alt Hacker NewsI'm a Ballmer truther. He was completely right about many things including his vision for AI. I know that being early is often the same as being wrong but I don't think his big strategic moves as CEO were incorrect. Microsoft during his era was more marked by an inability to execute on those strategies.
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CamperBob2 • today at 12:19 AM
What was his vision for AI, and how could it be relevant? He was gone before the current wave hit.
Going on TV and laughing at the iPhone pretty much told me everything I needed to know about Ballmer. The best thing I can say about him is that unlike Nadella, he didn't spend too much of his time actively trying to enshittify Windows.
I wonder if this is another one of those "two sides of the same coins" situations: on the one hand I agree that Ballmer was too weirdly competitive, e.g. with Linux/etc., plus the cringey takes on the iPhone, Google, etc.
On the other hand Microsoft had a fire and passion that I don't really see anymore. I miss Developers, Developers, Developers. Now it's just ads, AI, blah.