In Sydney to speak at a Power to Developers event, Ballmer ignited the audience with his powerful "Developers! Developers! Developers!" chant, but was surprised to hear a question about open source browser adoption from one of his student constituents.

"Why is IE still relevant and why is it worth spending money on rendering engines when there are open source ones available that can respond to changes in Web standards faster?"

"That's cheeky, but a good question, but cheeky," Ballmer said.

Indeed it is. If I was a Microsoft share holder I would want to know why Microsoft is sinking so much money into its own Web browser rendering engine when there are others available for free. Good thing the chairs in Sydney's Exhibition Centre are all bolted down.

Ballmer began his answer philosophically, saying Microsoft will need to look at what the browser is like in the future and, if there is no innovation around them, which he thinks is "likely", Microsoft may still need its own browser because of proprietary extensions that broaden its functionality.