3 ms·

Because they no longer see windows as anything more than a delivery platform for their subscription services, IMO

mossTechnician 9mo ago
You're entirely right, but they need to maintain Windows in order to promote those services. The OS and their various applications have a symbiotic relationship where they prioritize each other. If Microsoft discontinued Windows and switched to just providing web apps, the competition would be a lot stiffer.
- Akronymus 9mo ago
  "maintain" meaning keeping it somewhat workable or actually improving it? ATM windows still has enough of a moat that they can comfortably do the former.
  - mossTechnician 9mo ago
    I believe Microsoft can skate for a long time with just bug fixes and security updates. It makes the drop in Windows' quality all the more baffling.
  - this_user 9mo ago
    They literally tried that strategy with Internet Explorer 6 a long time ago where they didn't really update it for years, only doing the bare minimum. The result was a downward spiral in market share that they were unable to stop once they started trying again, ultimately resulting in IE effectively becoming obsolete.
    - debugnik 9mo ago
      Because browsers are one of the very few components that actually need to catch up to the rest of the world, but they've already outsourced most of that work to Chromium.
wolvoleo 9mo ago
True but it is still their moat. Without windows they will lose a lot of appeal to their cloud products like Intune, Azure AD, M365 etc
apothegm 9mo ago
Yup. The same thing is happening with Apple. With software mostly moving to the cloud, operating systems are getting short shrift.
resonious 9mo ago
If this is the case, Windows seems like it should be very important. Otherwise they can't deliver their subscription services. I'm not going to subscribe to cable TV if my TV is broken.
- Akronymus 9mo ago
  It just has to be good enough to be able to deliver the service. Their moat, for now, makes this possible.

You're entirely right, but they need to maintain Windows in order to promote those services. The OS and their various applications have a symbiotic relationship where they prioritize each other. If Microsoft discontinued Windows and switched to just providing web apps, the competition would be a lot stiffer.

Akronymus 9mo ago
"maintain" meaning keeping it somewhat workable or actually improving it? ATM windows still has enough of a moat that they can comfortably do the former.
- mossTechnician 9mo ago
  I believe Microsoft can skate for a long time with just bug fixes and security updates. It makes the drop in Windows' quality all the more baffling.
- this_user 9mo ago
  They literally tried that strategy with Internet Explorer 6 a long time ago where they didn't really update it for years, only doing the bare minimum. The result was a downward spiral in market share that they were unable to stop once they started trying again, ultimately resulting in IE effectively becoming obsolete.
  - debugnik 9mo ago
    Because browsers are one of the very few components that actually need to catch up to the rest of the world, but they've already outsourced most of that work to Chromium.

wolvoleo 9mo ago

True but it is still their moat. Without windows they will lose a lot of appeal to their cloud products like Intune, Azure AD, M365 etc

apothegm 9mo ago

Yup. The same thing is happening with Apple. With software mostly moving to the cloud, operating systems are getting short shrift.

resonious 9mo ago

If this is the case, Windows seems like it should be very important. Otherwise they can't deliver their subscription services. I'm not going to subscribe to cable TV if my TV is broken.

Akronymus 9mo ago
It just has to be good enough to be able to deliver the service. Their moat, for now, makes this possible.