowest lowball price in history* since MS was in the language program business not OS's, and SCP didn't know that IBM was shopping around for an OS for the Model 5150 Personal Computer.

* SCP signed a contract for MS to pay on a per license basis ($10K per contract + $15K if source code was included) on the understanding that MS had an order book full of customers. In reality MS had only one, IBM. $25K spent to build an empire, not too shabby even if the ethics were.

Interesting information. Still, first sentence does nothing to prove Steve Ballmer was/is a genius. Just that he has been around for a long time. Windows 8 went out on his watch and that makes him look really bad in my opinion.

 

[dividebyzero]

Interesting information. Still, first sentence does nothing to prove Steve Ballmer was/is a genius.

The guy ran Microsoft's OS business since 1989. There's more to MS than Win8.
He also borrowed $50 million against everything he owned down to his personal possessions in 1989 to buy MS stock - backing himself and Microsoft to usurp IBM as the industry leader. Genius or not, he's got a bigger pair than the vast majority of people.