Reply to post: Re: MS Windows is finished

Microsoft's Windows Phone folly costs it another billion dollars

Flocke Kroes Silver badge

Re: MS Windows is finished

I would agree that Windows phone is mortally wounded, and about to expire.

Microsoft are still trying to get into the cloud market. The problem here is not specifically Linux, but Amazon. Amazon need at least ten times their average capacity to handle spikes in demand. The remaining 90% would just sit idle, so they rent it out. When there is a spike in demand, it is because people are looking at Amazon, not at the other sites hosted on the same servers. Until Microsoft need reserve capacity on the same scale as Amazon, they will not be able to profitably compete on price.

The old problem with China was that Windows was 'free' (pirated). Microsoft have made an effort to get revenue from China, but I do not have figures to support success or failure there. I would be surprised if the majority of residents in the countries you mention made an effort to understand computer security. Theresa May's best efforts have not caused a stampede to Linux here.

Microsoft haven't incorporated the Linux kernel into Windows because of licensing issues. Likewise, WINE does not include Microsoft code for the same reason. Each is a compatibility layer that allows software compiled for the other operating system to execute. Microsoft's compatibility layer lowers to barrier for Penguins to do something useful with Windows. When that barrier drops to lower than wiping and installing a penguin's favourite distribution then it might have some effect. Microsoft are a long way from needing penguins to claim their OS has developers.

When OSes have faded away in the past, the fanboys who wasted years honing skills with dinosaur wrangling found their rare abilities in high demand from those too locked in to jump ship early. A decade from now, Windows devs may be getting over £1000/hour from the truly desperate. We are not there yet.

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