4 ms·

Of all the big players in 2014, none are as diversified as Microsoft - they have Windows, XBox, Enterprise, Office, Mobile, Azure - all of which would be huge b

Of all the big players in 2014, none are as diversified as Microsoft - they have Windows, XBox, Enterprise, Office, Mobile, Azure - all of which would be huge businesses even on their own. Hence you could argue they are a lot less vulnerable than people assume them to be.

mattmanser 13y ago
They're traditionally heavily interdependent on each other and almost mutually inclusive. Traditionally if you use Enterprise, you must use Exchange, you must use Office, you must use Windows, etc. You could fudge it and try to use other tools, but it was generally a complete PITA. It's getting better than that (Azure for example & node.js), but the change has come in the last 3 years or so and as someone else noted in thread, that they could open source so much stuff so rapidly shows there was a lot of departments chomping at the bit to start decoupling themselves and moving forward.
rbanffy 13y ago
Their various units, with the exception of Xbox, are mutually reinforcing. If you don't use Office, there is little reason to use SharePoint. If you don't use Exchange, AD or SQL Server, there is little reason to use Windows servers. If you don't use Office, there is no reason to use Windows. If you don't use a Microsoft stack, Azure has little special appeal to you. If one or two of their businesses fail, the rest will crumble.
- r00fus 13y ago
  The lynchpin is Office. Microsoft realizes that Windows is no longer ascendant. It's a post-PC world. But Office, thanks in part to Microsoft's efforts is successfully sabotaging the ISO standards decisions (OOXML vs. OpenDocument), is still a near-requirement - you at least need to be able to open .doc and .xls files. I still expect Microsoft will treat Windows as "first among equals" similar to how Google treats Chrome for enhanced web features (not unlike how Apple did with Safari), but it's no longer going to be Windows-only. Microsoft is showing a lot of clue lately. I would not count them out.

mattmanser 13y ago

They're traditionally heavily interdependent on each other and almost mutually inclusive. Traditionally if you use Enterprise, you must use Exchange, you must use Office, you must use Windows, etc. You could fudge it and try to use other tools, but it was generally a complete PITA. It's getting better than that (Azure for example & node.js), but the change has come in the last 3 years or so and as someone else noted in thread, that they could open source so much stuff so rapidly shows there was a lot of departments chomping at the bit to start decoupling themselves and moving forward.

rbanffy 13y ago

Their various units, with the exception of Xbox, are mutually reinforcing. If you don't use Office, there is little reason to use SharePoint. If you don't use Exchange, AD or SQL Server, there is little reason to use Windows servers. If you don't use Office, there is no reason to use Windows. If you don't use a Microsoft stack, Azure has little special appeal to you. If one or two of their businesses fail, the rest will crumble.

r00fus 13y ago
The lynchpin is Office. Microsoft realizes that Windows is no longer ascendant. It's a post-PC world. But Office, thanks in part to Microsoft's efforts is successfully sabotaging the ISO standards decisions (OOXML vs. OpenDocument), is still a near-requirement - you at least need to be able to open .doc and .xls files. I still expect Microsoft will treat Windows as "first among equals" similar to how Google treats Chrome for enhanced web features (not unlike how Apple did with Safari), but it's no longer going to be Windows-only. Microsoft is showing a lot of clue lately. I would not count them out.