Waiting for Godot, Guffman or Gratification?

Vista, Office, Exchange, Zune - Steve Ballmer was right. His pipeline is finally disgorging product.

Those of us ricocheting off the walls at work due to post-RTM deck chair shuffling are now holding our breath, waiting.

Waiting to see where leadership will lead us next.

Will 2007 be the year where Microsoft truly unshackles from the past and embraces Live up, down and sideways across the entire organization or will it be more of the same ossified structures and processes?

No matter where we go from here, 2006 will likely be the year that Microsoft historians point to as the last where the company's main efforts went to developing and delivering large, monolithic applications.

In this reflected by what our leaders are saying? Let's do the roundup:

Ballmer: "The next frontier for us is to embrace a new business model. And if we embrace it well and that business model is subscription and advertising, where we will be a market leader. If we do not embrace it well there will be issues."

Gates: "Now, at first they're kind of daunted by the realization of what a bubble they've been living in, but then once they get used to that they think, well, we can make it better." (Referring to Western cultural isolation from non-industrialized national health issues; it's strangely apropos for Microsoft though.)

Ozzie: ""It's our aspiration to create seamless Web, desktop and mobile experiences for all activities relevant to users and customers in all our markets."

Mundie: "[A]lmost every product Microsoft has sold has a service component associated with it."

Johnson: "At the foundation is how we weave that together in an operating system that delivers something for everyone."

Raikes: "It's rewarding to be able to send this release [Office] off to our customers and help them take the next big leap forward in productivity."

Liddell: "VFI will help connect those interested in promoting a positive technology agenda directly with policymakers who determine technology policy."

Turner: "When the customer wants a choice, we can provide that choice. I want them to know they made an investment in innovation. That's how we are aligning the company."

Alrighty then. Are any of you ready to crank out a memo about how we're going to do all that? Or at the very least, bop my management chain on their respective heads to get with the program?

Update: Fixed typo.