[belgianguy]

I don't think Microsoft is doing it for the Open-Source spirit, as many seem to believe. They have a long history of attacking/smearing open source and displaying a "I heart Linux" slide is not sufficient to erase all the FUD and their questionable software patent licensing schemes (which are completely anti-open). They called Linux a cancer, even.

I think they're approaching this from a redundancy point of view, if person X already has Windows on his desktop (on which they have the market cornered), provide them with subsidized Windows platforms on other hardware where the monopoly is not yet in place. This then would cause the interest in other platforms to dwindle, as people would flock to what they know. Here also the EET mantra could come into play again, by offering features not available to other platforms.

They need a foothold in other hardware, most likely for the coming of Internet Of Things.

It makes business sense for them to increase their reach, but don't think that equals Microsoft being fond of Open-Source.

[Filthy_casual]

Can we stop with this argument? Every time a business makes a business-oriented decision someone will pop out to call them out for being acting for their own benefit, as if it's somehow bad.

Like every human exchange, you don't have to be an altruist for your deed to be good. It's alright to do "good" even if it derives some sort of benefit for yourself or your company.

[chernevik]

I have no problems with mixed motives, it's a complicated world.

But a lot of people are saying 1) this doesn't offer anything educationally that wasn't already available and 2) introduces users to restrictions that will ultimately be costs to their educational development.

There is 3) teachers will be familiar with Windows and thus more able to offer computer education with it. You can do real stuff on a Windows machine, but most of what I see on Windows machines in schools is "here kids, this is how you work Excel / Word Powerpoint". Frankly I worry that inner city schools will be blanketed with these things, with token "computer education" offered on them, and everyone congratulating themselves on addressing the technology gap while the kids learn some Office and not much more.

Doesn't that say that the tools / model being offered here is fundamentally broken? If you can't give it away without slowing down the progress you're trying to help, that's a problem.

[justcommenting]

monopolistic and anti-competitive business practices-which Microsoft is well known for-have been significantly harmful to large numbers of people.

there are plenty of "business-oriented decisions" that are bad for others; being pro-competition or anti-monopoly is not the same thing as being anti-business in general, as you seem to be implying here.

the poster was talking about Microsoft's use of network effects as an anti-competitive strategy, not about criticizing a company attempting to make money.

[higherpurpose]

Except this move only really benefits Microsoft. And it's certainly not for the "love of open source".

[watty]

How? It benefits me as a consumer, I'm excited to put Windows 10 on a Pi. It benefits the RPi foundation (assuming their sales go up).

[Paradigma11]

Why would i care what the motivations of Microsoft are?

What is important is how it affects me and my interests.

[mark_l_watson]

Microsoft Azure has very good support for Linux. One thing I like in particular is how quick it is to reboot a running Linux VPS with more or less memory and CPU. It has made me reconsider using vertical scaling in addition to horizontal scaling for some applications. Faster and easier than with AWS.

Except for writing a commercial app for Windows 1.0, I have not been much of a Microsoft fan over the years but that has changed. I joined their BizSpark program, I now have a family subscription to Office 365, and even recently bought a Windows 8.1 laptop. I usually develop using a Linux laptop but Windows 8.1 and OS X are also both nice enough to use for development.

I think Microsoft's change in direction with supporting their productivity tools on all platforms (for Linux, using the web based version of Office 365 is handy) is surprising, but makes a lot of sense.

[doczoidberg]

rebooting/starting Linux on a VPS takes much more time on Azure for me? This is the case I use AWS instead of Azure for my VMs.

[mark_l_watson]

That is interesting. Last month I wanted much more memory in my VPS, and using the web interface, the server was available in about 10 seconds with more RAM.

I agree though, AWS is also a great platform - I have been using it for customer work just about since they released EC2s.

[enkiv2]

The idea of an IoT with lots of tiny nodes running windows is terrifying.

Remember when the regular internet started having a lot of nodes running windows? We haven't recovered from that yet. Now, imagine that the majority of those nodes are in control of something with external manipulators.