Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is a pretty private person and even though he is the subject of a new and extensive article on the Businessweek.com web site, it doesn't really reveal too much that is personal about the person in charge of one of the largest tech companies in the world.
The article does say that, in terms of his music tastes Ballmer likes Lady Gaga but, "Gnarls Barkley, I hate." The article also reveals that he eats often, and privately, at a steakhouse in Bellevue, Washington. However, Microsoft is keeping the name of that particular restaurant a secret.
The bulk of the article talks about how Ballmer has tried to rise from the shadow of Microsoft's more famous co-founder and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. He is well known as the "monkey boy" who got a bit excited at a Microsoft event that was famously captured on video several years ago. Even Ballmer says in the article, "The fact of the matter is that the new guy will never quite look exactly like the visionary founder no matter how hard they try."
The article goes over how, under Ballmer's leadership, Microsoft's various departments are now trying to work together. Some of the evidence of that is the Metro tile interface that was first used in Windows Phone 7 and was later put into the new Xbox Dashboard update. Of course, the Metro UI is a part of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 OS.
Ballmer has some harsh words with how Microsoft handled the Windows Vista launch in 2007, saying, "Not our finest hour. It didn’t give us a lot of agility in our ability to remap, reapply, refocus resources."
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