Hello, I'm a PC

Steve Ballmer went swinging for Apple during an interview with PC Magazine (US). Amongst the snippets of wisdom displayed, Ballmer said that Macs were overpriced "Have you ever seen a cheap Mac?", and that Macs had little place in the workplace "Do Macs work in business? No, they do not".

He also dismissed Apple's extremely successful chain of retail stores as a desperate act "Apple started doing stores because nobody wanted to sell it's PC's". Remarkably Ballmer criticised a Microsoft application shooting himself in the foot, and the Microsoft Mac business unit in the back when he said "Can you find the applications you want on a Mac? Well, you don't really get full Microsoft Office". He then apparently tried to explain 'The Apple Tax' and that 'Windows offers far better value'

1. Have you ever seen a cheap Mac? Answer: No, although a Mac mini is great value. Apple tend towards quality rather than quantity.
2. Do Macs work in business? no they do not. I beg to differ, having used a Mac daily in my job building Windows installations and working with windows servers, fitting in perfectly with our Microsoft back end systems for well over a year without a squeak of a problem.
3. Well you don't really get full Microsoft office. Perhaps I have more faith in the Microsoft Mac business unit team than their own CEO, I find Office 2008 for the Mac to be quite a good deal. In some ways Microsoft office 2008 on the Mac is nicer to use than office 2007 for Windows, and it is improving all the time.
4. I must confess that I don't really understand the Apple Tax, can anyone enlighten me? Personally I have spent less money, and enjoyed computing much more since I have owned a Mac. I don't even have to mention the amazing digital lifestyle apps that come pre installed on a Mac as opposed to the 'crapware' that is installed on most PC's!

I don't mean to make Steve Ballmer sound incredibly stupid, he seems to have that one covered! But couldn't he just stop acting like a child and work with Apple, and the open source movement and embrace new technologies and open standards? Many talented engineers at Microsoft appear to be doing exactly this. Steve Ballmer seems to kick his own staff and Microsoft partners in their mouths every time he opens his own.

Steve Ballmer, oozes understated charisma and professionalism as he leads the worlds most popular business software maker. Steve Jobs on the other hand simply leads the worlds most popular consumer hardware and software maker. I'll leave you to watch further videos of the two Steve's, and ask one simple question. Which Steve would you trust with your computing needs? ;)