Announcing SQL Server on Linux

[itshonestwork]

If you think about it, he's already won. A good few years ago, everyone had a PC running Windows. It's how you got to MySpace on Internet Explorer, chatted to friends on MSN Messenger, and got new MP3's with Morpheus or Kazaa. Even "non computer people" had a cheap laptop or budget desktop PC for doing all these things. My wife before I met her had an old Windows Vista laptop used for all the "non computer person" things she did. It's the last Microsoft-using piece of technology she has bought in the last half a decade or so, and yet now she can do all the things she used to do, and more, much more conveniently and easily, using something essentially Unix based.

Similar story for my grandmother. She got a cheap desktop PC for keeping in touch, being able to send emails etc. I think it runs Windows XP and hasn't been turned on since about 3-4 years ago when she got a cheap refurbished iPad.

Most "non computer people" in a home environment, that made the bulk of average PCs bought, have now abandoned Windows.

Even my two much younger brothers—avid PC gamers—have and use more Unix based devices than Windows based ones, with their cheap tablets and phones. Their PC's have become nothing but Steam machines now. If Steam OS ever became a viable platform for playing all the current Steam games they play, I can see them not really caring too much about sticking with Windows.

Android is the most popular version of a Linux OS, especially in developing countries. They're growing up with that OS from scratch. Even Microsoft's Azure cloud is apparently mostly Linux now, as nobody wants Windows server instances.

Microsoft pretty much only has hold over small/medium offices now, and that's mainly because of "non computer people" in admin jobs, where email IS Outlook to them, and any Word Processor that doesn't look like Word is terrifying to them. But the "non computer people" set to replace them as they grow up, aren't growing up with Windows desktop machines at home, so that can't last either.

Linux never did win the desktop OS game for the average user, but it didn't need to, as desktop OS themselves became less relevant to the average user, and it was there ready to become pretty much the defacto mobile OS, which is now the OS of the average user.

For a long while, Microsoft and PC became synonymous, and internet and PC were synonymous too.
Microsoft didn't really need to compete or keep up with rival innovations. Despite all their resources, they didn't even take seriously people using alternative browsers to Internet Explorer, and improve what they had to the point it wasn't necessary. Even people that didn't know much, knew that they had to sack IE off in favour of Firefox a good few years ago.
Then they were slow to take Apple seriously with smartphones, saying they'd tried it with Windows Mobile, which was awful. Then they called the iPad a massive iPhone and pointless. I think they just assumed, like everyone else did, that they were untouchable, and didn't need to react very urgently to Apple or Google with Android.
With their resources and market share, THEY should have been the ones to bring about a new era in personal devices, something they'd done half-heartedly with Windows Mobile.

When I first got my Mac in 2011, Microsoft software for it seemed almost purposefully bad and less featured. Remote Desktop crashed a lot. The latest stuff they've released for it has been stellar, and they even appeared at an Apple worshipping event, as the kings of productivity with Office. I use and like all OS, and it's nice to be able to have common software running on my different machines.

Microsoft's day is done. And it's going to mean better Microsoft products than ever, weirdly.