I also heartily second that! I just spent the last three days wondering what happened to my registry before Google told me about F-Lock. Really, who does Micro$oft think they are, flouting 20+ years of PC design in favor of their application specific nonsense? Oh, nevermind, I guess I do know who they think they are.

This stuff is so humorous... Steve's lucky the writer's strike ended before he gave this interview

InformationWeek: One of the concerns I found that people carry over with them from -- certainly the Vista release and their past experiences with those operating systems, is the concern about application compatibility at the beginning. What kind of things is Microsoft doing today that it hasn't done in the past to assure customers that they can start moving fairly soon to Windows Server 2008?
Ballmer: Well, we've done a lot of work, obviously, even in the Vista context.

Well, that you've done a lot of work "in the Vista context" it isn't so obvious to anyone that has tried to use it. You don't even have a computer at your desk, do you Mr. Ballmer?

Ballmer: Take something like SharePoint alone. It's a big deal. The quality of the databases, that's a big deal. The availability of tools, of Visual Studio and .Net and the ability to build bespoke applications, those are all part of the value and the total cost. And I think we've done a good job.

Monkeyboy, you are no developer. It's questionable that you even own a computer. You've never had to use those tools before. Before you tell anybody that you think you've "done a good job", you should try to use some of your company's software.

InformationWeek: Many of those do so because of perceived "bugginess" of an initial release. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has said that this version of Windows Server is among the most rigorously tested products that the company's come out with yet. What are some of your proof points there?
Ballmer: It builds off the Vista code base. So all of that testing plus another year.

So that's what, one year of testing?

InformationWeek: The openness pledge you guys made last week, one thing that I didn't really get a better sense of is, do you feel like Microsoft is moving more toward embracing open standards than you have in the past?
Ballmer: We say when we embrace standards, we'll be transparent about how we're embracing standards. We're going to embrace a lot of standards, we're going to be transparent about how we embrace those standards. If we have deviations, we'll be transparent about the deviations.

So, you'll tell us how you're going to screw us before you screw us now? That's considerate of you, if not a bit misguided.

Ballmer: Microsoft has always strived to be at the center of where innovative work is happening.

Yet, despite all of that striving, your company hasn't ever really been there. It must be very frustrating. Though I don't think that I'd ever resort to throwing chairs and cursing at innocent bystanders. But, then again, I use Linux, and therefore do not experience much frustration.