Ballmer says Windows Vista was his biggest mistake

ZD Net's Mary Jo Foley had an interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss his retirement. Asked about his biggest regret, Ballmer identifies Windows Vista as his biggest mistake, while the single biggest thing he's proud of achieving at Microsoft is the incredible impact the company made on people's lives by spreading computing technologies. You can read the full piece over here.

Q: Your biggest regret?

Ballmer: Oh, you know, I've actually had a chance to make a lot of mistakes, and probably because, you know, people all want to focus in on period A, period B, but I would say probably the thing I regret most is the, what shall I call it, the loopedy-loo that we did that was sort of Longhorn to Vista. I would say that's probably the thing I regret most. And, you know, there are side effects of that when you tie up a big team to do something that doesn't prove out to be as valuable.