[wffurr]

Microsoft isn't dead, but Windows is. They've allowed the web, and more specifically Chrome, to take over for desktop apps.

On the other hand, Azure is the closest thing to an actual competitor to AWS, and in that sense Microsoft is very much not dead in the sense that pg means it.

[underdeserver]

"They've allowed the web [...] to take over for desktop apps."

Nope. Once the net became fast and mobile devices became prevalent, it was inevitable.

True, they were late to the game, but they still had enormous piles of cash, existing relationships with virtually all corporations, and a strong brand.

Nadella finally stopped leaving all the money on the table by pushing to embrace open source, web-based apps (Office 365), and Azure, and now Microsoft is back to being the third-largest company by market cap.

[bnt]

How is Windows dead? How else does over a billion people access tools like Chrome and Google Docs, if not through Windows? iPads? Android Tables? Windows don’t have to be the dominant force, they just have to exist as the glue (or foundation) for everything else to work.

[rbanffy]

Mobile is getting increasingly important. I'm writing this from an Android tablet.

[FpUser]

>"Microsoft isn't dead, but Windows is. They've allowed the web, and more specifically Chrome, to take over for desktop apps"

Frankly while I do use some web apps / services like Netflix, Amazon store etc. for which web app model is a natural the rest of my the software I use on Windows or Linux is native. The sheer amount of high grade consumer and pro level native applications for Windows is insane. I do not think Windows is even remotely close to being dead.

[rbanffy]

It's irrelevant for 90% of the users that use a computer to read email, browse facebook, twitter, and dozens of connected apps. I don't think my mom has installed an application in the past 5 years.

My workflow includes locally installed IntelliJ, Confluence, Jira, GitHub Enterprise.

[FpUser]

>"It's irrelevant for 90% of the users that use a computer to read email, browse facebook, twitter ..."

And somebody on HN told that 90% of the people use Phone/Tablet for those tasks. Not PC.

From what I see in practice PCs and native applications are abundant in way too many work places.

[rbanffy]

> And somebody on HN told that 90% of the people use Phone/Tablet for those tasks. Not PC.

That too. I also use a browser (or Workday's Android app) to do a lot of things that used to require a physical trip to HR or an unpleasant session with SAP.

A lot of professionals, depending on what area they are in, need to run tools that work best when locally installed (even though I saw some interesting things going on with CAD over web interfaces that'll end up being like Google Docs in terms of collaborating over complex designs). Besides, it makes it possible not to have a ridiculous 17" laptop heavier than most boat anchors and still run the heavy stuff on a beefy server somewhere else. Locally installed software is also a bit of a pain for the user, as they need to jump through different hoops to keep everything up to date, something that is simply not there with web-based software.

When computers got high speed always on connections, distributed computing became the norm. Kind of the same we did with X11 in ages past (and I'd gladly do again - I just love my IBM RS/6000).

[wffurr]

When's the last time you read about a hot new Windows desktop app on HN?

[FpUser]

There is life beyond HN and Web Development in particular. To me my photo editing software for example is way "hotter" than the one available on web.

[wffurr]

And yet we are discussing whether something is "dead" according to pg, which is to say irrelevant to the startup hype train.