7 ms·

I don't understand this. Valve is already doing mile-length steps in terms of upending one of the Windows' biggest advantages over Linux: games. Arguably, Offi

by Xion 14y ago

I don't understand this. Valve is already doing mile-length steps in terms of upending one of the Windows' biggest advantages over Linux: games. Arguably, Office is another, but this time it's supposedly Microsoft itself who is about to diminish yet another selling of point of their own operating system. I'm really confused, if that's indeed true. You could say it follows naturally with all the screw-ups MS made recently with respect to Windows 8 & Metro UI. But really, seeing a company undermine their own business so blatantly... I don't know what to think about this.

slurgfest 14y ago
Valve and Ubuntu have provided a platform. But the games aren't there at all.
- _jason 14y ago
  a. Steam on Linux is still in beta and relatively new b. Cutting-edge triple A titles? No, not yet. Older, but well seasoned triple-A titles? Getting there (e.g., Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2). High-quality indie titles? Quite a selection, actually (e.g., Minecraft, Humble Indie Bundles, etc...).
amcintyre 14y ago
Office is, I think, one of the big revenue earners for Microsoft, so it does kinda make sense for them to make sure they can try to sell it to everybody regardless of which OS they run.
purplelobster 14y ago
Maybe they're afraid of losing their entire Office business to Google unless they're multi-platform.
patdennis 14y ago
It's the same logic as offering Office for OS X. They know holding a OS monopoly isn't feasible. Might as well make money off of the holdouts.
InclinedPlane 14y ago
It's a smart move. It's the "strategy tax" which is dumb. It is extraordinarily rare for it to be a smart business choice to not have all of your products be as promiscuous as possible. Imagine where .net/visual studio/et al would be today if they'd been shipping official VMs (CLRs) targeting linux/unix ages ago. At this point it's questionable whether or not office is really going to be the breaking point that keeps people from fleeing the MS ship. More so, there's a strong risk that it could work the other way, that people "building a life" (or a business) outside of the Windows walls could find that it's not so hard to live without office, which would hurt MS even more. Also, ensuring that office remains the de facto business standard for the foreseeable future means that MS will always have that opening to entice people back to the Windows platform, the same way mp3 players enticed people to switch to macs, iphones, and ipads.
- mahyarm 14y ago
  How much money would .NET make them if it wasn't attached to Windows OS sales? If they detached .NET & Visual Studio, where will they make the money from it? For Sun, Java at least ran high end server product sales.
  - InclinedPlane 14y ago
    It's complicated. The runtime, the libraries, and the web server are all free. But Visual Studio makes money, and the team foundation system makes a lot of money. If you take all of that together then on its own it would be a company with ten figure annual revenue. In a hypothetical alternate Universe where .net 1.0 launched on linux/unix as well and they were able to gain a lot more traction in those communities then one would expect VS and perhaps TFS sales to increase concomitantly. Also, such an independent company would probably have a wider range of products for sale if they weren't tied to the Windows/Office ATM, though of course that's more speculative.
akurilin 14y ago
If they soon give out the OS for free, or dirt cheap, then they will ultimately only care about the applications they sell, meaning that the host OS won't matter nearly as much.
glesica 14y ago
Office is their business. If people are going to switch to Linux anyway, might as well sell them a subscription to Office still. It is starting to matter less and less which OS is running as things move to the browser and "cloud". The Windows monopoly is over, so MS would be smart to admit that and start looking for business opportunities that transcend the OS, one of which is Office.
firefoxman1 14y ago
The people who switch to linux will do it regardless of office being available. Why not make $200 off of them?
- wutbrodo 14y ago
  Almost everyone I know who's been exposed to (and intrigued by) a friend's/acquaintance's Linux installation has been stopped by a fear of weak Office support. Aside from the hassle of partitioning and installing Linux on a Windows computer, this seems to be the single issue keeping them from switching. I'm not pretending that this anecdotal data supports a blanket statement that it is the main issue keeping people from Linux, but it certainly helps belie your blanket statement that people who would switch to Linux are relatively unaffected in that decision by Office availability.
adventured 14y ago
Productivity software is still a big part of Microsoft's future (not to mention it was always their soul). Windows is a lot less so. They're beginning to figure that out. Windows is now merely 1/3 of their income stream. I say merely to reference how far that has come down over the last decade from the peak. In my opinion... ten years from now, if Microsoft is still relevant, Windows will be 15% or less of their income. There was a Microsoft long before there was a Windows, and I'd be inclined to bet there will be a Microsoft long after Windows matters.
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  The fun part to think about- I don't neccesarily wish for Windows to die (choices is nice), but if it did Microsoft would suddenly be flush with extra developers. What new projects might they start, or what ways might they be able to improve Office in actually awesome ways?
Joeri 14y ago
Microsoft is becoming a services company. They want to sell you a yearly subscription to the office 365 service, and it makes sense to provide that service on all platforms people use. You can't make an omelet without breaking any eggs. Microsoft knows that windows will not be ubiquitous, so they are choosing for a smaller slice of a bigger market instead of a lock-in on a shrinking market.
webreac 14y ago
I think that office on linux will always be a second citizen software. Linux users will have less power to force usage of open tools if microsoft office is available on linux.

by Xion 14y ago

slurgfest 14y ago

Valve and Ubuntu have provided a platform. But the games aren't there at all.

_jason 14y ago
a. Steam on Linux is still in beta and relatively new b. Cutting-edge triple A titles? No, not yet. Older, but well seasoned triple-A titles? Getting there (e.g., Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2). High-quality indie titles? Quite a selection, actually (e.g., Minecraft, Humble Indie Bundles, etc...).

amcintyre 14y ago

Office is, I think, one of the big revenue earners for Microsoft, so it does kinda make sense for them to make sure they can try to sell it to everybody regardless of which OS they run.

purplelobster 14y ago

Maybe they're afraid of losing their entire Office business to Google unless they're multi-platform.

patdennis 14y ago

It's the same logic as offering Office for OS X. They know holding a OS monopoly isn't feasible. Might as well make money off of the holdouts.

InclinedPlane 14y ago

It's a smart move. It's the "strategy tax" which is dumb. It is extraordinarily rare for it to be a smart business choice to not have all of your products be as promiscuous as possible. Imagine where .net/visual studio/et al would be today if they'd been shipping official VMs (CLRs) targeting linux/unix ages ago. At this point it's questionable whether or not office is really going to be the breaking point that keeps people from fleeing the MS ship. More so, there's a strong risk that it could work the other way, that people "building a life" (or a business) outside of the Windows walls could find that it's not so hard to live without office, which would hurt MS even more. Also, ensuring that office remains the de facto business standard for the foreseeable future means that MS will always have that opening to entice people back to the Windows platform, the same way mp3 players enticed people to switch to macs, iphones, and ipads.

mahyarm 14y ago
How much money would .NET make them if it wasn't attached to Windows OS sales? If they detached .NET & Visual Studio, where will they make the money from it? For Sun, Java at least ran high end server product sales.
- InclinedPlane 14y ago
  It's complicated. The runtime, the libraries, and the web server are all free. But Visual Studio makes money, and the team foundation system makes a lot of money. If you take all of that together then on its own it would be a company with ten figure annual revenue. In a hypothetical alternate Universe where .net 1.0 launched on linux/unix as well and they were able to gain a lot more traction in those communities then one would expect VS and perhaps TFS sales to increase concomitantly. Also, such an independent company would probably have a wider range of products for sale if they weren't tied to the Windows/Office ATM, though of course that's more speculative.

akurilin 14y ago

If they soon give out the OS for free, or dirt cheap, then they will ultimately only care about the applications they sell, meaning that the host OS won't matter nearly as much.

glesica 14y ago

Office is their business. If people are going to switch to Linux anyway, might as well sell them a subscription to Office still. It is starting to matter less and less which OS is running as things move to the browser and "cloud". The Windows monopoly is over, so MS would be smart to admit that and start looking for business opportunities that transcend the OS, one of which is Office.

firefoxman1 14y ago

The people who switch to linux will do it regardless of office being available. Why not make $200 off of them?

wutbrodo 14y ago
Almost everyone I know who's been exposed to (and intrigued by) a friend's/acquaintance's Linux installation has been stopped by a fear of weak Office support. Aside from the hassle of partitioning and installing Linux on a Windows computer, this seems to be the single issue keeping them from switching. I'm not pretending that this anecdotal data supports a blanket statement that it is the main issue keeping people from Linux, but it certainly helps belie your blanket statement that people who would switch to Linux are relatively unaffected in that decision by Office availability.

adventured 14y ago

Productivity software is still a big part of Microsoft's future (not to mention it was always their soul). Windows is a lot less so. They're beginning to figure that out. Windows is now merely 1/3 of their income stream. I say merely to reference how far that has come down over the last decade from the peak. In my opinion... ten years from now, if Microsoft is still relevant, Windows will be 15% or less of their income. There was a Microsoft long before there was a Windows, and I'd be inclined to bet there will be a Microsoft long after Windows matters.

sliverstorm 14y ago
The fun part to think about- I don't neccesarily wish for Windows to die (choices is nice), but if it did Microsoft would suddenly be flush with extra developers. What new projects might they start, or what ways might they be able to improve Office in actually awesome ways?

Joeri 14y ago

Microsoft is becoming a services company. They want to sell you a yearly subscription to the office 365 service, and it makes sense to provide that service on all platforms people use. You can't make an omelet without breaking any eggs. Microsoft knows that windows will not be ubiquitous, so they are choosing for a smaller slice of a bigger market instead of a lock-in on a shrinking market.

webreac 14y ago

I think that office on linux will always be a second citizen software. Linux users will have less power to force usage of open tools if microsoft office is available on linux.