[Toshio]

To me the problems with microsoft are manifold, and they are not at all related to ballmer's professional competencies, but to his complete lack of ethics, which ends up trickling down through the ranks (see employee infighting/politicking), trickling out to users of their software (see the not-having-a-choice-about-preinstalled-software-on-generic-laptops), trickling out to other tech companies (see the bullying microsoft subjects Android manufacturers to), and trickling out to competitors (see microsoft unfairly dictating standards to the marketplace and the infamous corruption of ISO standards in 2008).

microsoft's core expertise isn't technology or even marketing, it's bullying, and it's defending / extending an existing monopoly. When you look at microsoft today, what you really notice is that they're still going by the same old playbook, pretending that it's still 1997, which is proving to be a very ineffective approach. It won't make a difference whether Ballmer stays or goes, as long as the new CEO is going to be someone whom bill gates has specifically picked based on their allegiance to microsoft's old playbook.