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Author Topic: Rails founder: Ballmer has turned Microsoft from 'gorilla' to 'buffoon'  (Read 2193 times)

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Offline persiaTopic starter

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Rails founder: Ballmer has turned Microsoft from 'gorilla' to 'buffoon'

By InfoWorld Tech Watch
Created 2010-06-08 04:34PM



Steve Ballmer's "ineptitude" has led to Microsoft's transformation from a "gorilla" into a "buffoon," according to Ruby on Rails developer David Heinemeier Hansson.

Hansson's venomous tirade, which appeared in his blog late last week [1], ignores the fact that Ballmer -- though not as tech savvy as Hansson, Gates, or Steve Jobs -- still runs the company that dominates the software market worldwide. With a target that big, as Hansson demonstrates, it's easy to take potshots.


[ Also on InfoWorld.com: Making sense of Microsoft's mobile OS four-way [2] | Get the best iPhone and iPad apps for pros with InfoWorld's business iPhone apps finder [3]. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobile Edge blog [4] and Mobilize newsletter [5]. ]

"I'm not going to lie. I was never a Microsoft fan. Not even when I was using Windows (that I begrudgingly moved to after the Amiga)," Hansson wrote. "But at least you used to have some awe and respect for the gorilla that was Microsoft. Bill Gates might have been an evil genius, but at least he was a genius.

"Now contrast this to Steve Ballmer -- who's certainly no genius and calling him evil is to belittle evil. He has turned the gorilla into a buffoon," Hansson continued. "And frankly, it's sad. Gone are the feelings of rage (except when they patent-troll people for being Web apps) and left is pity.

"Microsoft is undoubtedly full of very smart people, but as long as they are being run by Steve Ballmer, they're going to be shackled by his ineptitude," Hansson wrote.

Hansson goes so far as to include brief videos featuring Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Ballmer, with Hansson claiming Jobs was lucid and reasoned, while Ballmer was not.

It's true that Microsoft has fallen behind in the mobile space behind Apple and Google and their respective iPad and Android platforms. Despite efforts to compete on handhelds and tablets [6], Redmond remains mired in the PC world.

But Microsoft has shown an ability to bounce back when caught behind the eight ball before, such when it came out with Windows 3.1 as its answer to the Mac -- or when it finally caught on to the importance of the Internet, subsequently leaving Netscape in the dust (although that little battle got the federal government on Microsoft's case).

Notably, this is not the first time Hansson has belittled what is going on at Microsoft. Previously, he referred to the Microsoft-driven WS-* ("WS star") specifications for Web services standardization as "WS death star." [7] He made the alternative REST technology a critical cog in Rails 2.0.

Hansson's animosity toward Ballmer (and Microsoft as a whole) aside, it should be interesting to watch how Microsoft continues to fare under Ballmer's watch now that formidable challengers like Google, the formerly troubled Apple, and the Linux OS march onward.

This article, "Rails founder: Ballmer has turned Microsoft from 'gorilla' to 'buffoon' [8]," was originally published at InfoWorld.com [9]. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog [10].


Source URL (retrieved on 2010-06-11 10:09AM): http://www.infoworld.com/t/tech-industry-analysis/rails-founder-ballmer-has-turned-microsoft-gorilla-buffoon-652
Links:
[1] http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2380-you-couldnt-pay-me-to-work-for-ballmer
[2] http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/making-sense-microsofts-mobile-os-four-way-173?source=fssr
[3] http://www.infoworld.com/iphone-apps?source=fssr
[4] http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/blogs?source=fssr
[5] http://www.infoworld.com/newsletters/subscribe?showlist=infoworld_mobile_rpt&source=fssr
[6] http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/what-steve-ballmer-needs-do-save-microsofts-mobile-bacon-118
[7] http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/ruby-rails-20-released-web-apps-839
[8] http://www.infoworld.com/t/business/rails-founder-ballmer-has-turned-microsoft-gorilla-buffoon-652?source=footer
[9] http://www.infoworld.com/?source=footer
[10] http://www.infoworld.com/blogs/infoworld-tech-watch?source=footer
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

What we\'re witnessing is the sad, lonely crowing of that last, doomed cock.
 

Offline adolescent

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Who cares?
Time to move on.  Bye Amiga.org.  :(
 

Offline XDelusion

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Earth has a lot of things other folks might want... like the whole planet. And maybe these folks would like a few changes made, like more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and room for their way of life. - William S. Burroughs
 

Offline illy5603

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Quote from: adolescent;564133
Who cares?

Exactly, besides, Microsoft bashing is passe. Everyone nowadays bashes Apple...

 
 

Offline Matt_H

Developers, developers, developers, developers!
 

Offline XDelusion

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I still bash the TRS-80. :)
Earth has a lot of things other folks might want... like the whole planet. And maybe these folks would like a few changes made, like more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and room for their way of life. - William S. Burroughs
 

Offline adolescent

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Quote from: illy5603;564135
Exactly, besides, Microsoft bashing is passe. Everyone nowadays bashes Apple...


To be fair I've bashed Apple since the early 80s.  :laughing:
Time to move on.  Bye Amiga.org.  :(
 

Offline persiaTopic starter

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You missed this:

"I'm not going to lie. I was never a Microsoft fan. Not even when I was using Windows (that I begrudgingly moved to after the Amiga)," Hansson wrote. "But at least you used to have some awe and respect for the gorilla that was Microsoft. Bill Gates might have been an evil genius, but at least he was a genius.



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What we\'re witnessing is the sad, lonely crowing of that last, doomed cock.
 

Offline runequester

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Microsoft hasn't been relevant to much of anything in the computer world for a long time now. They survive by power of marketing.
 

Offline gertsy

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Quote from: persia;564221
You missed this:

"I'm not going to lie. I was never a Microsoft fan. Not even when I was using Windows (that I begrudgingly moved to after the Amiga)," Hansson wrote. "But at least you used to have some awe and respect for the gorilla that was Microsoft. Bill Gates might have been an evil genius, but at least he was a genius.



Evil Genius ?  Aren't we talking about computers here?  I love the way people are never responsible for their actions.  If you don't buy the stuff, If you keep below the speed limit, If you switch to another channel, If you get off your fat ass and vote for some one else.  Nup, It's "tha man's" fault.  Marketing and Sales is about getting people to believe something they want to believe.  Just keep below the speed limit and you won't get burned.

BTW: Does owning an Apple help you get laid ?  'Cummon Persia tell us the truth ???

BTBTW : Who says Ballmer is a Buffoon ?   IMO he is human, and not some pseudo intellect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk&feature=related

Gertsy
 

Offline varmfskii

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Quote from: gertsy;564225
Evil Genius ?  Aren't we talking about computers here?  I love the way people are never responsible for their actions.  If you don't buy the stuff, If you keep below the speed limit, If you switch to another channel, If you get off your fat ass and vote for some one else.  Nup, It's "tha man's" fault.  Marketing and Sales is about getting people to believe something they want to believe.  Just keep below the speed limit and you won't get burned.

You say that as if his company acted in an above board fashion.  As if they didn't sell an Operating System that they didn't own (hadn't even made any moves to but yet) which was itself based on code that infringed on another OS.  Then proceeded over the next decades to use the market power they had gained to goad the companies they worked with to bundle copies of the OS with every system they sold, to use monopoly power to expand their reach into other software and expand their profits.  He is/was the master of dirty business.
 

Offline gertsy

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Quote from: varmfskii;564230
You say that as if his company acted in an above board fashion.....


No that's not what I what I was saying.  Looking at my Avatar should explain that.  The points you make have all been made before:  They come from the POV of those left behind. The unfortunate reality is that histroy is written by the victor.
The human reality is to take what has been learned and move it forward: The meaning of life.
I am not justifying what Microsoft did, but they didn't steal, they purchased(if swindled).  If they had'nt made money and fame from the venture it would have been a forgotten single incident and not one of us would have cared.  Does the fact that MS made money, fame and the popularity from "hard work" make that initial situation more evil.?  
People look at the roots of the tall poppy.  The field is full of more rotten roots. How many people did Billy have killed to progress his evil empire?  
IMO Bill Gates is not an Evil person, he does not show the behaviours of an evil person.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2010, 05:01:04 AM by gertsy »