Ballmer on Google Chrome OS: "Who Knows What That Thing Is"

Microsoft (MSFT) might worry more about Google’s (GOOG) new Chrome OS if it knew what it was. At the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans today, CEO Steve Ballmer said he was mystified by the dual-OS strategy Google seems to have adopted with Chrome.

“Who knows what that thing is,” Ballmer said. “”I don’t know if they can’t make up their mind or what the problem is over there. The last time I checked you don’t need two client operating systems. We tried it before with Windows 95 and Windows NT and found it’s better to have one. So I don’t really know what’s up at Google,” he said, noting that a “netbook”-centric operating system probably won’t provide good offline integration. “There’s good data that says 50 percent of the time that someone’s on their PC, they’re not doing something with the Web browser,” Ballmer added.

Better to have one than two? I guess that explains Windows and Windows Mobile, huh?