I agree, that despite it not being the future of the company, Windows and controlling the desktop is still a pretty bit contributor to the company's valuation.

I agree, that despite it not being the future of the company, Windows and controlling the desktop is still a pretty bit contributor to the company's valuation. It would be pretty bad for MSFT if Windows was vaporized tomorrow. But I think Microsoft is much less paranoid, simply because desktop is a much less attractive target. It's good owning it today, but why would any potential competitor go to war to establish a beachhead in a slowly dying market? Certainly the other big tech companies are much more potentially threatening to MS today. Nobody in 1999 could hit as hard as Google, Amazon, Apple or even Facebook could today. But why would they even bother? Defending Windows is like Britain worrying about defending Gibraltar. It's still somewhat strategically important, but much less so than in the past. Because of that legacy, it's already defended way past the point of its value to any rational adversary.