Microsoft Made Many Shocking Linux & Open-Source Announcements This Year

[asdfblah]

Microsoft is also offering Linux certs... for Azure: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/12..._not_an_error/

[DMJC]

PS4 crushed it this generation. They played smart, letting Microsoft hang itself with it's media initiatives and came out $100 cheaper (which is part of how they destroyed Sega in the 90s) as well as a better experience for conservative gamers who prefer discs. Microsoft let their message become confused with Cable TV support and other rubbish noone wanted. Sony went with "For the Players" Drawing a clear line in the sand that they are making a gaming machine, for gaming, if you like gaming you buy the PS4.

Now that Square has announced Final Fantasy 7 PS4 is going to sell a ridiculous number of consoles and I could see it becoming almost as big as PS2 was. It won't though because it can't do 4k/8k and TV standards are moving too quickly now for the consoles to keep up.

All that said, Microsoft is going to remain relevant. They will struggle to enter new markets, but until Linux has triple play of shell, local GUI and web GUI for configuring/managing servers it will continue to falter in the SMB Market. I work for an SMB provider and the idea that Linux will make any progress is laughable. There aren't enough guys with the skillset to run Linux, there's not enough application/tool support on the server side to use Linux. Samba 4 hasn't got enough documentation on Exchange/WSUS/SCCM integration etc. It's too much of a headache/too hard to implement at the moment. Where I see there being an opportunity is if ReactOS gained support for RDP as both a server and a client. It could start disrupting Terminal Server installations/licensing. OpenChange could do the same to Exchange if someone wrote a decent UI for it for KDE/Gnome OR ported it to ReactOS. Same with Samba4 and AD. But right now, no one is going to touch it. Too much headache, too much work.

We don't even bother with Microsoft in Schools anymore (outside of staff), it's all gone Chromebooks/iPads because you can just blow away/reimage in seconds.

[caligula]

Microsoft needs to embrace every now and then so that it can later extend and extinguish the puny open source tech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrac...and_extinguish

[F1esDgSdUTYpm0iy]

Look at where we were 10 years ago. If the trends continue, and Microsoft has attempted to stem the tide at least since 2010 when they released Windows Phone, Apple will be an order of magnitude bigger than Microsoft (and Android will of course be an order of magnitude bigger than Apple).

Yes, 50 years from now, people might indeed no longer remember what a desktop PC actually was. But, 10 years? That would imply that within the next 10 years, tables/pads/whatnot surpass desktop PCs in, for example but not limited to, gaming use. And, quite frankly, I know of no serious gamer that games on anything other than a PC or a full blown gaming console. And gaming isn't going to go away. So, desktop PCs completely disappearing? I heard similar predictions about that 10 years ago and, lo and behold, they're still here.

So, sure, the exact ratios may differ but, mobile devices completely replacing immobile devices? I'll believe that one when I see it.

[chithanh]

Desperate act of desperate people. m$ will be so irrelevant in 10 years.

I wouldn't be too certain of that; Microsoft has demonstrated the ability to adapt before. And they're still more than relevant in more than one area at the moment. Essentially, the only way Windows is going to lose its dominating position on the desktop PC is if PCs in general just become completely irrelevant, a thing of the past. Which hasn't happened yet but it might, not within the next few years though.

Ah, and one more thing. What could possibly make PCs irrelevant? Maybe if there was some small computer everybody could carry around with them, and which would be capable enough to satisfy most people's computing needs, which is a web browser and some essential applications. Oh wait, there is:

Source: http://www.asymco.com/2015/04/14/personal-computer/

Look at where we were 10 years ago. If the trends continue, and Microsoft has attempted to stem the tide at least since 2010 when they released Windows Phone, Apple will be an order of magnitude bigger than Microsoft (and Android will of course be an order of magnitude bigger than Apple).

[chithanh]

This is how consumer interest (i.e. the appeal of your "selling points") looks like in Germany:

Source: http://www.idealo.de/blog/20518-kons...-der-xbox-one/

In Germany and most other countries in the world, the closest competitor to the Xbox One is the Wii U.
Most of continental Europe sees PS4:XB1 sales ratio between 3:1 (France) and 10:1 (Spain) and the gap is growing.

The two countries where this is not the case are USA and UK.

Microsoft may be healthy due to Office and whatnot. But their investors will at some point demand that the moribund money sinks (Xbox and Windows Phone) be severed.

[F1esDgSdUTYpm0iy]

WAHAHA.

The PS4 is outselling the Xbox One almost 2:1. And Sony has a near complete monopoly on the Japanese game studio industry. Well-known Japanese studios like IF, Compile Heart, Nippon Ichi, SEGA, CyberConnect and Konami are producing exclusive after exclusive for the Playstation, and these studios will never port their titles over to the Xbox. And just a month ago Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Sold fame just announced another PS4 exclusive title in the works.

Comprehensive reading is complicated, I know... but, still, at least try. I clearly said -- selling points. Not actual sales. There is a very clear distinction. True enough, console-exclusive titles might indeed be a selling point, but, not everyone actually buys a console for just 1 specific title/franchise alone. In fact, I can't think of one PS4 exclusive title I'd purchase the thing for. Or any future PlayStation, for that matter. And, in spite of Sony leading the current gen sales, in its other endeavours it's not exactly dominating over its competitors. Oh, and, http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/08/ninten...ued-as-bigger/

TL;DR -- Sony could be a lot healthier; there is very little evidence of Microsoft not being healthy. In other words, no, Microsoft is not disappearing within the next 10 years, which was the premise of the post I responded to.

[kaprikawn]

....Xbox Live, another Microsoft product beating its competition to a bloody pulp really; if anything, I'm expecting Sony to simply drop out of the console race. PS4 has very little selling points over Xbox One and PSN is vastly inferior to Xbox Live. Microsoft will stick around for at least one more generation. So will Nintendo but Sony, not sure.

No, I'm not a Microsoft fanboy; in fact, the only Microsoft product I use at home is one of their consoles, gave up on Windows some time ago but still, I wouldn't arrange their funeral just yet.

This is just laughable. It doesn't matter how much better XBL is over PSN if nobody is using it, which is the case because the PS4 is wiping the floor with the Xbone this generation (with very good reason).

And do you really think Sony, who is hands down crushing the competition this generation, will in four or five years think "Hey, we have the best selling console this generation and it's making us a craptonne of money, but hey, lots not bother making another, we'll just drop out now"?

Obligatory 'I'm not a Sony fanboy' postscript - The 360 was my favourite console of the last gen. I simply prefer whatever console is best at the time, which is far and away the PS4 this gen, it isn't even close (or even debatable IMO).

[log0]

WAHAHA.

The PS4 is outselling the Xbox One almost 2:1. And Sony has a near complete monopoly on the Japanese game studio industry. Well-known Japanese studios like IF, Compile Heart, Nippon Ichi, SEGA, CyberConnect and Konami are producing exclusive after exclusive for the Playstation, and these studios will never port their titles over to the Xbox. And just a month ago Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Sold fame just announced another PS4 exclusive title in the works.

Yeah, xbone only sells well in the US, everywhere else ps4 clearly dominates.

[Sonadow]

Xbox Live, another Microsoft product beating its competition to a bloody pulp really; if anything, I'm expecting Sony to simply drop out of the console race. PS4 has very little selling points over Xbox One and PSN is vastly inferior to Xbox Live. Microsoft will stick around for at least one more generation. So will Nintendo but Sony, not sure.

WAHAHA.

The PS4 is outselling the Xbox One almost 2:1. And Sony has a near complete monopoly on the Japanese game studio industry. Well-known Japanese studios like IF, Compile Heart, Nippon Ichi, SEGA, CyberConnect and Konami are producing exclusive after exclusive for the Playstation, and these studios will never port their titles over to the Xbox. And just a month ago Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Sold fame just announced another PS4 exclusive title in the works.