
Windows Is Already Dead, It Just Doesn’t Know It Yet - endorphone
https://dennisforbes.ca/index.php/2017/05/04/windows-is-already-dead-it-just-doesnt-know-it-yet/
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dTal
And with it is likely to die the institution of the consumer desktop PC.
Simultaneously, in the greatest stroke of irony, Linux is left as the "last
man standing" as the only sensible choice for an engineering workstation. The
Year of the Linux Desktop is upon us, as the Desktop finally dies.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
I've wondered for a while whether the market will bifurcate, professional
users will need workstations with the ability to install and run applications
and everybody else gets a web browser.

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drdeadringer
I'm picturing something similar, Asimov's "a Multivac terminal in every home".
Arguably we have that now a la Google Search, but step it up to "a cloud
terminal in every home". A monitor and interface [keyboard and mouse,
gestures, whatever] with an internet connection; everything you do and
"have"//"save" will be "in the cloud" with little to speak of stored locally.
Whilst developers, creators, &c will have a workstation.

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jstewartmobile
IT friends tell me that Office 365 and hosted Exchange are selling like
hotcakes. Also remember (faintly) reading at one point that MS made more money
off a copy of Android than Google from patent royalties.

I had to crack open some .NET code recently, and I am completely baffled why
anyone would choose that platform for just about anything in 2017.

I guess as long as MS can find another vein they can sink the needle into,
what happens to Windows is purely academic.

~~~
slv77
.NET niche always seemed to be in simple SMB intranet apps. Almost any IT guy
in a shop that runs windows could setup an IIS server and have a CRUD app
running in a couple of days. Getting anything else typically required a
separate hire.

I assumed that .NET was still alive and well for SMB. Has that changed?

~~~
jstewartmobile
Still alive and kicking in the SMB market, and so is MS Access.

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RichardHeart
"I write low-effort quick contemplation pieces like this occasionally, and
they seldom earn me fans or new readers: " The article lightly suggests that
windows isn't getting any better, and there's lots of other choices, and
office won't protect windows sales like it once did.

As long as people keep handing more and more power to microsoft, I'm not sure
Windows is going to die any time soon. They figured out that apple and google
make lots of money on controlling what apps can go on a phone, and selling
customer data to advertisers (in googles case, your eyeballs on search.)

It's no mistake they're giving their new software away for "free." They're not
stupid, they're going to monetize you one way or another. Like the nice
advertisements in your file explorer for cloud storage, or in your start menu
for minecraft...Your OS advertises, tracks, knows what software you're using,
when, how, and wants to make money on you. :(

