Top ten laughably bad tech ads

The tech industry has a rich and hilarious history of being unable to promote itself as anything other than unutterably dorky. Originally we were going to call this 'The top ten worst tech ads', but as we hunted around we discovered these are pure gold. They are shockingly bad, but you'll derive so much pleasure from watching them it didn't seem right to use 'worst' anymore.

Anyway, we've collected ten of our favourites -- in no particular order -- that made us laugh, either because they feature lycra, awful singing, pathetic old technology, Steve Ballmer or some combination of all of the above. -Ian Morris

Steve Ballmer sells Windows 1.0
You've got to love Steve Ballmer. Now Bill Gates is stepping down from the day-to-day running of Microsoft to concentrate on being a full-time good guy, Ballmer is pretty much in charge at Redmond. Anyone who saw his monkey dance will know why that's a little scary.

Anyway, this video is him selling Windows 1.0. And while it's funny for all the wrong reasons, you have to respect Ballmer for not caring what people think of him. We can't imagine Jobs doing this.

Update: Several commenters have pointed out this was an internal MS video that wasn't broadcast. Fair enough, our mistake. It's still incredibly funny. And there's still no way Jobs would do it.