I agree that ballmer maanged to "grow" MS, but at the expense of the consumers. Perhaps thats good for MS, but since its bad for me i stay away from their products. Once that opinion is shard by enought users, the ship WILL sink.
This is similar to Politics. People always blame who is now in charge and not who "was" before them and layed the ground for a fail.
In Ballmers case, we all know he is laying a bad ground (dont forget before him, MS was not just "growing", it was the Big fish in the see), he is slowing down MS.
Ballmer has been considered one of the worst CEOs in the alst years, and thats quite something.