3 ms·

> I think you're overestimating the importance of the revenue generated It is literally impossible to do this. Revenue is the only thing that matters when meas

> I think you're overestimating the importance of the revenue generated It is literally impossible to do this. Revenue is the only thing that matters when measuring markets. If it doesn't affect the bottom line, it does not matter. Passion does not sell OEM installs or license keys. Creators and hackers didn't buy MS products in appreciable numbers to begin with (compared to consumer and enterprise markets), so to the degree MS can be said to be losing them, MS does not care. If moms and humanities majors stopped buying laptops entirely and that $750M/Q dropped to the ~$1M/Q the power users drive, MS would probably pull out of the OEM license market. This is a very different mindset about how businesses operate than you seem to share, which is fine, I'm explaining it not trying to convert you to it.

Propelloni 3y ago
You are certainly right about revenue. You say you are in enterprise IT, I used to be there. I actually built and was responsible for the IT of one of the few larger "Linux only" enterprises in the mid-2010s in Germany (like you said, Fedora and Gnome2. Ubuntu and Gnome2 for us). When I left we were talking about a 1000 seats. Needless to say, it worked mostly flawless. Yet we always had the same "battle" with new joiners, unfamiliar work environments. We had to move accounting (20 seats) to MS Windows so that accountants would come to work for us. No matter that the 20 seats caused three times the support compared to the Linux seats, no accounting is still worse ;) Anyhow, that's what Microsoft is abandoning. Familiarity. If young people do not learn MS Windows and MS Office during school or at home, the grip on the enterprise will vanish. We already see it in tech-oriented departments, where Macbooks reign supreme. I for one wouldn't like to use a Macbook, but I sincerely hope that MS grip on enterprises is broken sooner rather than later.

Propelloni 3y ago

You are certainly right about revenue. You say you are in enterprise IT, I used to be there. I actually built and was responsible for the IT of one of the few larger "Linux only" enterprises in the mid-2010s in Germany (like you said, Fedora and Gnome2. Ubuntu and Gnome2 for us). When I left we were talking about a 1000 seats. Needless to say, it worked mostly flawless. Yet we always had the same "battle" with new joiners, unfamiliar work environments. We had to move accounting (20 seats) to MS Windows so that accountants would come to work for us. No matter that the 20 seats caused three times the support compared to the Linux seats, no accounting is still worse ;) Anyhow, that's what Microsoft is abandoning. Familiarity. If young people do not learn MS Windows and MS Office during school or at home, the grip on the enterprise will vanish. We already see it in tech-oriented departments, where Macbooks reign supreme. I for one wouldn't like to use a Macbook, but I sincerely hope that MS grip on enterprises is broken sooner rather than later.