14 ms·

Microsoft is only open source friendly right now because Satya Nadella thinks the future is the cloud, and I would guess that the majority of software running i

Microsoft is only open source friendly right now because Satya Nadella thinks the future is the cloud, and I would guess that the majority of software running in Azure is open-source. You have to look no further than .Net Core. Microsoft's attempt at allowing their developers to write code that runs on something other than a Windows server/PC. I would guess they still don't like open-source; they are just doing whatever they can to support their cloud business.

jacquesm 6y ago
It's simpler than that: the desktop OS has become irrelevant, Google is a big threat to Office (assuming they will finally get their heads down, iron out the kinks and invest heavily into Sheets). The bulk of the home users out there now run their OS with one goal: to start up their browser. Desktop software is a thing that still exists in the business realm but there too cloud based services are making huge inroads. So the future is the cloud, but not Azure, that's just a hosting facility which MS can't complete concede to Google and AWS from a paranoia perspective. But Docs hits them where it hurts, and if it gets any better then outlook->gmail and office->gsuite becomes a real threat.
- scarface74 6y ago
  Office is still making MS billions. Even home users are buying O365. Besides that, Azure has three times the market share of GCP and most major enterprises don’t trust Google’s competence enough to trust their infrastructure to GCP.
  - bayindirh 6y ago
    Actually it's not as simple as that. Office is still making billions because of inertia in some cases. I have 5 Office 2019 licenses at home because my family is used to it, they're using it and happy; however I work in a big, continent-wide project and everything is done (spreadsheets to reports to slide decks to coffee) on Google Docs & Google Drive. No one is using Microsoft Office or any other desktop office software and, it works. Lines are not that clear cut anymore.
    - dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
      > continent-wide project and everything is done (spreadsheets to reports to slide decks to coffee) on Google Docs & Google Drive Are you happy with the responsiveness of Google Docs? For me once the spreadsheet exceeds a certain level of complexity, it feels really sluggish, and I feel like I'm constantly wasting microseconds while in the desktop counterpart I could have it done already. Sure, the sharing function is great, but as someone accustomed to working quickly, I'm sorry to say GD still doesn't offer a smooth experience on more complex sheets.
      - bayindirh 6y ago
        I'm generally working with docs and in some meetings the time difference is 8 hours we (from nearly every country from US to Greece) connect to the same doc as 10+ people and change small details continuously and it works. I also use some sheets designed as multi-page input forms and it works well though, we don't collaborate on them real time. I'm using Firefox with a 16M/1M ADSL connection BTW.
    - scarface74 6y ago
      We have statistics that show otherwise. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-gsuite-idUSKBN1FL3ZX https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-gsuite-idUSKBN1F...
      - bayindirh 6y ago
        Many companies may need the features and integration of Microsoft's suite with other Microsoft and third party tools for various reasons or just because they like the colors. I personally have no problem with that, and I didn't mean to contradict with this. My comments are just for my point of view and my experience. I'm in no position to talk for the whole landscape TBH.
scarface74 6y ago
No for profit “likes” open source. They just open source the parts that don’t put them at a competitive disadvantage. You don’t see sang major corporation open sourcing their core software.

jacquesm 6y ago

It's simpler than that: the desktop OS has become irrelevant, Google is a big threat to Office (assuming they will finally get their heads down, iron out the kinks and invest heavily into Sheets). The bulk of the home users out there now run their OS with one goal: to start up their browser. Desktop software is a thing that still exists in the business realm but there too cloud based services are making huge inroads. So the future is the cloud, but not Azure, that's just a hosting facility which MS can't complete concede to Google and AWS from a paranoia perspective. But Docs hits them where it hurts, and if it gets any better then outlook->gmail and office->gsuite becomes a real threat.

scarface74 6y ago
Office is still making MS billions. Even home users are buying O365. Besides that, Azure has three times the market share of GCP and most major enterprises don’t trust Google’s competence enough to trust their infrastructure to GCP.
- bayindirh 6y ago
  Actually it's not as simple as that. Office is still making billions because of inertia in some cases. I have 5 Office 2019 licenses at home because my family is used to it, they're using it and happy; however I work in a big, continent-wide project and everything is done (spreadsheets to reports to slide decks to coffee) on Google Docs & Google Drive. No one is using Microsoft Office or any other desktop office software and, it works. Lines are not that clear cut anymore.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
    > continent-wide project and everything is done (spreadsheets to reports to slide decks to coffee) on Google Docs & Google Drive Are you happy with the responsiveness of Google Docs? For me once the spreadsheet exceeds a certain level of complexity, it feels really sluggish, and I feel like I'm constantly wasting microseconds while in the desktop counterpart I could have it done already. Sure, the sharing function is great, but as someone accustomed to working quickly, I'm sorry to say GD still doesn't offer a smooth experience on more complex sheets.
    - bayindirh 6y ago
      I'm generally working with docs and in some meetings the time difference is 8 hours we (from nearly every country from US to Greece) connect to the same doc as 10+ people and change small details continuously and it works. I also use some sheets designed as multi-page input forms and it works well though, we don't collaborate on them real time. I'm using Firefox with a 16M/1M ADSL connection BTW.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    We have statistics that show otherwise. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-gsuite-idUSKBN1FL3ZX https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-gsuite-idUSKBN1F...
    - bayindirh 6y ago
      Many companies may need the features and integration of Microsoft's suite with other Microsoft and third party tools for various reasons or just because they like the colors. I personally have no problem with that, and I didn't mean to contradict with this. My comments are just for my point of view and my experience. I'm in no position to talk for the whole landscape TBH.

scarface74 6y ago

No for profit “likes” open source. They just open source the parts that don’t put them at a competitive disadvantage. You don’t see sang major corporation open sourcing their core software.