Windows 7 Migration
Ballmer Tells Users to 'Skip Vista'? No, He Doesn't
Here's a fine example of why bloggers get a bad rap. In a post titled, "Ballmer:You can skip Vista," Computerworld contributing editor Preston Gralla (a tech-industry veteran we respect) takes a few words from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's comments at a Gartner symposium and blows them way out of proportion.
Here's a fine example of why bloggers get a bad rap. In a post titled, "Ballmer:You can skip Vista," Computerworld contributing editor Preston Gralla (a tech-industry veteran we've long respected) takes a few words from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's comments at a Gartner symposium and blows them way out of proportion. Here's what Gralla wrote:
You can be sure plenty of Microsoft folks are wishing they could put a muzzle on Steve Ballmer today, as the Microsoft CEO told the audience at a Gartner Symposium that they should feel free to skip Vista and wait for Windows 7. "If people want to wait [for Windows 7] they really can," Ballmer told the assembly. You could probably hear the Windows folks groan all the way across the continent in Redmond.Unfortunately, Gralla didn't bother to include the second half of Ballmer's sentence: "But I'd definitely deploy Vista." In other words, Ballmer didn't tell users to "skip Vista." Rather, his likely intent was to say that obviously waiting for Windows 7 is an option, but not a smart one. In creating his Digg-bait headline, Gralla reminds us of movie studios that pull reviewers' quotes way out of context to hype a new flick. He might as well have run this title: "Ballmer calls Vista biggest disaster since 'Titanic'!"
