Or maybe he would have founded a different company that succeeded, or not. Or maybe he would have fallen into oblivion and led a happy, quiet life somewhere with 2.5 kids and a dog...but probably not. His upbringing and education level means he will most likely succeed wherever he landed. Numbers game or not, the dude is smart. The dude had opportunity. Those two things probably means he would have succeeded here or elsewhere regardless.

My point is, don't rag on a guy that you don't know. You really think you or the OP or anyone knows anything about this guy? No. He's a celebrity. You know what you know because of how you interpret your brief, non-face to face encounters with him, and how he is portrayed by others in social and media outlets.

There is too much hate now-a-days. Everyone, chill the fuck out. Stop tearing him down for the sake of tearing him down or making yourself feel better.

You are implying that Office 365 is a bad decision? Why? It makes 976 million dollars a year and it is just getting started... How is that bad?

Windows 8 has yet to be realized.
RT is stupid and confusing and shouldn't have existed. Go RT or go pro, don't do both.
The deal with Nokia is the only reason Windows Phone is A) around and B) has a chance at anything. Nokia's hardware is fantastic.

Clearly people hate MS and Ballmer (me too, the guy wasn't great, but he also wasn't terrible), but at least understand what your criticizing him for first...

Really? Insightful? Good job guys. I'm no fan of him either, but the blatant hate here is remarkable.

1) Everyone to a certain extent is a victim (good or bad) of time and circumstance. Yeah, he was buddies with Bill and Paul. That helped. Friends always helps. How many jobs have you (collectively) had due to friends or networking? How many perks in life come from other people? How many people have benefited from being attached to Ballmer?

2) Selling used cars? Really? Really? Do you know anything about this man? His upbringing? All the prep schools he attended? His 800 on the math section of his SAT? He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with degrees in mathematics and economics. But you're right. He'd be a car salesman if not for Bill and Paul.

You statement is a stupid. Take your hate elsewhere.

Why are you shopping somewhere that sells shit related products? If that is something you don't want, steer clear.

Yeah! We only like paid negative MS posts here!

Why? Sony "phones home" every time you watch any movie. If you don't have the original disk in there you cannot watch your movie. This is on the PS3 already.

So all those DVDs and BluRays I BOUGHT and digitized to my PC so I can stream them? Yep. Sorry.

Sony is no better. They are just watching you a little less...for now.

Realizing too late? MS is a Windows company? I don't think you or Slashdot understand what MS is or what it does.

MS is a productivity software and services company that happens to make an OS. Just like Apple is a hardware and services company that just happens to make an OS. Both of these companies use their OS as a means, nothing more.

Google the last MS earnings report. You'll see that even though Windows 8 and surface is being heralded as a huge failure, that division still made 5.9 billion in revenue. This quarter! "See!" you say! It is a Windows company! But no! Not really. That is a small fraction (only 15%) of the total revenue MS gets. The vast majority of it's revenue and profitability comes from Office. Throw in Windows Server and SQL Server for kicks; those also drive more revenue than Windows.

Their new office line, Office 365, is already a 1 billion dollars a quarter division. And it's basically brand new. And it hasn't rolled out apps to android or iOS yet. Look for that in late 2013. Once that hits your "for fun" iPad becomes a serious productivity contender.

So no. MS is not a Windows company. It hasn't been for a very long time. No ship is sailing anywhere...except maybe the bank.

I remember when all the retailers were up in arms about credit cards and the exchange fee. How dare Visa and MC add a 3% surcharge in exchange for paying the retailer immediately and incurring all the risk of actually collecting the money owed. Recently the credit card companies want to up that surcharge a bit and it is getting massive media attention. "Would you pay 2% more for your clothes" and all the like...

Now shift over to Apple's business model. It is the same damn thing....ya know, except Apple charges 30% and provides nothing except "the privilege" for your app to charge the credit card that Apple has on file. They area pass through, nothing more. And yet, no one seems to care about this?

How is this not anti-competitive? How is this not abusing monopolistic power? And yes they are a monopoly the second you buy their device and are 100% locked into their store and their rules. How is it that every other company that has done this is taken to task but Apple gets a pass? I don't get it.

It doesn't matter. Too much money is made in TV because of ads. The studios would never do it. Netflix (and others) get content N time units later because then the studios can double dip...many times.

- They make money on the first run
- They make money on the 2nd run (summer months, syndication)
- They make money when Hulu Plus (or whatever it is called) shows it later (with ads or for a cut of the monthly fee)
- They make money when Netflix shows it to you streaming via licensing
- They make money when you rent it from VUDU for 7 bucks
- They make money on the silly people who still buy physical media of the show / movie

There is first run, and then there are alternate channels. The studios want as many of these things to exist at once. Therefore you will never see a "premium" service that will show you whatever you want on demand with no ads at the same time it has its first run. Because if that existed, all the other channels are obsolete.

No kidding.

I'm beginning to dread reading Slashdot. Crappy summaries. Crappy choices for summaries. And now truly vile comments about a project that some people got together to do for what seems like shits and giggles. Whatever happened to coding something because you thought it would be cool? Whatever happened for coding something because you could? Whatever happened to doing something different for the sake of being different?

Apparently this is what the community has degraded to. Personally I'd rather go on a date with Alyssa Bereznak while getting kicked in the nuts being forced to use apple products (after updating iTunes AGAIN) than read this Slashdot trash.

Angry much?

I, for one, am endlessly entertained by Netflix's streaming content and the DVD service is crazy convenient. The loss of Starz (if the deal is truly dead) is unfortunate. Some of the content I watch comes from there, though to be honest not a lot.

The Netflix clients are phenomenal, as is the streaming quality. I have never seen it crash once, so I suspect your anger at Netflix is misplaced here.

If you don't like the service, cancel your subscription and pay 2 - 3 times more elsewhere for less content. The choice is yours. God bless competition.

This is not too different than what Questia has been doing for years. I'm sure Amazon's service is more polished and integrates better with their reader, but this concept isn't new by any stretch of the imagination.

We're essentially talking about an online library for a premium.

Kinda like how the iOS runs all the other Apple apps.

Apple really screwed the pooch there.

Yes, but does it play Angry Birds?

1985