Ballmer's enthusiasm

As always seems to happen around the time of Microsoft's annual company meeting, it's relatively easy to find various people complaining about how Steve Ballmer's semi-public displays of enthusiasm for Microsoft seem silly or unprofessional.

Before joining Microsoft, I worked at Apple for several years. And one thing I learned there is that it's no fun at all working under a CEO that doesn't seem to have any passion for the company. Spindler never seemed to have any particular interest in the technology that Apple was producing, and Amelio, who should go down in history as one of the worst CEOs of all time, never displayed the slightest understanding of or enthusiasm about what the company was doing. (Jobs, to his credit, was very different. The man is brilliant, and clearly cares passionately about the technology and what Apple does.)

So Ballmer is enthusiastic about Microsoft? Thank goodness.