Several other sources have stated that he even considered his decision to be abrupt. Even the article that WhiteLightning linked too even stated such: "...Ballmer himself acknowledged his decision was abrupt. “There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time,” he wrote in a memo to employees. “This is an emotional and difficult thing for me to do. I take this step in the best interests of the company I love.” Ballmer said in a statement he had originally considered retiring in the middle of the reorganization, but eventually decided “we need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction...” So many sources stated that he was the best salesman they ever had but was never a visionary. CEOs need to be visionaries first and foremost unless they fall into the ball park of turn-arround specialists.

We need Bill Gates back in the chair!

We need Bill Gates back in the chair!

What exactly would he have done differently? He's encouraged natural input with touch and language for years. When it was Courier vs Windows 8, he advocated for Windows 8. Windows 8 is the materialization of everything he's been saying since the early 2000's. Unification of Windows across all devices, the input, search, everything. Yet here we stand, a decade later, his dream finally coming to fruition, and the "enthusiast crowd" can't spend a week to learn a new interface. What's the point of having a visionary at the helm when the user-base is completely against change? As for Ballmer, he isn't a visionary, I think everyone including himself knows that. But he did grow Microsoft 16% annually since he assumed his role, which is impressive for a company that large. He created multi-billion dollar businesses out of Dynamics, Azure, Xbox, System Center, SharePoint and soon Office 365. Obviously these are small feats compared to what some of the users here at Guru3D would have accomplished though. I hope the head of Windows Division (lead designer of Metro) Julie takes the spot. That would be amusing.

and the "enthusiast crowd" can't spend a week to learn a new interface. What's the point of having a visionary at the helm when the user-base is completely against change?

Now that is a nothing but a complete load of crap.

Now that is a nothing but a complete load of crap.

It turns out it's mostly our fault for having lack of acceptance for ridiculous ideas that M$ introduced lately. But seriously, Gates is doing a much better job with his Foundation/Research to cure diseases and for a far better cause. But with M$ losing money ATM who knows, he may have to jump in and straighten few things out as his research isn't cheap to run if he wants to continue to develop it further.

Yet here we stand, a decade later, his dream finally coming to fruition, and the "enthusiast crowd" can't spend a week to learn a new interface. What's the point of having a visionary at the helm when the user-base is completely against change?

Against change no, not at all. Change for the sake of change with no real benefit or purpose certainly. Take Vista (stay with me) for instance, whilst yes it was bloated and had DX10 only to force gamers to upgrade it did add some good things which now make Windows 7 so good. It not only gave way to x64 being a mainstream OS instead of the gimmick it was with XP, it added a search feature that was actually useable. The start menu search and run is simply fantastic and I use it hundreds of times at work and really miss it when I have to use a server 2003 or XP box. Bitlocker is even a nice tool which is good for administrators who want to tie the security into AD. Now Windows 8 introduced touch, which no matter how you look at it is pointless outside of tablets but a nice if useless addition. They then decided to remove the start menu, tied in some new interface which isn't practical on a desktop and messed with the search and run bar by making you pick options that might have what you're looking for. That was not change through innovation, that was change for the sake of selling "innovation".

Sorry but I don't buy that the new start menu is a step backwards. People keep saying they don't like it but so far not a single person has given a reasonable response as to why. It's always "bad" "ridiculous ideas" "pointless" etc. It's never "well it takes me 3 seconds longer to perform task x" or "live tiles completely break my workflow by causing this issue" or whatever it may be. In the mean time the interface change completely enhanced the use of touch screen based devices. It's literally gone from trash in 7 to incredibly usable in 8. Whether you use them or not I don't care, it's a superior interface in this regard. For K&M users it gave 72 (1080p) hit targets with a higher accuracy rating at a click away, as oppose to 10 in 7. The live tile updates provide information without actually having to go into an application. The use of the whole screen facilities more search results as oppose to the limit of 2 per category in Windows 7. I fail to see the downgrade. I've now installed Windows 8 on about 3 dozen machines ranging from novice users (grandparents) to some of the mech/industrial design engineers at the company I do support for and not a single person has complained about the interface. I haven't even had to show them how to use it. Most people just talk about the file transfer is better and how they can customize the login screen or whatever. And what's funny is that this isn't the only operating system that this is occurring in. I've seen more complaints out of the power users in Linux over the recent KDE/Gnome changes that anyone else. It just seems like the vast majority of people don't want user interface change, which is natural, but entirely my point.

Well I could say in my day to day job that at first the new interface is a pain. I try to get to computer management, in Win 7 all i have to type is "comp" win 8 I have to type comp then select where I want to look...why? Administrator features are in different places or have revised names, and overall as a domain administrator it just simply adds time and frustration when you don't need it. Why can I not just click start and right click on manage to add/remove users from administrator roles? Having to slide/through windows to close them otherwise they just become hidden, again why? As a home user I'd probably get used to it quickly and wouldn't care and most likely enjoy the new interface, but when time is costly and everyone has a problem that must be fixed before any other user its just hassle you don't need. For me it made a 30 second job like adding a group to a laptop more time consuming than it needed to be (not talking hours but a minute or so). For me that's not an improvement. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Windows 8 and actually like the style (not the metro panels so much but the square windows and pastel colours) I just don't think its any good or I suppose worthwhile in an enterprise environment outside of tablets and laptops.

No Sir, Anonymus: Billy is old and incompetent. Stevie is his clone. M$ is sinking...

It turns out it's mostly our fault for having lack of acceptance for ridiculous ideas that M$ introduced lately. But seriously, Gates is doing a much better job with his Foundation/Research to cure diseases and for a far better cause. But with M$ losing money ATM who knows, he may have to jump in and straighten few things out as his research isn't cheap to run if he wants to continue to develop it further.

Well I could say in my day to day job that at first the new interface is a pain. I try to get to computer management, in Win 7 all i have to type is "comp" win 8 I have to type comp then select where I want to look...why? Administrator features are in different places or have revised names, and overall as a domain administrator it just simply adds time and frustration when you don't need it. Why can I not just click start and right click on manage to add/remove users from administrator roles? Having to slide/through windows to close them otherwise they just become hidden, again why?

Right click in the lower left corner and "computer management", "device manager", "control panel", "event viewer"... all right there.... Very easy to get to quickly.

As a home user I'd probably get used to it quickly and wouldn't care and most likely enjoy the new interface, but when time is costly and everyone has a problem that must be fixed before any other user its just hassle you don't need. For me it made a 30 second job like adding a group to a laptop more time consuming than it needed to be (not talking hours but a minute or so). For me that's not an improvement. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Windows 8 and actually like the style (not the metro panels so much but the square windows and pastel colours) I just don't think its any good or I suppose worthwhile in an enterprise environment outside of tablets and laptops.

Whether it's worthwhile in an "enterprise environment" depends on exactly what your company does. Not all companies do the same thing.

Sorry but I don't buy that the new start menu is a step backwards. People keep saying they don't like it but so far not a single person has given a reasonable response as to why. It's always "bad" "ridiculous ideas" "pointless" etc. It's never "well it takes me 3 seconds longer to perform task x" or "live tiles completely break my workflow by causing this issue" or whatever it may be. In the mean time the interface change completely enhanced the use of touch screen based devices. It's literally gone from trash in 7 to incredibly usable in 8. Whether you use them or not I don't care, it's a superior interface in this regard. For K&M users it gave 72 (1080p) hit targets with a higher accuracy rating at a click away, as oppose to 10 in 7. The live tile updates provide information without actually having to go into an application. The use of the whole screen facilities more search results as oppose to the limit of 2 per category in Windows 7. I fail to see the downgrade. I've now installed Windows 8 on about 3 dozen machines ranging from novice users (grandparents) to some of the mech/industrial design engineers at the company I do support for and not a single person has complained about the interface. I haven't even had to show them how to use it. Most people just talk about the file transfer is better and how they can customize the login screen or whatever. And what's funny is that this isn't the only operating system that this is occurring in. I've seen more complaints out of the power users in Linux over the recent KDE/Gnome changes that anyone else. It just seems like the vast majority of people don't want user interface change, which is natural, but entirely my point.

I work for one of the largest electrical stores in Britain and nearly every customer says the same thing when they come in to buy a new laptop or desktop, "I've heard a lot of bad things about Windows 8 - people say its hard to use." And then I have to SHOW them all the hotkeys and how to navigate something that is so different from what they're used to that it almost seems alien. A lot of responses I get after the demonstrations are along the lines of, "Well its not so bad I suppose but I would never have known how to find things if you hadn't shown me." The point is, Windows 8 is anything BUT intuitive - nearly all options and menus are hidden. Even one of the best things about Windows 8 - the search menu - is completely hidden in the start screen unless you accidently decided to type a word for no reason whilst on that screen, you wouldn't know it was there. As for the Live Tiles menu which has replaced the desktop, it's rather pointless on a non-touchscreen machine because a lot of programs developed now still automatically bump you into desktop mode. Microsoft didn't invent an OS for every machine, they simply shoved a mobile OS on top of a desktop OS and as a result, you have to navigate like a boomerang.

Well if given the choice most people don't like change. If there is no choice then people learn to just accept it and get on with it. Not comparing OS to social media network but look at facebook and/or google. When they do changes that are going to be permanent people moan and complain but they end up using it anyway.

Well I could say in my day to day job that at first the new interface is a pain. I try to get to computer management, in Win 7 all i have to type is "comp" win 8 I have to type comp then select where I want to look...why?

Man walks into a doctors office and says 'It hurts when when I raise my arm' and the doctor says 'So don't raise your arm'. Humor aside, you right click where the start button used to be and select computer management. Two clicks dude, srsly. I will side with you on the Metro interface, as I couldn't find it either.

Right click in the lower left corner and "computer management", "device manager", "control panel", "event viewer"... all right there.... Very easy to get to quickly. .

Quicker and easier than: Click "Start", "Type Ev", Click "event viewer"? 🙄

Quicker and easier than: Click "Start", "Type Ev", Click "event viewer"? 🙄

Uh one is two clicks the other is two clicks and typing 2 letters so yeah it is easier.

Ballmer leaving MS undermines my confidence in Windows' future even more. Who knows what will they do now with the old clunker. I hope they spin off Metro properly as a whole new OS - without the stigma of the Windows name and with the old Windows co-existing for non-touch devices.

Ballmer leaving MS undermines my confidence in Windows' future even more. Who knows what will they do now with the old clunker. I hope they spin off Metro properly as a whole new OS - without the stigma of the Windows name and with the old Windows co-existing for non-touch devices.

They can't do that. The market was/is already saturated with iOS and Android. It's the reason why they went with the unified Windows system in the first place. They wanted to leverage their giant desktop user-base down into mobile. I'm much more inclined to buy a product if it shares the same interface and software as one I already own. And whether people here at Guru3D want to admit it or not, mobile is the future of computing. Desktop PC's will be a niche market 10-15 years from now. The vast majority of users don't need that type of computing power, a phone will be more than sufficient. Microsoft needs to be in mobile if it wants to stay relevant.

They can't do that. The market was/is already saturated with iOS and Android. It's the reason why they went with the unified Windows system in the first place. They wanted to leverage their giant desktop user-base down into mobile.

No. This is a symptom of their old thinking - fix every problem by either advertising or forcing Windows/Office. I'm glad the market has pushed back and forced Microsoft to change. They should get over themselves and stop blaming their consumer.

Windows 8 could have been a huge success if M$ had not been so stupid as to remove freedom of choice, and made the classic start menu a custom option. "Do you want to set the Windows 8 interface as your default? Yes/No, Use Classic" Easy, that would have solved everything.

Uh one is two clicks the other is two clicks and typing 2 letters so yeah it is easier.

Clearly you are not accounting for navigation time and the time it takes to visually identiy and move your mouse to it.

No. This is a symptom of their old thinking - fix every problem by either advertising or forcing Windows/Office. I'm glad the market has pushed back and forced Microsoft to change. They should get over themselves and stop blaming their consumer.

It's something that has worked for them in literally every billion dollar market they tried it in. I don't see the problem with branding and unification. People make it sound like it's absolutely impossible to create an operating system that functions well on both Tablets and PC's. Is Windows 8 the ultimate answer? No obviously not. Does it work extremely well on tablets and is a sidegrade to the traditional PC interface? Absolutely. Will it be improved even further going forward? Definitely. And where exactly did Microsoft blame their consumer? The only one doing that is me. Mostly because of exactly what you see here -- half the people here can't even come up with valid arguments as to why it's bad. The ones that are valid (search settings broken up and stuff, shutting down/restarting) have been fixed for 8.1. Also now that the lead designer of Metro/Start is the head of Windows division I can't see Microsoft shifting strategies anytime soon. It's not like there is another way for them to compete in the tablet/mobile space. They are way too far behind to gain any real traction by forking Windows.

Windows 8 could have been a huge success if M$ had not been so stupid as to remove freedom of choice, and made the classic start menu a custom option. "Do you want to set the Windows 8 interface as your default? Yes/No, Use Classic" Easy, that would have solved everything.

I'll agree that users should have had the ability to revert.

Clearly you are not accounting for navigation time and the time it takes to visually identiy and move your mouse to it.

Huh? How is the navigation time different than doing the same thing with 7? If you're talking about doing the whole thing with a keyboard on 8 just hit Windows + X, V.