Ballmer talks up Windows 7 for business
MICROSOFT CHIEF EXECUTIVE Steve Ballmer extolled the virtues of Windows 7 to a business audience in London today, claiming that the operating system will help them make savings through efficiency.
Ballmer also said that Microsoft could offer customers better support for virtualisation than VMware, but rebuffed suggestions that the company should simplify its software licensing.
With the official launch of Windows 7 coming in just a few weeks, Microsoft is making renewed efforts to convince customers that they should upgrade to the new platform despite the difficult economic conditions.
Ballmer opened his address with remarks about "the new efficiency", and how efficiency is more on people's minds than at any other time. Many IT managers have seen budget cuts in the range of 10 per cent or more since the credit crunch started, he claimed.
"But pressures on IT have not significantly mitigated. Newer processes are emerging that need IT support, yet pressures to keep the budgets down will still be there," he said.
Earlier, IDC analyst Chris Ingle warned the audience that budgets are never likely to come back to the level of spending seen before the recession, pointing out that this happened in earlier financial upheavals.
"Every time we have a recession, we don't get back the money. This is because you are up against newer, more competitive companies that do more with less, so you need to be more radical with IT coming out of the recession," he said.
Instead, companies will have to change the way that IT is handled in their companies, and look at greater automation and flexibility.
Not surprisingly, Ballmer said that Microsoft could help organisations here, claiming that Windows 7 and the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack can drive down the cost of large deployments.
"Our job is to create end-user interest in Windows 7, but we also need products that drive productivity and efficiency gains. With BitLocker, policy compliance, virtualisation, and improved policy management, we are really giving tools with the potential to save cost," he said.
Ballmer said that early adopters in the UK are "seeing the value of Windows 7 ", citing the case of the Isle of Man government which he said had already benefited from a £120 per desktop saving on management costs.
But Ballmer conceded that most customers will move to Windows 7 when they refresh their hardware.
"We hope that in the first three to six months we will have made the case that [a new PC] should come with Windows 7. If customers have been doing testing with Vista, that should make it easier to move. You'll see us work hard to make Windows 7 the default choice on new PCs, whether you decide to move your entire installed base or not," he said.
When asked by a customer about compatibility with VMware infrastructure, Ballmer responded in bullish mood that Microsoft tools can manage existing VMware infrastructure, and there is no need for customers to invest any further now that Microsoft has its own technology.
"On the parts of the infrastructure you haven't virtualised yet, why spend the money with VMware? We'll give you as good an environment as VMware, and will help you manage both. Why waste your money on a more expensive solution?" he said.
Another customer asked whether Microsoft was going to simplify its licensing, especially the fine print, a question that drew a round of applause from the business audience.
But Ballmer responded that this was difficult without affecting customers that benefited from some existing licence clauses, such as choosing to pay for software based on the number of processors or client access licences.
"I don't anticipate a big round of simplifying licences. Every time you simplify you lose something that someone uses to keep their costs down. I'm sure we have some fine print we don't need, but changes need to be driven by things our customers want us to do," he explained.
Finally, Ballmer looked further out to the future, suggesting that there is much more that could be achieved on the desktop, and admonishing predictions that the days of the "fat" business client were numbered.
"After Vista, many in the media said that [it would be] the last Windows release ever, but there's still a lot of work to do. We don't have voice and gesture recognition built in, and you can't have everything seamlessly managed from the cloud yet," he said.
Windows will still be around on the desktop for at least the next 10 years, according to Ballmer.
"We have to go from support for single-core to better support for multi-core, and I can see plenty of line-of-sight for things we need to do," he said. "But I might not be the guy around building it in 20 years' time." µ
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Fact, not conjecture. If you put a living frog in water, you can slowly bring that water to boiling thus killing him in the process. And he'll just sit there and die. That's because he's so wonderfully adaptable he doesn't feel the water temperature approaching that which will kill him. I'm a Windows frog; I've been numb. Or rather so adapted to Windows 95, 98 98SE, NT, XP and yes even 7 that I had no idea what was happening.
My wife wanted to go and actually put her hands on an iPod and try out GarageBand. She's close to retirement and is looking to rekindle her love of, and aptitude for, music. As a PC, Windows XP person for many years, I agreed to go. I'm a big boy with thick skin and not easily swayed. Or so I thought.
What I discovered were monitors with clarity I thought was fake ... just hi-res photographs stuck to the glass. To a machine, the Macs were polished and refined. Using a Mac was like going from my clunky 1999 Ford F150 into something on the order of a Lexus, or Cadillac, or any other high end vehicle you choose. Snow Leopard is a joy to use and frankly at my life stage I no longer feel the need to "get under the hood" like I do with XP and frankly 7 and Linux. I'm still no Apple fanboi but there was a time I never thought I'd retire either. For me, the tide here could be changing sine I now am in a position to actually buy the Mac of my choice. Hell maybe a couple! And one for my wife too.
And I'll just tell you, coming home to XP (and the box I still have Windows 7 on) was a downer for me. And I never expected that.
The first computer I bought was an Apple ][, for several years before my former company settled on the PC as the business model I used Apple ///s and a Lisa so my Apple usage actually goes back, oh, 20+ years.
Just my observations, but given what Apple says are the capabilities of iWork, a Mac would easily fulfill all my post retirements needs. And do so in a beautiful, polished, very elegant package and very capable.
So, budgets are being cut 10% but Steve Balmer is STILL trying to push Windows 7. To be honest if budgets are being cut and XP works, why bother upgrading to Windows 7?
Rob
well suited for home use, business use, commercial use, military use, arcade gaming, serious graphics, nuclear device controls, medical equipment controls, email, pig roasting, small business, chatting, outer space monitoring, DMV record keeping, if I have missed anything, I am sure it is perfectly suited for that also
WTF is Ballmer talking about here? Typically/historically in a large organization's IT system:
1) The hardware is delivered, perhaps with a hard drive already set up with some preinstalled version of Windows that the user would normally click through the idiot buttons in order to "consent" to the Microsoft EULA (note that this can involve paying the "Microsoft tax" on each and every new PC received...a step which will now be eliminated by any IT manager wanting to keep his/her job).
2) That PC's hard drive is overwritten by a deployment image of whatever customized version of OS has been tested and approved for mass distribution by the corporate IT department. This is typically a "security-enhanced" version of XP that has been tested to ensure compatibility with all major software in use by the corporation. However, given the current popularity of modern versions of Linux, I would expect more and more corporate IT departments to jump at the huge savings and enhanced reliability that can be realized by moving to open source. After all, Win7 is not compatible with many XP applications, and if you have to pay a premium price for Win7 and then teach employees how to use it and to run its "XP VM", you would be further ahead financially (and have to do about the same amount of user re-training) just installing Linux and using your existing XP licenses in a VM which can be mass deployed for the few versions of software that cannot be replace with free or low-cost open-source applications supported directly under Linux, or XP applications run directly in Wine (which works very well for a large spectrum of XP software).
In short, Ballmer wants us to "pay him twice" for Win7 during an economic downturn, when competitors are offering free or nearly-free open-source software that is more secure and can save the cost of having to upgrade all corporate IT hardware in the first place. I would predict that those hardware vendors that will agree to completely "dump the Microsoft tax" for customers and sell machines with blank hard drives/SSD's (or if not blank, containing a free version of Linux) to their customers will be the ones selected by IT managers who want to keep their jobs, and that those same IT managers will continue to install XP images, or move to Linux and use existing VM images of XP. At least, that is the way our IT dept. is going.
--=* Mac *=--
Computer For Older People
Who Just Had Enough
:)
...of buying the full OS at what was previously the OEM price? Maybe, maybe not. Its all relative to linux which costs diddly so, this is obviously more happy think projection from Microsofts propagandist chief who knows he has had to cut his prices to get people interested.
Anyone who believes a word MS say has Stockholm Syndrome from decades of being held hostage by the monopolistic miscreant and should be treated accordingly.
PS I think the Inq just got spammed by a viral ad agency or something because some of the comments are totally unrelated to the article.
Hey Monkey Boy ! Your customers have just told you they want you to simplify the licensing.
So how does that not compute with what you said ?
Moron.
I'm willing to bet you said the same thing about Vista.
Okay, easy shot. Nonetheless, Win 7 is not out yet. I'll wait a while before deciding whether it suits my needs or not.
By all means, go ahead.
While the rest of us younger ones use a cheaper alternative running Win7 with a wide variety software/games available.
Did I mention, us young ones dont like our lives ruled by His Holyness Steve Jobs?
Now waiting for some linux moron to post "linux for desktop" crap ;)
Do still people believe that fat ass liar?
@Mechano, what ever my fat buddy is telling is true. I swallow everything he said and pray he will preach some more Windows. :-)
(Not me, but the majority of Computer morons these days)
I am using one of those Win 7 leaks and it is quite good. I believe we will see this OS be well received and adopted increasingly as the word gets out. What do I use at home?
Kubuntu64
Windows 7 is very good.
F1rst P0st just maybe needs to change monitor to a high res 1, or maybe older ones are not aware that a PC is made up of components.