- "all the people" is probably actually well under 1% of users
- successfully switched all corporate accounts from single-purchase w/ occasional renewal to ongoing monthly subscription
- also a lot of of consumer subscriptions
- Azure
- Github
- OpenAI investment
I actually agree with you that the Windows experience is getting worse, quickly. But on balance, seems more is going right than going wrong.
Another way to put it. People aren't buying Microsoft stock because of Windows. They are buying because of Azure and Office365.
Microsoft can't do that. It's not in their DNA. Every time Microsoft has tried to make something consumer-centric it ended up flopping eventually. Sometimes things lasted a surprisingly long time!
But their consumer-focused stuff like Zune, Xbox, even their keyboards & mice, eventually all kinda lost focus.
Windows mobile was a weird one because they tried to use the same formula they always use - a corporate OS that had all sorts of knobs and buttons for SysAdmins to manage corporate phones. You could join a Windows phone to a domain and manage it.
Xbox was pretty successful for a while because MS just has so much clout with game developers.
Zune flopped HARD. I think the Surface product line has been kinda here and there - a total failure for consumers but some businesses like it... but not many, because most businesses have a relationship with Dell.
I sincerely wish more people were able to enjoy the UX that their clever engineers designed, but I suspect their marketing departments were the downfall of those efforts.
I frankly don't know why anyone who isn't tied to very specific software requirements would ever choose Windows anymore.
I had to replace an aging Pixelbook last year and eventually decided the right decision was to get a Mac. It's stable, the hardware is high quality, it does what it needs to do, most non-enterprise software is available, and the custodian of the operating system isn't licensing my data to 3P advertisers. I almost went Linux -- and have built my own Linux machines dating back about twenty years -- but I just wanted a polished, lightweight laptop I didn't have to worry about. I almost bought a new Chromebook, but the software problem is more acute even if the OS is dead simple, and frankly, the hardware -- ever since the Pixelbook -- has been lacking polish (no matter which OEM you buy from).
Really? The only remnants of Windows Server, that I've seen within the last couple of years, were running Exchange and ActiveDirectory.
Even SQL Server installations are moving to Linux.
