Coding Horror: Steve Ballmer: Sweatiest Billionaire Ever

July 27, 2005

Steve Ballmer: Sweatiest Billionaire Ever

Steve Ballmer has four words for you: I. LOVE. THIS. COMPANY. A colleague recently pointed me to a Steve Ballmer video I hadn't seen before; the one where he pitches Windows 1.0. All three of the Ballmer videos are essential viewing for any Windows developer:

I love the fact that Steve Ballmer is a billionaire 12 times over, and yet he isn't afraid to get up on stage and make a complete and utter ass out of himself. You have to respect a man with that much unbridled enthusiasm. I certainly can't see staid, boring old Michael Dell dancing around on stage, screaming about how much he loves his company at the top of his lungs. Steve Ballmer is unique:

Steve Ballmer can be so zealous in expressing his enthusiasm that once his vocal cords required surgery after he screamed "Windows, Windows, Windows" continuously at a Japan meeting in 1991. When Microsoft celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2000, CEO Ballmer popped out of the anniversary cake to surprise the audience. His wild screaming and dancing on stage at an employees convention was caught on a widely-circulated video known as "Dance Monkeyboy." A few days later at a developers conference, a sweat-soaked Ballmer repeatedly chanted "developers" at least 14 times in front of the bemused gathering. Beyond his jovial image, this second cousin of famous comedian Gilda Radner is known to be a shrewd businessman with a flair to grab opportunities when they come.
Ballmer has also called Linux "communism" and the GNU GPL "a cancer". He advocates Digital rights management and has said that "DRM is the future."

Linux may have Tux, but we've got Ballmer. Pudgy cartoon penguin versus sweaty screaming billionaire? C'mon. That's not even close.

Posted by Jeff Atwood View blog reactions

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Comments

Alternate site for ballmer videos (all 3):

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/downloads/downloads.html

Jeff Atwood on July 29, 2005 07:15 PM

There is also a remix of these Dance monkeyboy and Developers, Developers, Developers at http://www.tarmo.fi/arc/ballmer.avi. It actually makes a really good song.

Hermann Klinke on July 30, 2005 03:06 AM

Well said. Steve Balmer has achieved incredible wealth, yet he still clearly cares passionately about Microsoft and its success. That's part of the reason I created my own "developers developers developers" t-shirt http://jcooney.net/archive/2005/07/24/6429.aspx

JosephCooney on July 31, 2005 10:34 AM

That shirt is awesome!

Jeff Atwood on August 1, 2005 02:41 PM

Another funny Ballmer video:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=85529

The part I'm thinking of is when he talks about blogging and he says "I don't think it would have made a difference..." and then screams "WHETHER I WANTED TO OR NOT..." in his squeaky voice... Funny stuff.

I definitely like his enthusiasm and his good humor. Looks like a strong leader to me. Funny guy.

MT on August 3, 2005 12:42 PM

dear god, what a freak.

Frakety Frak on May 1, 2006 11:33 AM

Yeah, I personally think that he's a fruitcake also.

darkcmd on May 29, 2006 05:51 AM

Fellow will die of cardiac arrest some day.

msc on August 1, 2006 02:37 AM

Enthusiasm yeah, but he has absolutely no class or style. I'd feel embarrassed to work for somebody that flaunts himself in such a shameless way.

The reason that someone like Michael Dell wouldn't do it is because he has common sense and some dignity. Hell, he is probably emotionally stable to boot.

A famous quote comes to mind as being somewhat appropriate:

Incompetence: "When You Earnestly Believe You Can Compensate For A Lack Of Skill By Doubling Your Efforts, There's No End To What You Can't Do."

Jaxx on November 19, 2006 05:18 PM

Jaxx, what a joy it must be to wake up every morning with that attitude.

muno on May 15, 2007 01:57 AM

I might go on a limb here and say that i think he might be doing Rails before his appearances :) har har har

Alex G on May 15, 2007 06:08 AM

I admire Ballmer's willingness to make an ass of himself, but not his dedication to it.

Fred F on May 27, 2007 05:45 PM

I work for Micheal Dell and have met him about a dozen times. He is every bit as enthusiastic about HIS company as anyone else. And so is Steve Jobs, and so are Sergey and Larry, they just don't need to make a total freakin' ass out of themselves to show it. Balmer is a fat retard.

Kono on July 2, 2007 04:44 PM

Ballmer doesn't care nothing about nothing, he only wants more dough for him and he sure knows that windows are 50 million lines of non conforming junk. He acts as if he's passionate (or a sweaty fat bloke with a pungent hint of boarder-line craziness) just to sell those MS crap. Windows is like an annoying mother in law who just won't die or a chatty girlfriend or wife who just won't shut the hell up. Linux IP infrigement? I think not, MS has loads of IP violations throughout each year.
PS one thing ballmer and jobs have in common is not just the 1st name, but also a billionair jerk (even though I am a mac user) differ in the taste of clothes and design for the future

Grumpy on October 12, 2007 10:21 AM

Us.

(the reason why Ballmer & these other people are multi-billionaires)

Computer User 10 on December 5, 2007 08:01 AM