The main problem with Microsoft in the past is that they didn't make money except by selling more software licenses. Things have begun to change with the cloud

The main problem with Microsoft in the past is that they didn't make money except by selling more software licenses. Things have begun to change with the cloud stuff, but the mentality is still there in the dev tools and frameworks - instead of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" it winds up being "every time we move the cheese we make more money". Microsoft's incentives still don't quite align with their developer/customers, but Microsoft does an amazing job pushing toward whatever is tossed out for sale as the new & shiny each year. The entire company is an amazing marketing machine. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/ Think of the history of data access strategies to come out of Microsoft. ODBC, RDO, DAO, ADO, OLEDB, now ADO.NET – All New! Are these technological imperatives? [...] The competition has no choice but to spend all their time porting and keeping up, time that they can’t spend writing new features.