Windows XP has a date with destiny scheduled for June 30, but it looks like the plucky OS just isn't ready to go: Ultraportable OEMs will be able to preload XP until "one year after the general availability of Windows 7," whenever that is, and now we're hearing reports that Dell's telling customers it'll sell XP on professional systems until 2012. The Dell thing is just a rumor for now, but what's Steve Ballmer doing telling reporters that although XP is EOL, "if customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter" and extend XP sales? Um, Steve? Customers have been feeding back like crazy and Microsoft has kind of ignored them, remember? Maybe it's time for a quick nap.

Update: That was pretty funny for a totally unintentional typo, wasn't it?

Read - CNET article quoting Ballmer
Read - Dell rumors

Apparently, Steve Ballmer didn't just take time to respond to the latest iPhone announcements and give that whole Monkey Boy Dance another go during the Mix '08 event. Oh no, he most certainly took the opportunity to address Microsoft's stance on where it was headed now that the format war has concluded. Granted, it's not like it ever had much choice here but to pick up the pieces and support the Blu camp, but for those who put a great deal of stock in confirmation, Mr. Ballmer did say that it had "already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like." He also noted that "Toshiba had moved on" and that it too was moving forward, but unfortunately, he didn't make a peep about the recently rumored Xbox 360 BD add-on. Still, we're hoping that one thing will lead to another, if you catch our drift.

[Via Gamespot, thanks rooshma]

It's always interesting to hear execs chime in on the competition following big announcements. So it's no surprise to hear that Steve Ballmer was peppered with questions about the iPhone during yesterday's Mix '08 event with Guy Kawasaki. When asked about Silverlight -- Microsoft's attempt at usurping Adobe's Flash -- on the Flash-less iPhone, Ballmer said, "Silverlight for the iPhone is of course interesting," adding, "I can't say there's been extensive discussion with Guy's old boss." He also wondered aloud about Apple possibly digging too deeply into developers pockets with its 30% share of application revenue. Ballmer said, "it's a good business if you can make it." A jab at Jobs' claim that Apple doesn't plan to make any money off the App Store. The highlight though came with Ballmer's compliance to recreate his Monkey Boy Dance for Web Developers. Bill, we're going to miss you.

[Thanks, Bryant]

Read -- Q&A on iPhone
Read -- Monkey Boy dance, take 2

You can't help but love Steve Ballmer. Besides being the ultra-rich, ultra-faithful CEO of Microsoft, you can always count on him to deliver some choice words -- especially if the competition is in the news. His latest efforts come in the wake of Google's Android announcement, a project which clearly stands to compete with Redmond's ubiquitous Windows Mobile platform. When asked what he thought of the forthcoming phone OS at a news conference in Tokyo, Ballmer noted that, "Their efforts are just some words on paper right now." Okay, let's be perfectly honest: that statement is true -- but don't you think that when a monolithic company like Google aligns itself with other giants such as Intel, T-Mobile, Samsung, and LG (amongst others), Microsoft might take it a little more seriously? Ballmer went on to say that, "They have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices and they're welcome in our world." Thanks for allowing Google into "your world" Steve, we're sure your subjects will appreciate it.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer is certainly no stranger to our CE-Oh no he didn't! series, but Mandriva's CEO François Bancilhon now looks to have turned the tables, with him targeting Ballmer in an open letter on his blog. Causing all his ire is a recent deal Mandriva made to install its Linux distribution onto 17,000 Classmate PCs sold to the Nigerian Government, which Nigeria says they will follow through on, only to replace the OS with Windows afterwards. Bancilhon, as you might have guessed, is laying the blame for the sudden change of heart squarely on Microsoft, and Ballmer specifically, saying "Wow! I'm impressed, Steve! What have you done for these guys to change their mind like this? It's pretty clear to me, and it will be clear to everyone." Bancilhon went on to ask, "How do you call what you just did Steve, in the place where you live?," adding that, "In my place, they give it various names, I'm sure you know them." Bancilhon then busted out the ever-reliable "how do you feel looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning?" line, before closing things off by saying, "You have the money, the power, and maybe we have a different sense of ethics you and I, but I believe that hard work, good technology and ethics can win too."

[Via Yahoo News/PC Magazine]

Steve Ballmer has been doing quite a lot of talking lately, and his most recent noteworthy conversation came when he addressed an analyst and mother who was noticeably displeased with Windows Vista. During Mr. Ballmer's appearance at the Gartner Inc. conference in Orlando, Florida, Yvonne Genovese took the liberty of kvetching to him about her early adopter struggles. She explained that she felt the need to revert back to XP merely two days after caving to her daughter's request to pick up Vista for those "neat little things called gadgets." Steve went on to exclaim that he "loved her daughter," but the mom carried on by asking "what should people be seeing that we're not seeing?" As the debate unfolded, Ballmer insinuated that while there was "a lot of value in Vista," it has been more difficult for customers to implement due to heightened system requirements and a less-than-stellar amount of available device drivers at launch. Of course, he also noted that Service Pack 1 would address "a lot of the customer feedback," but we don't get the feeling that was what Ms. Genovese was looking to hear.

As soon as the salary of a CEO reaches the $1 million a year mark, they should probably hush up about their peer's ridiculously inflated $74 million ones. Apply those numbers to Steve Ballmer and Larry Ellison respectively, and now consider that Ballmer is complaining about the latter's yearly figure. According to Forbes, Ellison has consistently hit the top ten of CEO compensation list, and is unarguably the most well paid CEO of a technology company, but does that give Ballmer any right to call him out on it? We're thinking maybe Ballmer should take stock -- of which he has 9.6% of Microsoft's total by the way -- and continue to count up his $15 Billion fortune. Sure, over-compensation of CEOs is a problem, but one that probably shouldn't be outed by a well-compensated CEO that earns double-digit multiples over the average Microsoft salary.

As the two giants edge closer onto each of their respective core markets, the tension gets more pronounced: just last week Google pointed to the integration of search into Windows Vista, claiming to the Dept. of Justice that it discourages people from using other solutions (like Google's Desktop Search) and violates the company's agreement with the Government. This week, Steve Ballmer called the complaint "baseless," and said that the company is in complete compliance with the agreements it has with the U.S. Government. In any case, Microsoft is fighting a losing battle, with Google able to use the DOJ as a router for its claims, and Microsoft then forced to defend itself on two fronts. Maybe it might be a good time for Microsoft to consider a policy of opening its platforms a little bit: it's not like the opponent (this time around) is going to go away anytime soon.

It was a long day at WSJ's D down in San Diego, but there was plenty to see. Check out our coverage roundup below.

Live coverage
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates: Historic discussion live from D 2007
Steve Jobs live from D 2007
Steve Ballmer live from D 2007
Palm's Jeff Hawkins live from D 2007

Apple
iPhone to get third party apps
Apple TV gets 160GB disk... and YouTube too
iTunes Plus and EMI's DRM-free music hands-on
iTunes Plus DRM-free music now official(er)

Microsoft
Microsoft Surface - surface and gesture based computing lands
Microsoft Surface hands-on

Palm
Palm Foleo hands-on
Palm Foleo gallery
Palm Foleo announced

Etc.
Livescribe shows off Leapfrog Fly-esque pen computer for grown-ups
QiGO announces Internet Content Keys

Also, you reminded us that you're a hell of a clever lot that not seemed to think we were justified in totally panning Palm's new Foleo. So here are some of the top nicknames we've heard it given:

1. Foolio (totally our favorite, by Jeff)
2. Folly-o (by derF)
3. The Palm Shark Jumper (by Brian)

Feel free to leave some more in comments!

Steve "Developers!" Ballmer is set to take the stage this morning at D, but since we don't know exactly what time that's going to happen you all are gonna have to hang tight until he does. We expect he'll be discussing last night's Surface announcement, but we'll see what else he's got planned for us. Stick close!

UPDATE: D has posted video highlights of Ballmer's chat, our original liveblog after the jump.

Ok, we've landed and have some rough times you should be ready for things to go off tomorrow. Remember, we've got a Steve Jobs presentation, Jeff Hawkins is showing off whatever Palm's got next, and the icing on the cake is Jobs (again) for a hot legend-on-legend sitdown with Bill Gates. Here are the windows to watch out for, we'll try and blog as much as our battery can hold out for:

Wednesday, May 30
8:00AM - 10:30AM PST window
Steve Ballmer / Microsoft
Jeff Hawkins / Palm

11:15AM - 1:00PM PST window
Steve Jobs / Apple

7:15PM PST
Bill Gates & Steve Jobs 2getha 4eva

Thursday, May 31
11:00AM - 12:45PM PST window
Eric Schmidt / Google

We're pumped for a real showdown in the upcoming months, since the Linux community has just launched Show Us the Code, a website / movement humoring Steve Ballmer's repeated claims of burgled Microsoft IP within the open source OS -- accusations he's been making ever since Microsoft and Novell went into cahoots with each other back in November. The grassroots organization challenges Ballmer to bring it on: if Microsoft forks over the evidence by May 1st, Linux developers will alter their code accordingly to maintain freeware status. However, if Redmond plays dumb or comes up empty handed, a figurative tail will find its way between the company's legs and a handful of dirty looks and I-told-you-so's are likely to ensue. The first day has already yielded the support of 13 companies and SUTC is definitely hawking up an online presence, and if it really blows up, the battle should end with an "in-your-face" bang either way. 'Til then, peruse the site and enjoy biting remarks such as "And much to your dismay, we don't want Microsoft's code specifically" and "Don't you owe it to your shareholders to work with others to ensure their intellectual property isn't being violated?"

[Via Slashdot]

All those cool kids with their messy hair and loud rock music like to talk about how Vista is the "end of an era," and from now on the OS will move towards modular updates and internet service-based functionality. But before they get too smug, Steve Ballmer warned on Monday that there's "plenty more where that came from." He sort of dodged the questions about when to expect a service pack, saying "We'll put one out if we need to," but he also mentioned "We've got a very long list of stuff our engineers want to do, a long list of stuff all of the companies here want us to do," and that "There are so many areas where we need innovation." Hard to really tell what he's hinting at -- other than the fact that he obviously wants you to buy his shiny new OS -- but while Fiji does seem destined for our desktops sooner rather than later, it's hard to discount rumors of the tantalizing upgrades and reworkings we're hearing about in Vienna, which would be Microsoft's first big break in Windows backwards compatibility, and could provide much more power to the OS. 'Cause you know how we do: we're doing our Flip 3D thing, tagging our photos and burning those DVDs, and we can't help but wonder, "is this all there is?"

They're billing it as the "most significant product launch in Microsoft's history," so why not let them have their fun? Microsoft busted out Windows Vista Business today, along with Office Professional 2007, and a slew of other business, server and enterprise-related products. The day's festivities took place at NASDAQ, where Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Christopher Liddell rang the opening bell this morning, followed by a day of hyping up the offerings to prospective volume-licensees. Microsoft expects over 200 million people will be using at least one of the products offered today by the end of 2007, and no matter what your stance on Microsoft and Windows, it's hard to argue with the impact of these softwares. So yeah, we could dwell on the considerable delays Microsoft experienced leading up to this release, or conjecture how long it'll take for 0-day vulnerabilities to emerge in this shiny new OS, but instead we'd just like to wish Steve Ballmer and co. the best of luck with Vista, Office and all the trimmings. There, now that we've gotten that out of our system, let the bug-finding begin!