The world according to Steve Ballmer

rickh · 01-23-2007, 07:57 PM

This is coverage of a long and serious discussion by Steve Ballmer about the challenges facing Microsoft. An interesting quote:

Quote:

The question surrounding open source software like Linux is whether this approach to software development can surpass that of commercial companies. "Will open source do a better job than a proprietary software company -- any software company?" asks Ballmer. "It's an interesting question -- not just for us, but for anybody who is interested in business. The question is, can paid, commercial people do a better job than unpaid volunteers? The answer, I think, will be yes, but we're going to have to push ourselves."

pixellany · 01-23-2007, 08:05 PM

Just grabbing at random:

Quote:

can paid, commercial people do a better job than unpaid volunteers?

Lots of people are paid to write Open-Source SW. Regardless of what the stats are (who is paid how much), the comment totally misses the point.

Jorophose · 01-23-2007, 08:12 PM

Odd.

Seriously. Because at first you think he says that monkeys being held at gun point in a US HQ are working harder than passionate volunteers who love their work, and by relatively large companies as well. But then you look further, and it seems he says that it's not always true.

Ballmer pisses me off though. Specially since by saying he'd rather start second, he's admiting to being a copycat.

Hitboxx · 01-23-2007, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's job: Convince customers that Microsoft's latest products are ground-breaking enough to purchase, transform a company with $44 billion in sales into an agile innovator, compete against new business models that challenge Microsoft's traditional approach to software development and recruit enough talent to keep the software giant relevant 25 years from now.

And what is that?

Quote:

Microsoft saw an opportunity in music sharing. "We believe in community; community means sharing.... How do I share my music with you? I want to be able to do that legally. So we said, 'We'll go out and negotiate for the rights.' If I share a song with you, you can listen to it three times, or for three days, whichever comes first, then you can mark it and buy. That's one of the features of Zune. But, as soon as you say that, it is inconsistent with PlaysForSure. The DRM information doesn't know anything about that."

Zune is a complete flop. It can kiss my a**!

In 25 years, i bet Ballmer's children will be the forerunners of Linux

Mega Man X · 01-24-2007, 02:31 AM

It is Ballmer people. Ballmer. We are talking about an "executive" who dances like a monkey and screams in public. Whatever he says is supposed to be ignored, not discussed... imho...

alred · 01-24-2007, 05:29 AM

>> "The question surrounding open source software like Linux is whether this approach to software development can surpass that of commercial companies. "Will open source do a better job than a proprietary software company -- any software company?" asks Ballmer. "It's an interesting question -- not just for us, but for anybody who is interested in business. The question is, can paid, commercial people do a better job than unpaid volunteers? The answer, I think, will be yes, but we're going to have to push ourselves."

how i see it is that ... commercial people tends to put the importance of support services on an equal footing with the importance of the quality of their products ... may sounds easy to achieve ...

anyway ... if you can achieved anyone of them , its still very good ... but if you fail badly in both then you must be really something ...

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