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Posted by Steve Ballmer at 12/5/07 5:29 p.m.

Back in June, Mary Jo Foley of ZDnet fame wrote a stunningly concise article, "Leopard looks like … Vista". Truer words were never spoken! Many of you peolpe out there do not realize the truth, all software is born at Microsoft, even our competitor's! You see the Apple hackers constantly scour our site for hints of what we are planing for the future, they send spys, moles, fake pizza-boys,… In their desperation they even steal experimental betas so far from production that even most MS employees don't realise that we are developing them. They then slap some of their crappy code under these interfaces and claim to have developed it first.
This is why Leopard and all of the so called versions of OSX over the past 5 years looks like Vista, you see, Vista is the real thing. We just take our time to make sure it is done right before releasing to the public. We care, we take our time, we do stable coding. Don't be duped by imitations.
Ms Foley, you have been backing down, trying to explain, apologising, … DON'T! Stand strong, tell the truth, you were absolutely right all the time, "Leopard looks like Vista!"
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 6:15 p.m.

the reason leopard looks like vista is because vista looks like tiger. vista was microsoft's response to how prehistoric xp looked in comparison to tiger. clearly, we should expect a resemblance between leopard and vista. vista copied tiger, and leopard just improved on tiger.

i mean, i know that vista's addition of "widgets" that are called "gadgets" SOUNDS different. and it was oh so innovative for vista to include a spotlight function. i guess it really is different since it is located in the diagonal opposite corner of the screen.

Posted by phil99 at 12/5/07 6:25 p.m.

I remember in 1983 a freebie 5.25" diskette of the forthcoming Word program sewn into a copy of one month's issue of PC Magazine. I can still remember my lil' amber TTY screen running italics with no bracketing codes. I thought the second coming was imminent.

I remember that year a quote from Gates that a "window or tile" environment (whatever that was) would be the future environment for all PC computing. And that I would soon need maybe 10 megs to store the operating system!

And I remember in 1983 or 1984 that Gates said that diskettes were archaic: I would be using laser-read media - "CDs" they were called.

I wasn't fooled.

He didn't have a clue.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 6:38 p.m.

Who invented the GUI ?
Who invented DOS ?

And lets remember how MS "acquired" stacker.

Posted by rmarti13 at 12/5/07 6:58 p.m.

what are you geeks talking about? what the hell are you talking about?!? go outside and play. with real people. in a real world. i'm so sick of technology. i can't wait until it becomes passe. whether we become bored with it, we become elightened, or we finally nuke ourselves back to the stone age, i simply can't wait to be done with modern technology. the problem with you clowns on this blog is that you advance technology without any moral, ethical or other value based purpose. you just make shit and then let the massess do themselves away with your silly little inventions. i'm sick of technology and i can't wait to be done with it. now...how do i get my stupid computer to set up a website for my new business, anyway?

Posted by rmarti13 at 12/5/07 7:00 p.m.

p.s., i'm just kidding, fellas. except for the part about developing technology for the sake of one upsmanship, as opposed to any sentient motive.

Posted by CrowTRobot at 12/5/07 7:21 p.m.

Jeez, where to begin...

Bill Gates basically stole DOS from Tim Paterson. From Windows to Zune, it would be a challenge to name ANYTHING that Microsoft has produced that wasn't first brought to market by Apple or others (like the before-mentioned Stac Electronics drive-compression software that Microsoft folded into DOS 6). I'll give them some credit - Excel was a groundbreaking product (especially when teamed up with a LaserWriter), putting Lotus 123 and Harvard Graphics to shame, and they did come up with double-clicking on an active window's title bar to collapse and reshow the window's content (I first saw that in Multiplan for the Mac), but mostly the history of Microsoft is one of bullying the rest of the industry, buying out other companies (PowerPoint was bought from ForeThought, bundled with Word and Excel to create "Office", which meant that PowerPoint was basically free since single versions of Word and Excel cost as much as Office did, the end result wiping out Harvard Graphics, Aldus/Adobe Persuasion and a few others such as MORE).

Do you ever notice how testy both Gates and Ballmer gets when it comes to Apple and the subject of "innovation"? The only thing that they are innovative about is using their monopoly power to crush any and all competition (see Netscape, Apple's Mac BASIC, Novel's Netware, and on and on and on...)

Posted by Organization Man at 12/5/07 8:15 p.m.

Two words: Gary Kildall.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 8:19 p.m.

"Jonathan Snook, learned that one of the fastest ways to get a rise out of the Microsoft chairman is to say that the company has often capitalized on the innovations of others."

Wow, does the truth hurt or what?

I mean, it is nice that Bill, with Melinda, is doing something very worthwhile with his billions, but I wish he would resist the temptation to bristle at the truth. Perhaps dreamy-eyed stockholders and local Northwest cheerleaders would like to thinks so, but nobody I know who is reasonably adept technologically would count Microsoft among the innovators. Bill should just come to terms with this and move on -- focus on the good deeds.

Tantrums? Embarrassing. Not befitting the "new" Bill Gates he can only hope to be remembered as.

G.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 8:36 p.m.

Btw, Apple didn't invent Widgets either. Remember that they stole that idea from confabulator (bought up by Yahoo!). ;)

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 8:39 p.m.

I was a loyal Microsoft fan (employee and MSFT product user) for many years. Recently I "retired" from the company and started to explore other technologies. I am now a committed open source advocate. I'd felt uneasy about many Microsoft technologies for years but the final straw was learning that Vista's EULA granted Microsoft the right to snoop around on and even tamper with my PC. Too intrusive!!! Now I run Red Hat fedora and do my development using GNU programs. A bit harder to learn maybe but truly free (in cost and in privacy). Very important to me. I don't think I'll ever go back to Microsoft products as I've learned that open source has everything I need.

Posted by grimmer at 12/5/07 8:54 p.m.

basically everyone has taken from everyone. many of the posters credit apple with being such an innovator, but please remember that they ripped off the 'desktop' gui from xerox many moons ago (PARC). therefore it is quite hypocritical of apple to call out microsoft as they have often done.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 9:15 p.m.

Bill Gates is a lying scumbag. Not only were other companies first to make word processors, but in fact Apple IPO'd before Microsoft. Apple was the biggest IPO of its time.

Microsoft is basically coasting along criminality. If it wasn't for Bill Gates' family connections and Microsoft's sweetheart deal with IBM to bundle DOS - exclusive of all alternatives - Microsoft wouldn't even be in business today and the world would be a better place.

Posted by CaptRedBeard at 12/5/07 9:15 p.m.

MS has done alot on invention, and lots of imitation, I don't have a problem with either one.

You guys make it sound like MS is no better then a Chinese car manufacture!

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 9:30 p.m.

CaptRedBeard,

You said "MS has done alot on invention, and lots of imitation."

My sense is that, with their (many/most acquired) products being pretty ubiquitous and with very polished marketing (and some nice fit-and-finish of some user-facing elements), MSFT execs have just kept repeating "freedom to innovate" until a certain percentage of consumers buy this notion of MSFT as a great innovator.

Can you spell out some (or any) areas where Microsoft has been remarkable as an innovator?

Anybody?

G.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 9:37 p.m.

GUI = PARC
Microsoft & Apple figured out how to monetize this and fortunately Microsoft's business plan and strategy was strong. Now If u compare GUI concept stolen then GM,Toyota,Ferrari,all car manufacturers are thieves.. It was an innovation which people developed upon!! Success here is determined by you business plan.

Why don't we argue DVD,HDDVD,BRD are stolen from Philips which invented CD. The dimensions and look alike of all media are same why not accuse every CD manufacturer with this.??

DOS was bought for $50,000 now if you consider this stolen. Then all of us steal too..

Few Innovations I can think of at Microsoft
1. XMLHTTP & DHTML - Invented way back in 1998 , we call this as AJAX now and declare Microsoft does not Understand Web.

2. Surface Computing - Yes I agree there were few POC in various Universities , MSR(Microsoft Research) was involved. Microsoft took the efforts to develop something useful form the POC and developed an entire OS for it.

3.IPTV - Believe me there is no other comprehensive IPTV Platform matching MediaRoom which is shortly to be Integrated into XBOX.

4.Silverlight - If you understand this technology truly.. Its like taking a 360 Degree turn at Web Development.. You have a CLR inside the browser no one has attemped this!!

5.Volta - Released yesterday I can say this will change Web Development like VB changed Desktop Devlopemnt.

6.Tablet PC - You know what this is. It was designed by Microsoft.

7.Win CE platform - Argue what ever you want but if you are a true techie go explore what it is.. The iPhone vision was envisioned by Microsoft around say 12 years ago. In theory if you architect your application well you can run your desktop App in your Win CE. But iPhone has a competitive advantage becuase yes their Business plan now is superior, technically as a technologist I say technically iPhone is starved. A platform where you can write only browser applications is a mere joke!!! We need an SDK!! But again iPhone innovated at the business aspect here so cheers to Apple!!!

Think rational before you open your mouth.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 9:43 p.m.

If anyone really wants to know a huge list of Innovations at Microsoft ill steal sometime from my schedule and prepare a huge list with references to each.. Anyone interested?

Posted by seapepto at 12/5/07 10:22 p.m.

Steve Ballmer @ #72959

Did ya think we weren't going to go back and look at what Mary Jo Foley actually said. Once again, caught in your lies. Here's her verbatim from http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?m=200706&paged=4:

Admittedly, my headline choice ("Leopard looks like … Vista") for my original blog posting was poor. A lot of folks immediately assumed I was asserting that Leopard — the version of Mac OS X coming this October, which Jobs demonstrated at the Worldwide Developers Conference on July 11 — was copied from Vista. And seemingly read no further.

That isn't what I was saying at all. In fact, I consciously stayed away from the whole "who copied whom" discussion, which has been debated for years now. I had nothing new to observe there and didn't intend for this blog post to be a timeline.

Now go put some deodorant on and leave us alone.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 10:31 p.m.

Microsoft is an innovative company, as there are many others out there.
Microsoft has imitated things as many others out there.
Microsoft has had the guts to bet against odds, improve products and be succesfull along the way...

Read the whole interview and make your own conclusions.

I read empty posts that only reflect apathy agains MS, no solid grounds not even facts to sustain those attacks.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 10:41 p.m.

Anon...

Nobody is questioning that Microsoft produces produces, and I gotta admire your enthusiasm and evangelism, but most of these examples of "innovation" are pretty derivative and some simply contradict the point you are hoping to make, like:

--GUI = PARC
--DOS was bought for $50,000

--Few Innovations I can think of at Microsoft

--1. XMLHTTP & DHTML

Whilst very humble OWA beginnings and while I consider it a mixed blessing, I suppose you could count this.

--2.Surface Computing

Bob++ Did they license Jeff Han's stuff? Very cool, actually and could actually get used in some situations (not sink beneath the waves like Bob).

--3.IPTV

So you claim an *evolution* of IPTV?

--4.Silverlight

Debatable benefit. CLR, or no, revolutionary beyond Macromedia I'm not seeing how..

--5.Volta

An IDE-cum-toolset. I am sure you like it.

--6.Tablet PC

Windows Tablet edition released in 2002 but concept goes back to 60s and commercial history goes back to early 90s.

--7.Win CE platform

A smaller evolution of Windows.

--Think rational before you open your mouth.

That would be "think rationally".

G.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 11:11 p.m.

Ahmad

This is Anon..

Well G. My point of argument is there is difference between imitation and innovating upon existent technologies.

GUI was a like a a Television thats it. How is it worth without Channels??? It was a technology. E=MC2 is relativity theory.. Thats it plain.. You have to monetize it and figure out ways to put it to use.

Do we accuse J. Robert Oppenheimer(Scientist between Project Manhattan) of having stolen ideas from Einstein or designing a technological derivative?

Do we say Plasma & LCD TV as lame copycats of CRT technology. CRT has infact evolved through history why don't we accuse all the CRT players of having stolen from John B. Johnson or Harry Weiner Weinhart..

If Nuclear Bomb is an Innovation from Relativity Theory and TV is an additive innovation from CRT. So is Windows,MAC,KDE,GNOME,AMIGA,OS/2...

What I'm trying to prove is everyone innovates in an additive manner.

DOS was bought for $50,000 - This was a defensive stance on "Bill Gates basically stole DOS from Tim Paterson."

Posted by unregistered user at 12/5/07 11:13 p.m.

I'm a technologist and I respect technologists from all communities Apple,Microsoft,Linux. Only pure play technologies who understand technology have the right to speak!!! All lamers who are gas bags and understand shit!!! Stay offf

Cheers
Ahmad

Posted by unregistered user at 12/8/07 4:20 p.m.

Microsoft claims to spend over $5 billion a year on something Gates calls R&D. That's a lot of money boys & girls, so where's the beef?

Surface? -- loser
Xbox? -- loser
WebTV? -- loser
MSN? -- loser
Zune? -- Loser

Outside of the legacy apps and OS licensing, stuff that was settled long ago, where is the innovation, the payoff to shareholders for all the "R&D" spending?

Posted by unregistered user at 12/10/07 3:52 a.m.

F**ked up B**tard

How the hell do u validate Looser!!

Surface? -- Its barely out and you call it loose.. Who the hell had guts to spend on R&D for similar tech??

Xbox? -- WTF is Looser got to do with a product that has the largest marjket share

WebTV? -- Its been renamed to Mediaroom and no other company has a similar offering and WTF is looser when the industry is yet to bloom.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/10/07 11:26 a.m.

This is Nimity. To guy who said "f**ked up B**tard"...

I agree with you on the surface thing: it's like someone saying the computer is a total looser back in the 40's, when it was an infant.

XBox - LOSER. The XBox brought in a loss of over a billion dollars. Repeat: A BILLION dollars. I had a friend who was always pro-Microsoft and a genius. Back when the loss was discovered, he said: "That's their plan. Microsoft just wants to control and dominate the gaming market. The XBox will just lock people in for their real offering." He was right, and now 360 is No. 2 console (after Wii). Of course, due to defects, they put up another Billion dollars. Losers...

WebTV - What you talkin about? Mediaroom ain't webtv. Webtv was that crap box I had years back that was supposed to revolutionize surfing, eliminating need for a computer. That was actually my first Internet experience, and when I finally got a computer, I felt liberated. WebTV was extremely limited, and a loser. However, it has one merit: it was a step forward towards their ultimate goal, Mediaroom. That might be a winner.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/10/07 11:32 a.m.

Nimity again. Replying to "anon," who listed the innovations...

First off, good list. While I think Microsoft are often techno-copycats, that has nothing to do with business. Business is getting products out there in such a way as to make money, and they are a great business. Overall, I agree that they were quite innovative in many ways. (Did you know that they had a program that allowed you to use the GPU as a coprocessor before Nvidia's CUDA? I used it)

My main dispute is the Silverlight thing. Get real: none of these offers anything Java didn't get going. It fell more due to its being overhyped. Java, with modern JVM, can do just about anything Silverlight can do... regardless of browser or platform.

I find it amusing when friends say "Look what I can do now that I have silverlight." I pull out a year-old applet, open it, and say "You mean u can finally do this?" Remember, just because people don't use them much these days, doesn't mean they aren't incredibly useful or powerful.

Again, good post giving specific innovation examples. ;)

Posted by unregistered user at 12/12/07 1:06 p.m.

Microsoft is a great company - dozens of times better than Apple (who thanks to ipod has dissapeared yet) and overpriced & overhyped google.

If you dont believe me...here is the real life test:

- What would happen and how would it affect the world if google dissapeared tomorrow and all their products stoped functioning?
Nothing (besides making big news)
- What would happen and how would it affect the world if Apple dissapeared tomorrow and all their products stoped functioning?
Nothing (people would just buy the Zune or any other mp3 player)
- What would happen and how would it affect the world if microsoft dissapeared tomorrow and all their products stoped functioning?
Ummm big mess. Practically everything would stop working. Big businesses, small business, and home computers.

So get the facts right before you hate a very sucessful man and his company.

Posted by unregistered user at 12/12/07 8:42 p.m.

In the Beginning, there was Linux. Then Mark Shuttleworth said fck that sht and made it nice.

Now its all we'll ever need again.

I don't care who innovated windows, lets just throw it out the window. I'm talking about the real one, with glass, not some light up magical waffle iron.