Ballmer: Microsoft wasted time on Vista

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s intrepid CEO, came very close to admitting at their own “CEO Summit”  that Vista was a total fail.

“How do you get your product right? How do you help the customer? How do you be patient?” he asked, as if he knew the answer.

What he did know was that Microsoft spent too many years building Windows Vista. “We tried too big a task and in the process wound up losing thousands of man hours of innovation,” he said.

What we take him to mean by this that instead of innovating Microsoft sought to make itself into the guardian of digital media – a sort of Internet copyright cop – by stitching up a DRM-infested monster.

The attempt fell flat and allowed the likes of Apple and Google to gain some ground in their anti-Windows campaign.

In my opinion, the company should have just completely skipped Windows Vista and went straight to Windows 7.  When you get down to it, Vista sucks and 7 wins.  It’s just that simple.  Time and time again we see that 7 is perfect in almost every way, while Vista fails horribly in every way.  My only real complaint about Windows 7 is the fact that the control panel is less than navigable, a sad carry-over from Vista.

Microsoft-watcher Mary-Jo Foley was more interested in Ballmer’s five-point plan for company success. These he listed as: Attracting talented employees; making balanced investments; innovating in the right areas, maintaining a positive product flow and making the right future bets.