[9JollyOtter]

The fact is that Windows isn't the cash cow it used to be for Microsoft. Windows makes up less than 10% of Microsoft's revenue now. Server and Cloud and Office 365 make up the bulk of their income now.

As time goes on Windows is going to be smaller piece of this pie and I suspect Microsoft will move it over to a subscription service or you will just have like 1000 ads shoved in your face. I made the move over to Linux last year and Windows will have to live in a VM.

[materialpoint]

It's still the foundational underpinning of everything Microsoft does. It's just that the other revenues dwarf it. What still shocks me is that the current developers and management on the Windows teams are so extremely bad at everything they do. It's not like they could not serve ads and shove CoPilot in your face, without making the UI so so sloppy and slow. It's not like they couldn't make Explorer use less memory and start faster, even with preloading, which was introduced in Vista, opening Explorer remains painfully slow.

[nubinetwork]

> It's still the foundational underpinning of everything Microsoft does

And sadly, the backbone of the majority of quality, paid software... if windows starts losing market share to Linux, things will start becoming interesting when the adobe's of the world start eying the Linux desktop as a platform where everyone already has applications that do what they were selling.

[shevy-java]

"where everyone already has applications that do what they were selling"

They can probably still sell software there. The problem is that too few people overall are using Linux.

[networkadmin]

It looks a lot like the recent record-breaking enshittification of Windows may be a subtle ploy to deprecate it and shift everything over to Linux.

Consider that this "Linus Poettering" turned out to be a Microsoft mole as the conspiracy theorists always maintained that he was. Some say RedHat as a whole was created by Microsoft.

[bigyabai]

> Some say RedHat as a whole was created by Microsoft.

Presumably people who never read the Halloween documents?

[networkadmin]

People who consult numerous sources before reaching a final, definite conclusion.

[carlosjobim]

Mac would be the preferred alternative platform, as it already is. Linux might take gaming away from Windows, though.

[nubinetwork]

Don't get me wrong, macs are certainly the computer for people who like to pretend to be smart for tv... but seeing where the economy is going, nobody is going to be able to afford Apple hardware, let alone the software...

[carlosjobim]

We're talking about Adobe and other paid software, which is generally for professionals. They make back more than the entire cost of the software and the computer by doing a job for just one client.

And Apple computers are incredibly affordable, rumored to get a budget laptop which will be even cheaper. Computers in general are dirt cheap, including Apple. And paid software is not expensive on Apple either. There are tons of quality pro software for $50 - $100 per license. And affordable subscription models of pro creative software for those who are just getting started.

[9JollyOtter]

> It's still the foundational underpinning of everything Microsoft does. It's just that the other revenues dwarf it.

If a corporate customer is running their stuff in the cloud they don't care if people are using Chromebooks/MacBooks/Linux to develop the software with. They just care that you are using Azure. Ultimately they want you to do everything through a web browser (just like google), even some dev environments are going that way.

Outside of corporations when interacting with non-tech people, none of them use a laptop. It is phone or tablet. A laptop running Windows is a work machine. I wonder what the stats are for home usage of Windows vs other things and honestly I don't believe a lot people are using a laptop/desktop running Windows.

> It's not like they could not serve ads and shove CoPilot in your face, without making the UI so so sloppy and slow.

I have a stripped down Windows 11 on my second disk (I will be removing it at some point). The OS is reasonably fast. I've removed most of the telemetry and other rubbish like the web search on desktop. So I can only assume it is that. I don't really care though anymore. I am running Debian on pretty much everything except for the work machine which I don't own.

[leptons]

>Windows makes up less than 10% of Microsoft's revenue now. Server and Cloud and Office 365 make up the bulk of their income now.

That isn't how you compare things. Server is separate from "Cloud" which is separate from Office 365 which is separate from Windows.

And Windows still makes them ~$28 billion a year, Azure makes then 3x that, but $28 billion is nothing to take for granted. It wouldn't matter if Azure made $150 billion/year, it doesn't make $28 billion look like pocket change.

[9JollyOtter]

> That isn't how you compare things.

I compared once segment of the business to others. Several other websites had various estimates on what percentage of the business Windows took up. Most of them said 6-10%, so I took 10%. Other websites group server and cloud, A rough guesstimate for a comment on a discussion thread is good enough. I was't aware I would need to go through the 10Q filings to satisfy you.

The point being communicated (even with your ridiculous nitpicks about the stats) is that Windows isn't a cash cow it once was. Microsoft Strategy is not Windows focused like it was under Ballmer.

[leptons]

$28 billion is definitely "a cash cow", no matter how many other "cash cows" they have.

[9JollyOtter]

My original comment:

> The fact is that Windows isn't the cash cow it used to be for Microsoft

My second to you:

> Windows isn't a cash cow it once was

You really need to learn how to read or all you are doing is arguing about semantics.

[leptons]

Yeah, you're still just wrong.

In the 1990s Windows brought in $1.2 billion. In the 2010s, it brought in about $14 billion. In 2022 it was $24.8 billion, and in 2024, it was $29.1 billion.

So your assumption that Windows is somehow "not the cash cow it once was" is false. It's bringing in more money than it ever did before.

Windows definitely is still very much a "cash cow" for Microsoft. And they can have more than one "cash cow", they can have as many as they want and it wouldn't make Windows any less of a "cash cow".

[9JollyOtter]

> Yeah, you're still just wrong.

No. All you are doing is engaging in semantic wankery.

> So your assumption that Windows is somehow "not the cash cow it once was" is false. It's bringing in more money than it ever did before.

What don't you understand about being a smaller percentage of their business as a whole?

My entire point that it has gone from the basically a 30% (~2010) of the revenue to less than 10%. Therefore they are simply not going to care about it as much, because their strategy is basically to push as much as possible into the cloud.

Saying they make more money with that now, when the growth compared to other parts of the business is low is missing the point.

[shevy-java]

I agree with you to some extent, but if Microsoft loses Windows here permanently then its desktop-centric control will also come to an end. So it would lose tons of opportunities here. I don't see Microsoft wanting to go that route really. It would basically commit suicide.

[t_mahmood]

They don't have to worry about PC segments, if there are no personal computes.

Ram price has sky rocketed, and probably out of hand of most of the people Same with GPU, HDD price is increasing, so is SSD.

How many people can build a new PC next year? And Amazon CEO just said it out loud about cloud computers.

Even though they'll take my PC out of my cold dead hands. But as it seems they want to get rid of Desktops.

[uhfraid]

Microsoft isn’t going to declare death of the PC and pivot to “cloud computers”/virtual desktops (again) just because of temporary RAM/SSD supply shortages lol

> And Amazon CEO just said it out loud about cloud computers.

And Google said Stadia would have “negative latency”

[t_mahmood]

They will do whatever that will let them get more money.

Who said they cares about consumers? There's also GeForce Now.

[1718627440]

> How many people can build a new PC next year?

Why does it matter, my 15 year old laptop is still working fine. And if it goes down, there is still the hardware produced in the remaining 14 years.

[9JollyOtter]

They don't need it if everything is in the cloud running oh their servers. They won't care if you are running Windows, Linux, Chrome, A tablet with a keyboard and mouse hooked up.

The vast majority of people that don't work in IT don't ever use a laptop or a desktop computer unless it is for work. They are using a phone and/or tablet.

[nvader]

It's already become a veritable Times Square of advertising. We have a windows PC in the office to play DDR, and the "Live Home Screen" or whatever used to be the Desktop looks like MSN! Live or the Yahoo Homepage.

[pier25]

I just use Windows to launch Steam and rooting for Steam OS.