“Ballmer admitted to financial analysts that the predictions for Vista had proved ‘overly optimistic’ and he blamed the pirates in China, India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets,” Nick Farrell reports for The Inquirer.
Farrell reports, “He said that there was software within Windows Genuine Advantage which could be dialled up by [Microsoft] to make it even more tougher for the pirates to take out… Of course he is ignoring the fact that a lot of people are not buying Vista because it does not offer much more than XP and Windows Genuine Advantage makes their lives a misery. Cranking up WGA might backfire.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “drew_ill” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, piracy, so that’s the problem. Thanks for clearing that up, Mr. Ballmer. And we thought it was people waking up along with the avalanche of “it’s a chrome-plated turd” reviews that had something to do with Stillborn, er, Long… uh, Vista’s slow sales. Moo.
Related articles:
Best Buy ads: ‘Make Your Move to Mac’ – just weeks after Windows Vista consumer debut – February 19, 2007
Ballmer calls Apple ‘cute, little tiny niche guy’ – February 15, 2007
Microsoft’s Ballmer warns on Vista, says revenue forecasts too aggressive; shares drop – February 15, 2007
Windows Vista’s DRM is bad news – February 14, 2007
Mac OS X Tiger vs. Windows Vista: Mac’s migration a breeze, Vista’s migration a headache – February 12, 2007
Forbes: ‘Windows Vista utterly unimaginative, internally discordant and woefully out of tune’ – February 09, 2007
Computerworld: Windows expert dumps Windows, switches to Apple’s Mac OS X – February 08, 2007
Windows sufferer spends six hours trying to ‘upgrade’ to Vista, says: ‘I should’ve bought a Mac’ – February 07, 2007
Windows Vista woes push BBC News editor to regret never having ‘defected’ to Apple Mac – February 06, 2007
Digit: Don’t buy Vista; Microsoft may be driving millions to stick with XP or move to Apple Mac – February 05, 2007
TIME Magazine: Microsoft’s Windows Vista ‘an embarassment to the good name of American innovation’ – February 02, 2007
Microsoft’s Windows Vista: Five years for a chrome-plated turd – January 30, 2007
Digit: ‘Microsoft’s Windows Vista may be the best reason yet to buy an Apple Mac’ – January 29, 2007
Pioneer Press: Windows Vista shows ‘Apple is an innovation engine; Microsoft, not so much’ – January 29, 2007
Windows Vista disappoints, so get a Mac – January 29, 2007
Analyst: Microsoft’s Windows Vista could be an opportunity for Apple – January 26, 2007
CNET Reviews Windows Vista: Is that all? Clunky and not very intuitive vs. Mac OS X; warmed-over XP – January 24, 2007
Mossberg: Microsoft’s Windows Vista offers lesser imitations of Apple’s Mac OS X features – January 18, 2007
Windows Vista disappointment drives longtime ‘Microsoft apologist’ to Apple’s Mac OS X – January 17, 2007
InformationWeek Review: Apple’s Mac OS X shines in comparison with Microsoft’s Windows Vista – January 06, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Microsoft’s Windows Vista: ‘Looks, Locks, Lacks’ – December 14, 2006
15-year Windows vet tries Apple Mac: ‘My God! This is amazing!’ – December 04, 2006
Dave Winer: ‘Microsoft isn’t an innovator, and never was – they are always playing catch-up’ – December 01, 2006
Harvard Medical School CIO picks Mac OS X over Linux and Windows – November 30, 2006
Top Windows developer dumps Microsoft’s ‘pile of crap’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – September 12, 2006
$399 for Windows Vista Ultimate?! (Hint: Get a Mac) – August 29, 2006
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is 64-bit done right, unlike Microsoft’s Windows Vista kludge – August 14, 2006
Microsoft Windows Vista: If you can’t innovate… try to impersonate Apple’s Mac OS X – August 10, 2006
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac OS X Leopard sets new bar, leaves Microsoft’s Vista in the dust – August 08, 2006
Microsoft botches another copy job: Windows Vista Flip3D vs. Apple Mac OS X Exposé – June 26, 2006
Windows Vista rips-off Mac OS X at great hardware cost (and Apple gains in the end) – June 13, 2006
Computerworld: Microsoft Windows Vista a distant second-best to Apple Mac OS X – June 02, 2006
“more tougher”?!?!
fffffffft. right
Perhaps it was Jack Sparrow? in the iTunes movie store??
Wasn’t Vista supposed to be uncrackable?
Its always the Pirates. And since Disney produced Pirates of the Caribean and Steve Jobs is now on the Board for Disney it all can go back to Apple being the root cause of poor Vista sales.
Arrrrgg!
No wonder these guys see eye-to-eye with the RIAA. Pussies like they will always find a boogeyman to blame.
Maybe if they made Vista “more gooder” then more people would buy it.
Ballmer is a loon.
1. He’s there because he was friends with Bill in college (though Bill dropped out)
2. He’s emotionally unstable
3. He completely misunderstands Microsoft’s position in the world
4. He does not know anything about the concept of “creative destruction” which would be central to the process of re-invention for his company.
5. He really needs to keep his tongue in his mouth…
Unless you have an almost brand new box, who would go out and pay for Vista upgrade?
The lack of family pack pricing is ludicrous, especially considering you either have to buy the dumbed down version to get it to run on your older hardware, or spend more money than your pc is worth trying to upgrade the hardware.
I have 8 older PC’s at my office and home. It would cost roughly $1,400 just to upgrade, some to Vista Business and some to Vista basic. And none of them would be able to run full blown vista.
Fortunately all my future upgrades will be to Macs anyway.
That picture of Ballmer made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
arrrrr!!!!! shiver me timbers
hmmmmm……piracy, pirates, pirates of the carribean, disney movies, animated, animated movies, pixar
I GOT IT! an animated movie about a pirate who steals from a partner and takes over the world!
no no wait, thats real life….hold on…. okay her it is steve say this at the next event:
” so what has our competitor been up to recently? lets take a look, so far vista has been hacked 70 times and its only been out for a little less than three months, OSX has never been compromised and as people are getting more and more conscious of security this is what is the most important feature they are looking for, so today we are introducing the genuine apple advantage tool, which when downloaded and installed on your mac will automatically find windows based computers and send them a short article caling the computer a weiner! IPHONE BITCH!!!!”
That’s funny. Everyone I have talked to says VISTA is the reason for Vista’s slow sales.
Vista is way too expensive for what you get. Especially in Europe even with a strong Euro!!!
If you haven’t….
Refresh this page a few times
the picture changes…and it’s hilarious EVERY time
Yay me.
MDN MW “Provide”, as in “I was happy to provide the link to this article on Ballmer’s clear understanding of Vista’s poor sales to MDN.”
What a douche bag.
LMAO! That picture is HILARIOUS!!!
Pirates of the Carribean III: VISTA SUCKS. Aaargh!!
Alright, i think it might just be overly-optimistic market analysis on M$’ part let alone the fact that was many have stated before, it really doesn’t offer too much more then XP. Some winblows users are also trying to find any excuse they can to justify getting vista. One of my friends actually bought the upgrade for home premium edition and he said one of the new “features” he liked was that he can now move files in explorer to different locations at the same time……to quote those crappy cox commercials sounds like “buyer’s remorse” to me.
Also the pirating community has not been able to fully crack vista yet, just implementing 30-day timestop programs which have to be rerun every 30 days, aka not a permanent fix. So Ballmer is talking out his rectum as usual.
where do you find these pictures of Ballmer? genius.
VISTA is not just any old dog of a OS, its a pirate sea dog.
Next he will be blaming the stores for not giving it prominent shelf space. The local PC World stores have shelves full of all the various flavours of VISTA – and that’s the problem – they’re full because no one is buying!!
Then it will be that the packaging is too much like XP.
Vista is Microsoft’s short sword and Microsoft’s belly is slit and its guts are snaking out. When people actually get Vista to install and “work” they will then discover the true depths of DRM hell. You couldn’t invent a better corporate suicide plan than Vista.
Oh, man, I am fully into the Ballmer RDF. Everything is spinning ……and the pretty colors …….I ..love .the ..world. Everything you tell me is true.
I feel so good. It’s like my naked body is being bathed in warm liquid milk chocolate.
I loveOh, oh, wait a second..Shit..Aaawww fk. somebody stole my operating system.
If Balmer thinks Vista sales have tanked.. wait till Leopard gets released …
“….. Vista ?? .. What’s that ?…….”
“Quick … hand me that chair !”
MW = “love” ….. Doncha just love it ??
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />
oh my, to put things in perspective, even though Vista sales may be slow. They have likely alread sold more copies of Vista than Mac OSX’s entire installed user base. Vista only needs to sell to 5% of its user base to surpass sales of Apples entire base.
Thats BULL SHIT, I live in Mexico, where you can buy pirated windows XP all over ($30.00) for a copied disk.
I havent even seen Vista anywhere! and I am talking about the MS original. seems you would have to have some penetration, to copy something.
Now I will admit, That I pirate Mac OS10 !! let me explain, I went to the States last July, purchased an iMac 20″ core duo, brougt back with me and paid 15% duty (fine).
This December, Apple was avaible at Office Max, I purchased a 17″ for my kids at $17,900 peso ($1,640 us vs $1,190 us in the States) I called Apple an asked about an “English replacement OS for the Spanish, they said they could not supply me with one, “And could not sell me one in Mexico”
So I used my english version for my kids, and since Xmas have done the same for two other ex-pats , who purchased Macs here at a premium, but need in English.
Wheres Zune Tang when you need him ?
Oh Zun-ie !!
First of all
Anything new tends to have glitches and bugs that take months, even years to work out.
Second of all, everything from Microsoft is insecure and buggy beyond the early release regardless.
Third of all, XP is working fine for most, M$ based IT is dead afraid of something that does work reliabily because it might cost them their large staff, or even their jobs. So they will put Vista off, and the hardware upgrade required of it, as long as possible.
@ Perspective
And what happens when those who have already purchased Vista
realize all the advertised “features” in Vista, arent “features” at all,
and the word gets out to other prospective buyers ?
Surely even you must admit this will have an impact on future sales …
Now why does the old adage ..”Rats leaving a sinking ship” .. come to mind ?
Gee, what’s my main reason for not upgrading to Vista on my test machine ? Oh yeah… It’s that the VM running XP SP2 on my iMac now tells me that I ” may be a victim of software counterfeiting. The Windows product key installed on this computer is not genuine.
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Pirate_Flag.txt
Perspective,
to put your 5% nonsense into perspective,
That would be about 20 million people who are now living with a botched ripoff of Mac OS X that doesn’t even do what it’s advertised to do; and about 20 million people living the good life with the real Mac OS X and loving everything it has to offer.
How many times do we have to say it? more≠better and quality>quantity.
Any day now, IBM, HP, Dell, Gateway, Acer, etc will announce that they are shifting to ubuntu, and MS will need to port office, exchange, etc. over to linux, or die.
DIE, I TELL YOU!!!
So say we all?
Sometimes it takes “Zune Tang” a little time to create something believably obtuse yet amusing. He’s been doing a pretty good job of it so far, so give him a break, OK? Not everything lends itself to tongue-in-cheeck.
Low sales due to piracy? Guys, your numbers were based on numbers for the heavily-pirated XP, how can you now claim “oh, it’s being pirated!”? That’s not at all obvious, oh, NO. When much of your sales go to business systems, you need to anticipate that the larger shops will buy A copy, or two or three, for IT to crunch through in the lab. If even one of those IT guys enjoys pod-casts and links to PodOmatic, that’s weeks off while they try to sus out what’s going wrong with IE7! They have a Working Solution and can certainly wait until SP1 before they get heavily into Project Vista.
DLMeyer – the Voice of G.L.Horton’s Stage Page
PS: MW “took”? as in Merriweather?
Pirates of Silicon Valley II: The Rise and Fall of Captain Silver Turd
Unfortunately for Microsoft there just isn’t a lot of legacy hardware out there that meets the requirements for Vista.
I don’t know that we have more than one machine in the whole office that meets the minimum requirements for Vista, and none that have a good enough graphics card for Aero–and why the hell would an office need Aero for its secretaries anyway? And without Aero what does Vista really offer?
There isn’t an realistic upgrade marked for Vista; Vista is going to be sold primarily as an OEM installation with new machines that would have been sold with XP anyway.
yes, it’s those indian and chinese citizens who make $5000/year who would be buying the $499 Vista if it were not avialable for $2. they are resonsible for the decline in marketshare in the U.S., which is where most ookay. makes perfect sense.
Yeah sure, Ballmer. Blame it on the pirates. ROTFLMAO! I have Windows XP Pro and I don’t plan on upgrading to Vista, because of pathetic gaming performance as compared to XP. Sorry Microsoft, but you have a dud on your hands.
Damn pirates! Why can’t they pay for shit like everybody else!
@OPj
you are right on the money with this one. that is the reason, at least i know thats the reason my company is considering cancelling the MS contract and going with another firm, more than likely apple since our egineers already use and have used macs for twenty years.
Isnt’ MSFT supposed to have great DRM? Ooops, guess not.
HAB
Seems like anything to do with slow sales of any kind of media is blamed on piracy. Funny how that’s never been even mentioned when it comes to Apple OSX sales. OSX isn’t even copy protected either. No six million long serial number to imput and verify. It just works like the operating system.
I think Vista’s pricing and confusing 6 versions has a lot to do with slow sales. To expensive! Get a Mac and when you need to upgrade the operating system it only costs you $129. Client has all the features included so you won’t have to buy an update until the next major release.
So, when Ballmer said “pirates” he was referring to Jack Sparrow on iTunes?
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“Arrrrrr, thems thar other pirates make us good guys look bad!”
Steve is such an assclown!
My existing PC has plenty of power so I don’t need Vista with a bunch of bugs and gotcha’s.
Just talked with my insurance agent who got a new PC with Vista installed. She reports it is running very slow and all of the pop ups (cancel or allow?) are getting in her way. She is requesting that her tech guy wipe Vista off of her brand new PC and install XP.
… if I have this straight: regions where software piracry is the norm instead of the exception were a) not anticipted to be hot zones of piracy and b) counted on to be the backbone of Vista sales. Sure. If MS didn’t account for the correct piracy rate in those regions, they are idiots, not victims. Not that piracy is right, but when a company is rolling out an expected sales figure, not accounting for the obvious is negligent.
Vista famously employs intrusive DRM to stop customers copying any sort of copyright content.
I somehow doubt that the record labels and film studios will be impressed to discover that Microsoft’s mighty DRM is unable to stop people making copies of Vista. If they can’t stop people copying Microsoft’s stuff, what real protection is likely to be there for third party content ?
Ballmer is being extremely unwise to talk like this. Either he’s telling lies to cover up the appalling sales of Vista, or else Vista’s DRM isn’t good enough to protect itself. Either way it’s a bad story for Microsoft.
People don’t steal turds (or Zunes)… chrome-plated or otherwise.
It’s happening, the slow disintergration, the denial, the excuses. MS is falling apart, and the boys at the top are scared.
Also posted in the Best Buy link, identifying the pirate that slowed Vista sales is very important. Mr. Ballmer: Get a Mirror.
I think there is a major change in consumer perspective on Microsoft this time around. Every software or hardware company other than Microsoft continues to offer more in their old base software/hardware and charge less.
Real innovative companies continually bring dramatically new software rather than upgrades to the table to generate revenue. Microsoft appears to be another example of a one hit wonder in history. OSX Tiger upgrade was $100. Aperture has been reduced over time. iLife continually gets new software and upgrades and the price remains the same. Linux is free and growing. iLife continually gets bigger and better at sub $100 pricing. Microsoft explodes their new selling price for basically old software with a few new spices (very few) for huge dough.
These Mac pages will suggest M$ never have delivered value, but quite frankly, it was enough value for the customer to stay. I think the consumer is really starting to question the value of Microsoft and that is where they will struggle.
The iPod price point improvement on every new release has shown consumers that Apple continues to innovate and discount old technology. Microsoft has not discounted their old technology and that is the value perception problem they now have.
iPods, PC’s, Mac’s, stereos, speaker systems, TV’s all drop with the exception of M$. M$ own a lot of copies of overpriced software. I would love to see an R&D writedown of $6 B for a software enhancement called Vista that didn’t sell well. Office package is the same. Office 2007 is $79 software, not $500. That is a value gap.
Bottom line, Consumers are not willing to continue accepting small tweaking at huge premiums and this is where Microsoft will get melted. Like an old movie with a few new scenes, it really has no magnetism. The value equation the customer perceived has been broken.
Back to Best Buy, the software distributors like Best Buy are seeing the customer perception and are moving on to the next big thing. Value for Money! Make a move to Mac.
My Rumour: Ballmer to step down before 2nd quarter results are announced to get his stock options crystalized before they plummet. If he sells them while still in the job, the heat will be so great, his tongue will melt.
What I find funny is Microsoft want people to upgrade to Vista because it’s “more secure”, but Apple want people to upgrade to Leopard because it has better features.
If people want to stay on Tiger, they can, without worries. It’s safe and secure.
If people want to stay on XP, they’ll get hammered with viruses and spyware. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft suddenly started “advertising ” Vista to XP users via the wonderful medium of pop-up/pop-under advertising. Classy.
MW: ideas, as in, Microsoft are devoid of any.
Wasn’t the point of the extra hoops to jump through with registering (and re-registering every 6 months) supposed to STOP “piracy?” Did Ballmer just admit that that feature DOESN’T WORK? Gee, I’m glad we’re going to be stuck with that useless inconvenience then…
It’s very good to hear that M$ will get poor revenues from stand-alone Vista sales.
They will still sell >30M copies a quarter through the computer manufacturers, but their return on those is a lot less.
I wonder how Office sales are going.
This could be the first definitive sign that M$ are going down. If PC users are hanging onto their old machines for longer then Apple have a real good opportunity to grab market share.
It seems like M$ only have another 5 years to gouge the consumer. It will take a long time for that ship to sink but it definitely seems to be taking on water.
PIRATES? Hehe hehehehe hahahaha hehehe oh oh hahahahahahahahahahaha! HAAAAAAAA! Hahahhahahaha!
Pirates! Hoo hoo ho, man, that’s rich! Wow. Moo.
No self-respecting pirate would want a turd as booty.
Ballmer: I was misqouted. What I said was Vista needs to be “less shitier” not “more tougher”.
Press: Please elaborate, how do you make a turd “less shitier”?
Ballmer: I’m personally working on that know..uugh, uugh, I feel it coming now.
Press: Gross! Is looks and smells just like Vista.
Ballmer: No, it is “less shitier”! Gartenberg, here quickly. Where’s that perfume, you moron! Spritz dammit, sprtiz, what the hell am I paying you for!
You mean Vista’s not crackalackin’?
MDN, as a female, I REALLY get the creeps when I see Ballmers tongue out in your photos! It gives me the urge to go take a shower……or 2 or 3.
ICK! GROSS! EEEWWWW!
Someone actually married this fool and had sex with him? Maybe she did artificial insemination.
MDN magic word: TYPES it takes ALL types I guess!
I only liked Mr. Ballmer when he played the dad in Everybody Loves Raymond.
So I guess he is blaming XP on the Vikings?
’98 on the Mongols?
‘Bob’ on George Bush?
Colonel Panic: You mean Vista’s not crackalackin’?
Stab the Man: Nope. It’s lackin’ cracka!
IT’S PIRAAAATES!!!
Now, watch me dance.
Like I said before Vista has 100% of the crappy OS market.
So Microsoft’s argument is that people/companies who use soemone’s else’s work without permission is stealing. Isn’t that what Moicrosoft has been doing all these years. Pleeease!
Once people have played with Flip 3D a couple of times (and realize it’s all style and no substance), they’ll go, “Is that IT??!!”
Gates needs to fire this bald asshole before his empire is completely gone. What an asinine statement about poor Vista sales. Heck, anyone could put a spin on this.
Cancel or Allow? Cancel and get a Mac.
Wow…a team of brilliant Mac users demonstrating their extremely high average level of intelligence and profound ability to use the English language to affect precise and far reaching change throughout the world – yet again! Hey if enough of you douche bags get together and worship your idol of Jobs, maybe you can cure cancer. Ooooor…you can do like Bill Gates and set up a charitable organization and spend tens of billions of dollars to try and do some good in the world. No, you’re right…F the evil empire.
Now really, back on topic here: way to stick it to The Man. I think you really hit Ballmer right where it hurts. Keep up that enthusiasm and 25 years from now Apple may have risen to a 7% market share for home computers.
Hmmm…ah forget it…let the circle jerk continue – keeps the virus level down. You know – I heard that some people actually use computers to do business. Bah…probably M$ just spreading more rumors.
It’s better than crackalackin’!
It’s Ballmertistic!
Hey, Amazed (& Confused):
Keep stokin’ off that M$ teet! Your delusions may become reality in your little corner of the universe. Gates handin’ off billions of dollars to various and sundry charities is just fine. In fact, it’s crackalackin’ if it’s just to “do good.” But if your throwin’ around billions of greenbacks in the vain hope that you’re going to alay some of that bad karma you’ve built up by foisting off on consumers a product that is not only broken, but can be downright dangerous in certain situations, then you know what? It’s crap. Crapalapadocious. Y’know? So, yeah, I’ll keep my head firmly encased in Steve Jobs’ RDF while you keep yours firmly ensconced in Steve Ballmers sweaty underarms.
Ballmer’s career is toast
http://www.tomwet.de/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=620
The funny thing is that even the pirates don’t have the hardware to run Vista. All of their CD burners won’t work under Vista!
ZuneTang just sent me an email saying “Let them know I wont be in a for a few days, Still trying to install vista on my old 486.. I keep getting BSOD so please send my regards”
Aint Windows Life a bitch?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Remember the Ballmer/Young Frankenstein video?
Would be funny if the dude did a video featuring the original “Mutiny On the Bounty”, starring Ballmer.
Is that Jack Sparrow up to his hi-jinx again?
@pr,
“If you haven’t….
Refresh this page a few times
the picture changes…and it’s hilarious EVERY time.”
What??? Doing much acid these days, pr?
Amazed,
I can imagine how you might have that reaction as some of the comments here get stale and just plain ridiculous. Of course, if you’re not buying it, makes me wonder what your doing trolling this site anyway. But that’s for a different conversation.
My point is, I think you and yours are fooling yourselves by giving Gates & Co. carte blanche because of the whole philanthropy thing. Giving millions — or even billions — to a cause doesn’t erase the fact that M$’s products are embarrassingly shitty. One should not work as cover for the other.
Put it to you this way. My mother does great charitable work with children. But she makes lousy lasagna. Am I going to tell her and everyone else that her lasagna is all right by me because she does charitable work with children? No. I’m going to say, “Ma. The work you do with children is amazing and noble. But please, for the love of Pete, give up the lasagna ‘cuz you’re just ruining it for everyone.”
You see, Amazed. That’s honesty.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
@Dumbstruck:
point well taken.
But undeniably, those contributions have positively affected many lives.
I choose to look at it as the philanthropy making up for the shitty product bestowed upon us.
But, as I haven’t used Windows (or DOS) since ’91, I DON’T REALLY CARE!
Dying companies blame everything except themselves.
This should be a fun death spiral to watch.
If anyone was in any doubt as to the increasing popularity of Macs then go no further than this website. I’m using Camino which strips away all the ads on MDN’s pages. I’ve noticed that since December the comments are regularly going over two pages. It might be that MDN is just more popular but I think it’s also related to more and more people using Macs. Way to go Apple.
@amazed,
those billions he gives away are basically ill gotten gains in the first place from his forced monopoly. So he gives away ill gotten gains he already has more money than he knows what to do with.
Go drink the MonopolySoft Koolaid elsewhere, I ain’t buying it.
I point my arse at you and fart a righteous plume of indignation in your direction.
Excuse me, I have to get back to more intelligent stuff now.
> OpJ wrote: Unfortunately for Microsoft there just isn’t a lot of legacy hardware out there that meets the requirements for Vista.
That’s the main reason for slow sales. The market perceives such high system requirements that many won’t even bother with the upgrade. If you did buy the upgrade and didn’t like it, that’s $200+ you never get back.
—
Another reason: It’s so full of flaws and poor design choices that no one believes in it – including Microsoft!
In a previous article, Ballmer told reporters not to be optimistic. What?!
How can it be acceptable for the head of MS to go out into the public and tell them they’re too optimistic and to tone it down? Granted, he was talking about sales, but it applies to the product itself.
Optimism and excitement about your product are exactly what the goals should be!!!
If the top dog cannot feel that way – let alone says it aloud in public – about the new version of his core product, then MS is steered straight into a ugly demise!
If you don’t believe in your product, you’re not going to be any good at selling it.
It’s like a BMW salesman driving a Lexus to work every day.
>Jim wrote: What I find funny is Microsoft want people to upgrade to Vista because it’s “more secure”
Good point!
In the consumer’s mind, that translates directly into “less flawed”. No wonder they’re not optimistic at Microsoft! What a position to crawl out from under, and what a product to do it with.
Vista… the less-flawed OS. Upgrade today.
Doesn’t quite get you enthused.
– – – – –
– – – – –
> Amazed wrote: Wow…a team of brilliant Mac users demonstrating their extremely high average level of intelligence and profound ability to use the English language to affect precise and far reaching change throughout the world – yet again!
My Mac-user friend, look up run-on sentence sometime.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
That is if the dotted (…) section had that subject and verb.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
I’m Ballmergasted! Now here’s the thing: Microsoft is pulling XP out of OEMs, and OEMs must be crying at the slow uptake of new Vista-carrying units. Quite a number of them must have approached Jobs offering to buy OS X for their boxes, but there’s nothing there for Apple as Vista sells for about $25 to $100 [depending on the version] to OEMs. They must feel like being up shit creek without a paddle.
I have Vista running on a 64 bit Athlon 3200. Vista almost brings it to it’s knees. And my video card, which runs Unreal Tournament 2004 at photo realistic graphics settings, isn’t good enough for Aero.
Fine, computer users of all stripes may say, obsolescence is a fact of life.
But consider this. I am running Mac OS 10.3 with all the latest updates on a Rev B 233 iMac. What’s the graphics capability on that? 4 megs? Rage II C? No, I won’t be doing much video editing on it, and it doesn’t run games worth a damn, but I don’t have to turn off all my interface elements to get Mac OS X to run at a useful speed on what is essentially an obsolete piece of hardware. I get the Dock, I get the shrink effects, I _get_ OS X. I get mail server, Samba and a system that sets up a Dell network printer in 30 seconds where Vista has to have it’s hand held every step of the way.
Yet Microsoft wants consumers to walk in to their local best Buy, ostensibly hand over anywhere from 200 to 400 C$ (Upgrade pricing is a joke) or more for an Operating system that makes computers over 18 months old obselete, never mind breaking even ordinary devices like webcams and printers and built in soundcards.
But yeah, Piracy is to blame for flat sales.
ACKFLACK ACK ACK! Olflormadora inna Godda Dovida, Baby! Yeah!
Trolofod ickanick tonsil tocka dok block sock. CHAIR! CHAIR! Poof! Teekle mi dee-dee bork a florina.
TACK ACKFLACK ACK ACK!
Dear Lord Jobs:
Let Leopard spur more Mac sales, let Ballmer stew in his own excrement of faltering Vista sales, and let Apple release new Macs with Penryn dual- and quad-core configurations and 24-inch and 42-inch cinema dislays this summer. I got money burning a hole in my pocket, if you know what I mean. Amen.
Right… because there were no pirates back in the day when people camped out to get 95 or XP.
It’s overpriced, overbloated, and over-DRM’d. People who want to be running OSX… well… they’re running OSX. More people running XP (me included on my Win boxes) want a faster more secure XP.
I wonder about the DRM issues (and I include WGA in this). The average user probably doesn’t know anything about all the DRM shit in Vista. BUT the “enthusiasts” who are likely to be early adopters of a new OS do.
If there’s any company that should get over the piracy thing, it’s MS. The bulk of their sales are to large organizations and computer manufacturers that can’t get away without paying for their software.
Yes crank up that WGA. Maximize your users’ agony.
The thing is, Bill Gates might be the anti-Christ, but at least Satan is good at what he does. Balmer is no Gates.
Ballmer is on his last legs. Last quarter, sales were down 28% – I have been saying that it is possible that trend will continue.
Before long the market will be talking about a “turnaround plan” for Microsoft.
Ballmer is safe today but he will be long gone before pirates no longer bother to pirate Vista because no-one wants it at any price.
THE END OF THE ERA OF MICROSOFT IS UPON US.
If the markets are ’emerging’, then they can’t really be used as a comparison for sales purposes, can they? As they haven’t yet had time to have an impact on *trys to think of opposite to ’emerging markets’* the ‘already there’ markets. And when they have had the time, they won’t be ’emerging’ any more?
So, it’s a drop in sales in the main markets, isn’t it?
And I wonder, as Vista is the shiny turd it is; if the Pirates have noticed a drop in sales? That would be some interesting reading.
Wow…have any of you actually used Vista or are you just reading the other peoples comments who haven’t used it and just agreeing because the most successful software company in the world OBVIOUSLY can’t write a decent piece of software to save their lives.
I’m a long time user of XP, recently upgraded my 3 year old (middle of the road at the time) machine to Vista and it runs smooth and easy – installation was quick and easy, the interface runs smooth and looks gorgeous. There have been a couple small glitches, but nothing that would make me put XP back on.
I also work on Macs…I have been for several years now. Hate to say it, but the OSX interface is crap. Windows don’t behave right…the minimize ‘feature’ is pointless…most of my windows look the same, and when they are all sitting next to each other on the way to busy AHEM! taskbar (oh wait…Mac copying MS? At least get it right.) I can’t tell one from the next, and they aren’t even there unless I minimize every window every time I’m done using it. Do I really want all those icons down there cluttering up my interface. I think not.
Just works? Sure…well, usually, I guess that’s why some of us get paid to fix them when they are, ahh…oh never mind. And they damn well should: Apple makes users use their (overpriced) hardware. MS doesn’t…hence the increased complexity of the Windows OS.
As for all you people worried about viruses and spyware – you guys are just not informed. I have never used anti-virus software in my life, and I use the internet every single day, and leave my computer on all the time. How many viruses have I gotten? Oh…none. Spyware. Hmm, ditto. Wow. Way to go Mac…RDF in full effect.
Now, people responded to my last comment mostly with: Windows is a bad OS. Well…to each their own. IMO and I believe I share it with, oh…a few other people, Windows is a streamlined easy to use OS. I think I’ll stick with it at home and keep fixing Macs that ‘just work’ at my job.
Amazed-
Wow the amount of FUD in your last post doesn’t even bother warranting a response. Your earlier statement about Bill Gates becoming a philanthropist does however.
So its OK to give millions to the poor (which I have nothing against) when your company basically lies, cheats, steals to get said millions? It sort of like taking money from the Mob. Sure its money, but you most likely would like to conveniently ignore the dead body that provided said money, let alone how it got into the mobsters hand in the first place.
In short for me Bill Gates’ obscene wealth is nothing more than ill-gotten gains; garnered in an illegal fashion. Nice that he is giving it away, but the manner in which he gained it (i.e. outright theft being most obvious) is appalling.
And no matter what lame excuse you come up with to the contrary is going to convince me otherwise..
You don’t know the real pirates. I do.
@Amazed
We are all amazed…
… at the degree of innacuracy in your post.
Honestly, anyone would think you worked for the BBC.
“The minimize ‘feature’ is pointless”
What is wrong with minimise? It minimises. The only difference I can see with XP is that on the Mac you get a nice little image of the window you have minimised – makes it really easy to select the right window to maximise when you want to work on it. And I guess you havent found the Expose function yet if you get confused about your windows.
“and they aren’t even there unless I minimize every window every time I’m done using it”
Please clarify, using the english language if possible.
“that’s why some of us get paid to fix them when they are, ahh…oh never mind.”
I have no argument with the last 3 words. Exactly what sort of problems have you had to fix on Macs?
“Apple makes users use their (overpriced) hardware.”
Ummm. Yes. Like Ford makes you use their engines in their cars. What do you drive?
” I have never used anti-virus software in my life, and I use the internet every single day, and leave my computer on all the time”
Ok Bill. The joke’s over. Melinda has got your tea ready. Off you go…
You sound like someone who knows nothing about Macs trying to pretend he does. And you say you do tech support on Macs at your work? Glad I dont work at your place matey…
Amazed
Wow…have any of you actually used Vista
I installed Vista on an K8V SE motherboard with an AMD 64 bit 3200 running @ 2.2 gigs. 512 MB of RAM and a Geforce 4 6600 MSI video card.
First off, as I have already stated, I can run Unreal Tournament at photorealistic levels, but can’t run Aero without the system coming to a virtual halt. And since I can, with the click of a radio button, turn the ENTIRE Aero experience off, the “beautiful interface” is nothing but a theme. A memory hogging, video card bogging theme.
Multiple control panel windows cause the system to become unresponsive. Mulitiple applications cause the system to become unresponsive.
I will concede that the 32/64 bit emulator runs flawlessly, but if I can run OS X on a 233 iMac and get the Mac OS X experience, why does a Windows theme bring my less-two-years-old hardware to a halt running what is supposed to be the best written, most powerful and stable Microsoft OS to date?
Face it, regardless of how pretty it is, Microsoft code is sloppy and terribly inefficient. Vista has nothing to offer (except forced tie ins) to the vast majority of the PC public, which is running just fine on XP and Win2K.
AHEM! taskbar (oh wait…Mac copying MS? At least get it right.)
Taskbar? It’s a Dock, and behaves in way shape or form like MS. And how old are you? Because if you actually had any OS experience you would know for a fact that the Taskbar in Windows owes it existence to the Finder in all Mac OSes up uintil 10. Put the “Start” bar at the top (where it is supposed to be, people) and guess what? The Taskbar in Windows is nothing but a drop down menu with a list of shortcuts. You can’t even drill into a folder (a la Mac OS 8/9) making the Taskbar a sad copy of Apple’s Finder.
“have any of you actually used Vista or are you just reading the other peoples comments who haven’t used it and just agreeing because the most successful software company in the world OBVIOUSLY can’t write a decent piece of software to save their lives.”
In the sense that anything “innovative” in Vista is merely a crippled rip-off of elegant, finely-tuned features in Tiger, yes, I’ve used Vista.
Yes, I have read numerous reviews and blogs regarding Vista and Vista still sucks.
No, I don’t have to purchase Vista to give an opinion any more than you have to buy a shit sandwich to express your thoughts as a food critic.