While every armchair tech pundit and analyst pontificates on Steve Ballmer’s retirement bombshell and speculates on who Microsoft’s next CEO might be and what the future holds for the tech giant, I’d like to take a moment to just enjoy this video of Steve selling Windows 1.0.
Sure, there are many amusing videos of the departing CEO on the web -- including his famous monkey boy dance, this one where he disses the iPhone, and of course developers, developers, developers etc. But it’s Steve in full used car salesman mode that I really like.
Selling Windows 1.0’s "advanced operating environment" Steve Ballmer rattles off the benefits -- you can paste a Miami Vice Ferrari picture into Windows Write, there’s Windows Paint, MS-DOS Executive, an appointment calendar, a card file, a notepad, a clock, a control panel, a terminal, print spooler, RAM driver and -- most importantly of all -- Reversi. It’s a fun watch, as indeed is the follow up where Steve sells Windows XP.
Sure they were cheesy videos and arguably of their time, but they at least sold some of the benefits of the product unlike, say, the original Surface adverts with dancers and clickable covers.
Maybe before he leaves, Steve Ballmer could do one more commercial in which he over-hypes Windows 8 and/or Surface. For old time's sake.
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