HISTORY OF DEV

March 6, 2008

Ballmer: "Web developers!" chant

At MIX08 in Las Vegas, Ballmer reprised his famous developers chant after an audience member asked for love for the web dev community.

Quote

“Web developers! Web developers! Web developers!”

What it was for

Steve BallmerBallmer was interviewing with Guy Kawasaki when a developer in the crowd requested the ritual. The moment tied MicrosoftThe software giant behind Windows, Office, Azure, and Xbox — founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.'s Silverlight and web platform push to the same sweaty enthusiasm as the 2000 original.

People

  • Steve Ballmer — ceo

Companies

  • Microsoft

Why it's here

The sequel meme — developers chant updated for the web era.

Why it mattered

It signaled MicrosoftThe software giant behind Windows, Office, Azure, and Xbox — founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.'s courtship of web developers during the FlashAdobe Flash — a browser plugin for animations and video — deprecated as the web moved to HTML5./Silverlight wars.

What it solved

MIX needed a viral moment to rally the web community around MicrosoftThe software giant behind Windows, Office, Azure, and Xbox — founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.'s stack.

Media

  • YouTubeGuy Kawasaki and Steve Ballmer at MIX08 (March 6, 2008)
  • Steve Ballmer
    ImageSteve Ballmer

    Steve_ballmer_2007_outdoors2.jpg: Martin Olsson (username 'mnemo' on en/sv wikipedia and commons, martin@minimum.se). derivative work: Off2riorob (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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