Comments on: Judge orders Ballmer to testify in Vista suit

Microsoft's CEO faces a three-hour deposition in next 30 days in a class action lawsuit over the "Vista Capable" logo program.

[Imalittleteapot]

Well that's a waste of time. What is Ballmer going to say? We created an OS named Vista and then stuck a bunch of Vista stickers on computers that ran Vista slow as crap and couldn't handle one of the flagship features that makes Vista Vista and had no business being within a mile of Vista! No, they're just going to a. spin their story real hard or b. deny that Ballmer had anything to do with it. It's not like he's going to break down on the stand crying.

If Ballmer wanted to tesify and give his side of the story and offered it up that's one thing, but this is like making an accused murder testify. What's the point? I bet you ten million dollars he gets on the stand and says, "Didn't Do It!". Woah! Really!

[The_Decider]

Yup, why force him on the stand to lie?

Just find out what the MS talking points are and you will know what monkey-boy is going to say.

[Imalittleteapot]

I just hope he screams Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! And then he throws a chair. Then they'll see how crazy he is and get him put in the mental ward and maybe he can get the help he really needs.

[Seaspray0]

The decider is a confessed well known hater of anything microsoft...

by The_Decider November 7, 2008 9:49 AM PST
Ballmer didn't even know why he was lusting over Yahoo. He still get understand the Internet or the Web.

In a way, I wish it the buyout was successful, because MS would be in debt, they would have a ton of Linux based code they wouldn't know what to do with and would have a few more empty buildings.

It would have hastened the decline of MS.

Frankly, I can't believe MS shareholders didn't nail Ballmer to the wall. It was an inept move by an inept CEO.

Yahoo will recover, MS will continue its decline.

[The_Decider]

Yahoo can still recover, and MS is still in decline.

What is your point MS shill?

[channelc]

Advice to Ballmer: Don't fly in a private jet or helicopter to get there.

[Stevo203]

Better yet - dig some ratty old duds out of a dumpster and hitch-hike to the courthouse...

[Seaspray0]

you two (channelc, stevo203) now have me hooked on "advice to ballmer" posts for his appearance. More please! LOL.

[guest86]

I hope Microsoft will get sued by judge. Why not judge need kick Vista off from all stores due to people complaint or angry? Windows Vista will be fired then revoked. Vista is still slow and crap all of times. A lot of bugger and crash by Vista. Replace to Windows XP for all people to buy without problems. We really hate Vista for many reasons. Stick with Windows XP forever. Windows Vista is very worst one Operating System that what we see. I hope private companies will stock up Windows XP operating system in all stores include BestBuy, Staples, OfficeDepot, Wal-Mart, etc to make people happy to forget Windows Vista or newer operating system. Windows XP is world #1 best operating system that what we are use it! Toss or trash Vista out now. Microsoft is doing very stupid and retard to make people complaint or angry like that. That not even! So poor. Very sad. Windows XP is enough for us to use it! Period!

Why Microsoft said Windows XP will deadline at Feb. 14, 2014? So many people can get very angry and can fill report to court to sue Microsoft to include Windows XP life cycle up to year 2050 or more. I hope for that!!!! Please!!!! Year 2014 is come soon. No way! If Windows XP dead at year 2014, we will cry very hard then said yell out so loud on Microsoft!!! Microsoft need grow up!

[sanenazok]

you must be from france

[solitare_pax]

I'd like to know what Mr. Ballmer is so busy doing that would keep him out of court. It certainly can't be that he's hurrying to fix Vista. Oh, wait - it must be the brilliant "I'm A PC" ad campaign they're mindlessly churning out.

Odds are, he'll just say its the user's fault anyways, not Microsoft's. Darn humans.

[dmason165]

It's true that the deposition may be a waste of Mr. Ballmer's time and a waste of others' time and resources as well, but this is how the law works, and there's some information, likely found in the documents already obtained by the plaintiffs, that implicate Mr. Ballmer's knowledge of the issue giving rise to the lawsuit. We shall see.

But so everyone is clear: a deposition, which is testimony under oath (just like in court), doesn't take place at the court or on the witness stand; it takes place at a mutually convenient meeting place for all parties involved in the deposition (which in this case will likely only be Mr. Ballmer, his attorney, the plaintiffs' attorney(s), maybe a plaintiff or plaintiffs, and the stenographer/recorder/videographer). So, it's okay if he arrives by helicopter or in a private jet; if this goes to trial (which it probably won't), the jury wouldn't even know about it, assuming it's a jury trial. At least the judge limited the deposition to 3 hours. Typically, depositions are limitless in time and scope.

[linux101]

There's always Mac and Linux.

[AppleSuxLeo]

That`s like ordering the President to testify. Or Michael (video testify) Jackson to testify.

[Mr. Dee]

What could make him so busy? Traveling around the world giving useless speeches? I could understand if it was Gates, but Ballmer really does do much at Redmond except over see teams and what if scenarios in Excel 2007 on Vista Enterprise.

[sanenazok]

dee when have a job or run a company you'll understand.

[myles taylor]

What does Steve do anyway that keeps him so busy?

[Sumatra-Bosch]

What does she think she is going to get out of the Boy Fuhrer from Duncan Hines? Does she seriously think he has any idea what is going on at MSFT? Does anyone? He wakes up every day, goes to work and is greeted by a legion of sycophants shouting, "Mein Furher, you are a genius! Zune is a great success! Everyone loves Vista! Everyone hates Apple iPod and only five people use Linux and they all run bad web servers in their parents' basement. If Edison and Ford were alive today they would beg to eat your underwear. Please, please, will do the developer dance again for us?" The lawyers will feed him some convenient fictions. He will repeat them. No one will believe him. They'll settle out of court. MSFT will drag its feet paying and finally force a redrafting of the settlement agreement to screw the plaintiffs. MSFT will drag its feet paying and finally get the plaintiffs to agree to $5 each which they pay in a coupon negotiable at the MSFT online store.

[sanenazok]

Bringin' out the nazis...sign of a well-though out argument! Lemee ask you; what would you like Ballmer to say? Oh that we intentionally confused customers? come now.

[exmsft]

You misspelled Fuhrer.

[Penguinisto]

You misspelled "F?hrer" too... ;)

[Seaspray0]

I intentionally misspelled phuhrer.

[The_Decider]

Hey MS shill boy, posting under multiple accounts now?

Does MS pay you extra for posting under multiple names?

[Brian]

Steve Balmer can act like Steve Jobs and promise a patch to address the concerns is in the works.

"In the meantime, your honor, I recommend using a Mac for the time being".

[slickuser]

hehe

[humanssssss]

When a state provides him the right to commerce in said state, he is to abide by the law of said state. Unless, he doesn't want to sell his goods their. This is like any business. If you don't like, you can get out of the said market and the government of said state won't bother you. As long as he continues to want to make money there, he will have to spend a bit of time to provide statement to the judge.

[Freiheit13]

I never thought I'd find myself siding with Microsoft, but seriously! A system which runs Vista just fine but isn't powerful enough to run its additional layer of pure eye-candy is misleading? Hardly.

[exmsft]

The silly part is that microsoft could have avoided all of this by not caving to Intel, and saying they would support Vista on Intel's second-tier gpu's.

Saying no is the hardest part, MS. But you have GOT to learn to say no to Intel sometimes.

[Imalittleteapot]

They weren't really good enough to run the first layer of Vista either. Also, you do realize Aero is more than just eye candy right? The regular graphics acceleration in XP was taken out of Vista as far as I know. Without Aero all drawing goes through the CPU unless the program calls DirectX or OpenGL itself which most programs don't do. Welcome to that sluggish feeling because these machines had slow CPUs too so they couldn't make up for it. These Vista capable machines just weren't beefy enough for it.

[Sumatra-Bosch]

I hope the judge tells Ballmer to give these people their money back and then sentences Ballmer to:
=submit to a massive infliction of double-knuckled noogies on his shiny head.
=walk around for the rest of his life wearing a sign that says, "I am a dolt! My software *****************! As me about Vista."

[Scott Gardener]

Think back to late 2006 to January 2007; Microsoft did a massive campaign of education about what to expect with Vista, and I remember it being on all the tech sites and anything that talked about the forthcoming Vista, and in store displays, advisories about what to expect about Vista upgrading. There were advisories about how demanding Vista would be in terms of processing power, exactly as all the "Microsoft is pure evil and can never do anything good" purists out there insist. It came as no surprise, then, that Microsoft itself was warning that Vista's demands were high. There was the Vista Compatability Check that one could download, that would tell you whether or not your computer could handle Vista and what limitations to expect, specifically emphasizing whether or not it could handle the Aero interface.


The issue of the suit focuses on the "Ready for Vista" label, versus support of the Aero interface. Again, Microsoft itself gave ample warning about the difference between "Ready" in the sense that it could have Vista installed versus "Premium," meaning it would support Vista. While I do agree that Vista is a system hog that should not be installed on anything less than Core 2 and 2 Gigs of RAM, the people behind the lawsuit should be smart enough to have researched the product beforehand and read Microsoft's own recommendations.


That Vista is a system hog that demands a lot, I agree. That can be improved somewhat by turning off the hard drive indexing feature, which will give a struggling system a bigger boost than turning off Aero (in those that support it). That the marketing of it for new systems in early 2007 was a little vague, I'll also concede. But, Microsoft did advertise that "Ready for Vista" did not neccessarily mean "will display Aero." Should they be sued over this? No; this is [bleep]!

[PColigist]

Well written, you got all the information on the nail ...well done, nice to see the truth occasionally becoming a rare bird on this blog. I agree with you Microsoft did no wrong they should not be sued.

[AppleSuxLeo]

I think he would rather testify in an Armani suit...or just a sweat-soaked long sleeved shirt without a tie.

[The_happy_switcher]

Maybe he will do the "Frankenstein" dance for the judge, ala Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein.

[canberra_photographer]

Ballmer, for the love of all that is holy, remember to wear some deodorant. That video of you dancing on stage when happy and literally pouring sweat was disturbing, just think how much you'll be sweating on the stand.

[guest86]

You are crazy. You did spam me. Get out! None of your business!