Another life in the land of the living.

Article in question: Steve Ballmer – General Purpose PC Isn’t Going Away

Okay, but have you seen what the iPad is capable of?  As a word processor, miniature gaming console, and a personal assistant that docks with a slim keyboard for easy use in a parked home environment, the iPad is the personal computer of the next generation.  I find it hilarious that Ballmer is so clear in his political response that computers will “…look different next year, year after, year after that,” but he’s still too shortsighted to see that they started looking dramatically different last year.

Aside from having a retarded title, the article cites silly Ballmer’s own words when he says that people will continue using PCs in a world where people are carrying smart phones and tablet devices.  Steve, you’re a riot, and I’m laughing my ass off as I type knowing that you’re only answering the concerned call of your biggest investors by confidently, and probably unknowingly, lying through the ignorant mouths behind the scenes that none of us ever see.  Mr. B, in case you missed the memo decades ago, PC stands for Personal Computer.  Tablet devices, like the iPad, are personal computers.

Poor ol’ Steve still pictures the manufacturer soup under his desk, running software that’s still harboring code from twenty years ago, as the PC of today.  I wouldn’t doubt that it’ll be a cold day in hell before he picks up an iPad for more than press-pressured show-and-tell smiling through gritted teeth.

He also says that PC sales will continue to grow.  *smiles and waves to investors*

PC sales are growing right now, because there are deals to be had on the latest operating system from Microsoft that promises to prove that Microsoft still has some worth after the non-refundable terrors experienced with Windows Vista.  When Microsoft experiences their next Windows Me disaster, the following iteration will probably boost PC sales too.  What makes the industry think increased PC sales are filling Microsoft’s pocket books when it’s more likely that Microsoft’s latest anorexic timeline, that rushed out a replacement for their latest mistake, is the culprit.

Anyone would be willing to go to almost any length in the face of disaster, which pretty much makes it immoral for Microsoft to even charge for Windows 7.  It should be offered full-featured and free as a heart-felt apology to those who were taken by Vista and sucked into hardware beefy enough to be a part of an enterprise-grade server farm.  Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been, and we should be somewhere better right now.  There goes Ballmer sticking people in the past again.

Steve continues the interview by driving home the concept that this is a multi-device world and everyone will still have a base station and/or a laptop at home, one but probably more handheld mobile devices, a game console, and a tablet.  I agree that this is a consumerist nation of credit-happy individuals, but I also see the majority of college students, older generations, family-oriented Americans, and the average joe with enough money and desire in their pockets for one, maybe two, simple devices.  Open your eyes Steve, because XBox sales are the only thing that you’ve got goin’ for you right now.

B-man also explains that “PCs” will continue to change form factor year after year.  Again, I have to point out — my eyes and eye lids dimming from the fatigued fire flickering in them – that form factors already have changed.  Have you seen the iPad yet?  lol  Still, Ballmer seems to be selectively blind in the grinning face of adversity, and everyone is enjoying this year except him.

Speaking of next generation technology, if you haven’t seen Google’s new Chrome OS, I have to recommend taking a look.  The OS, in its current alpha (in development) state, interfaces with the cloud and nothing else.  That is, it consumes applications from the Internet, and it leaves the concepts of on-disk storage and the safe harbor of application stability, security, and data to the institutions that understand them best.  While there will be plenty of valid concerns about privacy and “Big Brother”, I think this movement is absolutely brilliant with enough fish and security in the sea to obscure uncle Sam’s line of sight.

What’s exciting about this system is that, much like the MacBook Air captured our attention and showed us the way of the future by making it to the stage without a DVD/CD-ROM drive, Google’s open-source Chrome OS is helping us to realize the ambitious dream of the 80′s that the Internet will one day be the desktop.  It’s also supporting the quickly spreading dreams of today that software will be a collaborative human advancement along the same lines as science and art.  It won’t be long before we will be leaving the personal disk and bulky workstation of the past right where they belong.  Steve, I’m talking to you buddy.

Chrome OS and the MacBook Air aren’t alone in the innovation catapult this year, though.  Jobs rightfully, albeit gently, set Flash to the side to make room for the up and coming HTML 5 standard, Project Natal introduced us to space-age voice/video recognition and advanced artificial intelligence for family entertainment, and the iPad upgraded the idea of a bulky tablet from a twisty-turvy life-short notebook to the keystone science-fiction device of a smart home.  Folks, we aren’t even in the future yet, and Ballmer has already missed the train.

To elaborate lightly on Chrome OS’s assist with regard to the future of the “PC”, I have to mention the recently notorious “cloud computing”.  It’s the hoop-jumping coal-walking buzzword that’s flexing its muscles these days, thanks to a few steroids from the industry, and companies around the world are taking it in hook, line, and sinker.  They’re already pushing as many of their applications and services as possible to the cloud for global consumption.  Google Docs is a word processor, Hulu and YouTube are television you can touch, and the more common ones like games, notes, bookmarks, and mail are already stable parts of the cloud.  With 3G, 4G, broadband land-lines, and satellite in a fully and wirelessly connected world, we can finally say that we’re ready for a desktop in the cloud.

Mr. Ballmer, Microsoft Windows is still caught in the past that everyone else is starting to feel sorry for.  Not even the enterprise wants to pay you for cheap resource-intensive hogs like your Windows 7 thousand pound gorilla anymore unless they’ve already done their deals with the devil.  Sure, if you take all of the top-mass off things seem to run pretty well, but OS X Server is smooth no matter what light you put it in.  To your dismay, sir, I’m hearing Ubuntu, FreeBSD, OpenSuSE, and CentOS more and more each day.  Have some of that with your market share in the morning.

The moral of the story?  Get your wife an iPad and a cell phone, and she won’t want for anything more.  Buy your wife a Ballmer “PC”, and she’ll always need an upgrade.  Further, don’t talk to a Microsoft guy about the future when Apple is taking us there.  PC Magazine, you should know better.  For shame…

Ballmer, I wish you the best of luck with your gaming company.  Cheers to XBox.  Maybe you can focus on giving it some room in your “smaller form factor” predictions.  lol

~A