I don't see references to this -- ever -- but I saw a documentary around 12 years ago that showed Ballmer talking to the employees at some kind of gathering at a large-ish hall. Amidst all his frothing, at one point, he yelled (he was yelling most of the time), "If you find a better product, then copy it and call it your own". I was reminded of this when I read your "Ballmer in 3 steps," and thought, "That is exactly what he says to do." except the third part; I'm sure that's not part of his plan, anyway.

I never saw that video again and never have seen another reference to it. I'd say I imagined it except my incredulity at hearing this was far too palpable.

Close. You are just our underwear.

Have a nice day. :)

Came here to say this. I'm all for the "Don't complain about the lack of options" smallprint after the poll options, but energy drinks are pretty close to tea/coffee drinking these days.

My only purpose for replying to your message was to tell you I laughed out loud. Literally. I read /. comments every day and if that happens ever, it is rare. Good job!

See, this is the kind of argument I have trouble with. Samsung does a great job copying Apple.

I don't haven an iPad or any Android device, but if you look at the situation objectively: Microsoft has touted tablets for what -- 15 years? Nothing of substance has come of it. Apple makes version 1.0 and it becomes an insane hit . Then other companies copy them and they're held up to the same standard as Apple?

No, the best you can say is Samsung can make a good quality copy product. If they were in the same league, they would have made the same device years ago.

Btw, I like Samsung's products (non-tablet related). You could replace Samsung with any other iPad copier in this discussion.

I've used Word since the DOS days (I kid you not) and I find the ribbon to be the most painful UI ever. It's more painful than OS/2's TCP/IP setup. I installed it at the behest of a co-worker who insisted it was just that good. I tried it for a month and found it lacking in intuitiveness (which may be relative, since some weird minority of you people seem to like it ;). So, I thought, "Let go of preconceptions; treat it as if you've never seen a UI before and this is all brand new. Intuitively, where would you find X?" and you know... it never worked. It's just bad. So now I'm back to Office 2003. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying I have no idea how you (or anyone else) could think ribbons are a good thing.

Cheers

That is one of the coolest responses I've ever read. One of the most edifying, too.

Still, metric is the way to go. I mean... 2 jacks to a gallon? COME ON!
</gob>

I hear this sort of comment a lot and it seems to me it's full of either sour grapes or self-delusion. I've met a lot of people with an iPad and none of them are historically Apple users. They have all sort of reasons to use it (prevalent reasons being technical and literary), and I've never heard them gush about how infallible Apple is. They just use the product, as they would use a VCR in the past without lauding the greatness of the manufacturer. In short: They don't care who makes this product; they just use it because it works well.

For the record, I don't have one.

Ahmadinejad has never even came close to saying he wants to kill all Jews. He has said Zionism will disappear, much like the Russian communist era.

As satire, what you wrote is funny. Very funny! But I read this sort of sentiment a lot and wonder: If "you" (quotes to include whomever is sentimentising the sentiment) are serious, what is wrong with you and what world are you living in? I am one of those people who've used 10ish different operating systems, starting from the C64 up to the current versions of OSX and Windows and can tell you that A) I have no interest in Birkenstocks (I don't even know if that's spelled correctly), I shower every day, never hug a tree (though i give them a respectful nod now and then) and think zealotry for any cause is lame. I know many a Mac user and none are as you describe. So for any who think as you sentimentise (that's a word worth using more than once), all I can say is: grow up.

If you weren't serious, wonderful; I'll leave those who do think like that to digest(figuratively) this response.

But really, it was funny. :)

Really, all I want to say is that is one of the funniest/witty/factual replies I've ever read.

By the time I got to the end, I was like, "No, don't let it end!"

Anyway kudos, man.

It's okay for us to differ on any opinion, however your post seemed to be a rant decrying all nay-sayers of the ribbon were just haters of Microsoft and/or change. I'm pretty confident, based on my own experience and conversations, that this is not the case.

Of course /. is representative of IT, in the same way that talking to a group of people at an IT convention is getting representation of the IT world. This is not a scientific poll, of course, but you can't take away the opinions that are expressed here, particularly the ones that are articulated soundly (as opposed to just vitriol).

What IT thinks is better for people is digressing from the subject matter, and I'm sure we all have our opinions on that.

But as for the ribbon, for me, personally, there's so many kinds of wrong with it, I'm amazed that anyone sees it as positive. Given the choice, I'd rather not use it, and this is the path I've gone with.

Cheers

Disagreed (although, you did say "most" people; I just dont' fall into the "most" category). I have to agree with a previous post that said the ribbon is the most unintuitive thing, ever. I gave the ribbon six months of testing, without bias or expectation. I used it with an open mind and found it frustrating so many times, I reverted to using Office 2003. When you say "the ribbon IS a much better menu system," you are obviously speaking from opinion, and that's fine, but don't denigrate others for not having the same opinion as you. For me, it's a matter of fact that the ribbon is a horrible implementation, just as it's a fact for you that it's a good implementation. Not all change is bad, agreed, but not all change is good, either. This qualifies as the latter.