What else did Ballmer tell employees?

Ballmer preached the value of integration, ensuring that Microsoft products as seemingly disparate as server applications and mobile phone software work together.

"Some other vendors sell against integration," he wrote. "We see and deliver unique customer value because of integration."

Ballmer said Microsoft needs to focus on "strengthening the customer value in our end-to-end technology platform - client and server operating systems, client and server applications, and programming tools - which all integrate seamlessly and scale from the enterprise to the desktop to wireless mobile devices. These systems are better for users, developers and IT people because of the common architecture for development tools, management, application schema, interoperability, identity, data, etc."

Ballmer also touted Longhorn, the much-anticipated successor to Windows XP that will dramatically change file management and other basic aspects of PC operation.

"Longhorn is our big bet on galvanizing the next big breakthrough - even bigger, perhaps, than the first generation Windows release," he wrote. "Virtually everything we're doing from a product standpoint will accrue to the Longhorn wave. In addition to the Longhorn client, there will be a Longhorn version of Office, Longhorn server enhancements, Longhorn development tools, and a Longhorn version of MSN."

Microsoft has not yet announced a definite schedule for delivering Longhorn, and Ballmer vowed that "we will do the work and take the time required to get it right, because it truly is the next quantum leap in computing, which will put us years ahead of any other product on the market."

Ballmer also acknowledged several recent Microsoft stumbles, including clumsy implementation of a controversial new licensing plan for business customers. He said the licensing flap shows Microsoft needs to improve its communication with customers.

"We also must improve business consistency," he said "Customers love predictability, and rightly so. Licensing 6.0 was our hard-learned lesson about this."

Recent hacker attacks show Microsoft also has plenty of work left to do in security, Ballmer wrote. "Our Trustworthy Computing initiative is hitting its stride, and we have formed a group focused on adding core security technologies to all our products," he wrote. "Our customers are still hit with security vulnerabilities, and we have spent a lot of time learning from Slammer what we need to do better. We are improving our approach to fixes, and our new integrated software update and distribution services will provide more businesses with the tools they need to deploy updates easily."

Ballmer also hinted at a more open approach to the way Microsoft deals with pre-release software. "We should look at communicating about new product design to customers earlier through online design discussion," he wrote. "For some products it makes sense to publish regular builds of new products online, for community feedback."

In an interview on Wednesday, Ballmer acknowledged that Microsoft may be borrowing some ideas from the open source community on how to disseminate information to developers.

"We will learn good ideas from wherever they come," he said. "And if that [publishing of software for community feedback] sounds a little more like the way the non-commercial software community works, if we see good ideas there that we think we can adapt and still deliver the kind of value to our customers that we believe commercial software companies should deliver, then we will use good ideas."

David Becker writes for CNET News.com. Mike Ricciuti contributed to this report.