3 ms·
Windows Server has a vast ecosystem of skilled technicians, vendors, and MSPs who maintain the installation in the closet of every barber shop, high school, aut
by closeparen 4y ago
Windows Server has a vast ecosystem of skilled technicians, vendors, and MSPs who maintain the installation in the closet of every barber shop, high school, auto parts distributor, and dental clinic in North America. These institutions don't have & wouldn't be able to get the expertise to run their own Linux servers in the same way. That's what Windows Server is for. But as applications migrate to SaaS and the cloud, the operational capabilities of random small customers stop being relevant. Microsoft is trying to catch up to this with Azure, and Azure is embracing Linux, because that's how the internet-scale backend game is played.
- Godel_unicode 4y agoYou almost had it, until the very end. There are services in Azure that run on Linux, sure, but it’s not in danger of displacing Windows any time soon. Those closet ADs will end up dirsync’d to AAD, and their inventory/CRM/etc app will be whichever SaaS figures that out fastest.
- closeparen 4y agoI don't deny that Microsoft is using Windows Server for internet-scale workloads. My contention is they are trying to capture the business of small software vendors, who previously built shrink-wrap products for Windows Server and are now reaching for something like AWS to host their SaaS. This type of business favors Linux, so Azure has to be a good place to run Linux.