Ballmer may be the face of problems and there is no denying that he is clueless, but we all know that Gates has been making all the major decisions for him.
Microsoft's recent failures as are much Gates' failures as they are Ballmer's. It is only fair that they get the same treatment.
According to both of them, Ballmer has been fully in charge of Microsoft in all respects for more than a decade. Further, Gates has been completely retired from any decision making role in operations at Microsoft for five years. For years before that he was a glorified software opinion giver ("chief software architect"), and by his own statements he was heavily ignored in the role.
If you have something that proves otherwise, given we have their public statements (over and over again) on the matter, I'd love to see it.
That view would also line up with Pirates of Silicon Valley (that Gates stated was reasonably close to the truth). Gates was a "wheeler and dealer" rather than being a geek. The way he played Apple and IBM was the sign of a business genius.
Think again about what you are saying. I am sure Ballmer would hold a press release admitting he is clueless about technology and relies on Gates to make those kind of decisions for him. :)
See my response to previous comment for one such example where Ballmer deferred a really important decision to Gates.
> Ballmer may be the face of problems and there is no denying that he is clueless, but we all know that Gates has been making all the major decisions for him.
Microsoft's recent failures as are much Gates' failures as they are Ballmer's. It is only fair that they get the same treatment.