Okay guys, I've got to come out with something here. I'm kind of a lurker on HN so I don't really say much...but I need to say something before I continue with

Okay guys, I've got to come out with something here. I'm kind of a lurker on HN so I don't really say much...but I need to say something before I continue with my comment here: I really love Microsoft products. The (fledgling) start up I'm working on is built on .NET. I'm a BizSpark member and my 9 to 5s have all been in .NET shops. My senior project in college was written on .NET which led me to contracting at Microsoft for a while while I finished my degree. And while I was there I was continually impressed by the quality of the people I interacted with and how dedicated and passionate they were to and about their technologies. I can talk all day about what I like and what I don't like about specific technologies they put out but my comment today isn't on the quality of their products. It is on Steve Ballmer's atrocious presentation skills. The way this man talks is like a marketeer in that doesn't really "get" technology and dances around the technical aspects with marketing speak and hand waving. He cannot afford to continue to deny that his competitors are beating the shit out of them in a number of markets that they oh-so-badly want to participate in but just cannot execute in for one reason or another. And beyond that, in 2010, when your CEO competition is Zuckerberg, Jobs, and Schmidt, you really really can't afford to not really get technology. Microsoft if you're out there, if you're listening to me, please for the love of the gigantic, rich, strong community that surrounds your company and technologies, please PLEASE eject Steve Ballmer. He's been slowly sinking the ship for 10 years (yes, it is mostly his doing) and you can't keep this up.