Ballmer: It's OK to wait for Windows 7

Some companies are planning to skip Windows Vista, and that's OK, according to Steve Ballmer. But Microsoft's CEO hopes that those companies come back for Windows 7.

Ballmer said that "if people want to wait they really can," ZDNet's Larry Dignan reports. "But I'd definitely deploy Vista," he said.

Steve Ballmer speaking at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo conference on Thursday.

(Credit: Gartner)

Speaking on Thursday at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo conference in Orlando, Ballmer defended Vista and noted that "The adoption rate of Vista is faster than the adoption rate was of XP at two years in."

Ballmer did note that Vista has had compatibility problems with some applications and hardware, but that those problems have diminished. "We had a great success with security and starting to see a ramp with adoption."

Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald countered with Gartner survey data showing that 61 percent of respondents are thinking about skipping Vista altogether. Ballmer said that Microsoft would be ready for that outcome and reiterated Microsoft's pledge that Windows 7 will be compatible with Vista.

"Our next release of Windows will be compatible with Vista. The key is let's get on with it. We'll be ready when you want to deploy Windows 7."

Ballmer also responded to questions about whether Microsoft would revisit its offer for Yahoo, given the drop in Yahoo's share price. "We offered $33 bucks (for Yahoo) and it's $11 today," said Ballmer. "It's clear Yahoo didn't want to sell. They probably still think it's worth more than $33 a share. I still think it makes sense for their shareholders and ours."

Finally, Ballmer again teased Microsoft's upcoming cloud OS announcement, which he said will take place at the company's developer conference in Los Angeles at month's end. "We have a big announcement in two weeks at our Professional Developers Conference and we're going to run through this stuff," said Ballmer. He said it's critical that Microsoft has a platform in the cloud.

Click here for more news on Windows 7.

[fjellt]

OK Ballmer, it's OK to wait for Windows 7? Right? How about putting XP back on the table for a few more years?

[gsmiller88]

Bingo!

[richard mitnick]

The title of the article about Ballmer , Vista and Windows 7 is completely misleading.

[supoman]

Well duh!!! Stop trying to push Windows Me opps I meant Windows Vista off on people!!!

[assman]

The fact that this man REALLY wanted to buy Yahoo for $33 shows that he just doesn't have a clue what he's doing.

[Seaspray0]

The fact that Yahoo turned down the $33 a share shows they wanted more per share. That was also over a month ago before the stock market tumbled. You're the one who has no clue what you're saying.

[assman]

I am very much aware of those facts. I actually do know what I'm lalking about. At the time when Ballmer insisted on buying Yahoo, I was calling him an idiot because I knew Yahoo was in no way worth the price. Ballmer does not make a good CEO, he is much too impulsive.

Of course Yang is an even bigger moron, but that's besides the point.

[gsmiller88]

I would love to know where he got his numbers that Vista is selling twice as fast as XP did. Surely they're comparing Vista's sales numbers after two years to XP's on its first day of release, or the rate at which people are currently buying XP. Seriously, Microsoft should have just slapped a shiny translucent interface on XP and marketed it as Vista.

[wolivere]

Actually it is easy to find those numbers. And I have seen the links and posts on this very site many times over. I'm just to lazy to keep looking it up every time someone posts like this.

But one source was dell they found even after putting XP back on, only 7% of customers took XP over Vista. It took 1 year for XP to hit the same market penetration numbers that vista hit in month two.

One site had interesting stat's that showed online hits by VISTA has been growing.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=10

Actually Vista has gone from 2.04% of hits this past February to 18.33% today, while MAC OS/X has gone from 6% to 2.43% All though over all MAC is still over 6% the difference is the other 5.33% is MAC product running Microsoft product. That must burn Apple that twice as many people use Windows on MAC to browse then use OS/X

[DrtyDogg]

XP was hated almost as much as Vista at launch.

[Penguinisto]

@wolivere: you got your numbers hosed... look for the term "MacIntel" on your little cite there - the user strings differentiate between PPC and x86 versions of OSX.

[gggg sssss]

I would guess he would just walk over to accounting and ask. LOL

[bruceone]

I agree with assman, MS is (unfortunately) desperate for yahoo takeover. If I were Ballmer I would wait for 3 or 4 months, then Yahoo stocks prices will be ashes and M$ may buy it for just 100 dollars :)

[gary85739]

I like Windows XP, I will pass Vista by and most likely get Windows 7 when it arrives and I buy a new, more powerful computer.

Until then, XP will do.

[QMT]

Seven IS Vista:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10047289-75.html

May as well hold on to those XP disks as long as possible, meaning until four gigs of RAM is mandatory to run Adobe Whatever or something.


Unless of course you've got a IA64 XP disk laying around.

[ppgreat]

How did the photographer get this clear a picture of Ballmer with all the smoke being blown around?

[pjhenry1216]

I'm a computer engineer. I'm a software programmer. I've built multiple computers. Vista *was* bad, now its actually decent. If you have XP, there's no compelling reason to upgrade, but its definitely not downgrading going from XP to Vista assuming all your software is compatible (the list of compatible software vastly outweighs non-compatible, so unless you're running complex software/hardware solutions, you'll be fine.). I prefer XP over Vista, but honestly only because I'm more used to the interface. I haven't seen any compelling reasons *not* to use Vista since I first started using it a few months ago, but I also don't see any reasons *not* to stop using XP. So I keep XP on my main computer and I have Vista on my second computer (all custom built. and honestly, the only reason i have Vista is that MS gave free copies of Vista Ultimate at the 2008 launch events and I have to say, I severely underestimated Vista. I thought it'd be terrible so I put it on my second pc and it was actually pretty sweet).

[Seaspray0]

When vista was released, more than 70% of the computers in existence did not have the hardware capable of running vista efficiently. Don't expect a positive welcome from those of us who own those computers anytime soon. I will continue to use XP and see no compelling reason to upgrade. Yes, I've used vista. In many ways it is similar to XP and I have not problems using it but neither do I see anything that could be considered a major improvement worth the investment. Just because it's a new revision is not enough. That would be stupid, like buying a new car every year because they came out with a new model. There are alot of people who will agree. Aside from that, if you like vista, then it's no problem for me. We are individuals, after all and it's your choice, not mine.

[Solaris_User]

How do you know you will like 7 any more than Vista?

Microsoft is trying to be all things for all people and they are failing at it. They are writing software for idiots and they have created the most nagging, obsessive, and confusing OS that ever existed in the process.

[ckurowic]

How is that any different than any other release of windows?

[Willie Winkie]

Make no mistake about it, Windows Vista sucks a big chubby. It's ponderously slow on all but the most up-to-date high-end hardware. Not only that, it de-leveraged the value of many years of Windows XP troubleshooting experience. If something real and tangible was gained by all of that angst, I might have stayed with Vista. Lord knows I gave it a year before I downgraded to XP. If I wanted to learn a whole new operating system, I'd buy a Mac. And you know what? That's just what I did. I still keep a windows box around for a few esoteric apps that I run now and then. For my day-to-day computing needs however, it?s OS X all the way. Maybe Windows Seven will be a great product. Maybe it will have all of the promised features that got chipped off of Vista as that product fell further and further behind its launch date. Maybe that chrome-domed, bull-in-a-china shop Ballmer, will step down and let someone who has an exciting and innovative vision take over and re-energize the company. Unfortunately, the odds are longer than McCain being elected president. One thing is for sure though, Microsoft farted a big wet one with a lump in it when they launched Vista. It got a lot of tech people like me to try alternatives. And boy, am I glad I did. A lot of IS types will probably jump all over me for this post. But they?re really just concerned about companies adopting an operating system that would seriously reduce the technical skill (and hence the prevailing wage) needed by IT administrators in the first place. That?s why they used to vote OS/2 as the ?product of the year? when it was still viable. Of course that?s just my opinion. Anyway, it is nothing short of amazing to me that a company that (supposedly) hires only the best and the brightest could have fallen so very far from the ?rock star of tech? position it once held.

[ballmerisanape]

You know what the great thing is... if you want to run Windows 7 when it arrives.. it will most likely run faster on your Mac anyway... at least that has been the case with Vista.

[goodspeed8701]

you suck big time

[AndrewRich]

Ballmer looks like Peter Boyle as "The Monster".

[goodspeed8701]

Are you trying to say he looks like your father?

[Penguinisto]

Heh - Ballmer probably know that "it's okay", becuase he has no choice in the matter. Enterprise has spoken, and they gave Vista a big, fat resounding "no".

Thing is, a lot of the reasons the big corps passed on Vista... will still be there when Windows 7 comes out. So unless the requirements drop, the compatibility increases, and the thing sheds a whole lot of bloat? Enterprise may just decide to start probing alternatives a lot deeper than they have now, and (to MSFT's potential distress) start moving to them.

[ferretboy88]

I have zero problems with xp or Vista. I did have problems with windows 98 and windows ME. Every company releases bad products every now and then. Think "New" Coke.

[Seaspray0]

And what would have happened if Coke didn't start selling classic coke again and continued to only sell "New" coke?

[RompStar_420]

I am not sure, I have a nice PC, it is a AMD 2 GigHertz CPU, 2 GIG of RAM, 500GB and Vista was so slow on it when I installed it. I couldn't do anything useful.

Seems like I would need to get a new PC and spend money on new hardware with the license or the license if I build it my self in addition.

I can download Ubuntu for free, does everything, and is much faster then anything.

Times are tough, Microsoft should have an operating system, where it can scale down to the level of the hardware and still work somewhat fast and smooth.

I can still get years of life out on it, by running Linux on it.

I must admit that I liked the HP commercials of the new PCs that you can touch, ohhhhh ya, I like that.

HP is my favorite hardware company, I run many of their servers on Linux, they run flawlessly, I can save lots of money by not getting any windows crapware and get more equipment, since it's free.

Microsoft will have to create great software if they want to get me back into that game, maybe windows 7 will be that ?

[hleotan]

Ubuntu can't do everything. Maybe individual can use it but when you need to run Autocad, Inventor ect. You just can't do it. These program don't have equivalent either.

[Imalittleteapot]

Not a super big fan of Vista, but 2 ghz (is that a dual core?) 2 gig of ram and a 500 gig drive? Send it to me. I'll get Vista working on it just fine.

[Penguinisto]

@hleotan: AutoCAD is usually run on workstations, not servers (render farms OTOH doe require servers - lots of 'em... and most of those run Linux).

[RacerX7]

Really? It's okay to wait if I want? Really?

Golly...thanks, Steve-o.....

*pssst* BTW, perhaps this time you can go ahead an give the hardware and software developers more tools and time to adapt to your software. Stop treating them like they are the enemy and perhaps you'll get a little better press....

[gggg sssss]

If he offered Yahoo $5.00, the market price will drop to that since there is no good reason for it to be $11.00

[Imalittleteapot]

Is it OK to wait for Windows 8 too? Oh wait, never mind. I almost forgot that I didn't need permission from Ballmer to do anything.

[rcrusoe]

"Windows 7 will be compatible with Vista." Of course, Windows 7 will be compatible with Vista.

Based on the time it took for MS to produce Vista, and the time and effort they have spent trying to debug it since it went on sale, Windows 7 will be Vista.

[nutso101]

Will Windows 7 be backward compatible with older software and equipment like vista isn't?

[janderson_id]

It will be just as backward-compatible as XP was for 9x users. So yes, just like Vista isn't.
(Dont' tell me compatibility mode worked for anything useful, because it like, didn't, and stuff)

It's inevitable that Microsoft is going to die, but does it have to be so expensive and time-consuming?

Honestly If MS' own history is repeating itself, and I made this call after the Longhorn Reset, then Vista is the new Me, and Windows 7 might actually be worth the disc its burned to. (If not retail price)