
Microsoft doesn’t think Windows is important anymore - jhatax
https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/3/20896908/microsoft-windows-satya-nadella-importance-apps-services-android
======
hollander
So move the desktop over to Linux or BSD. Add a nice Windows GUI to make the
change visually less noticable, and have a rosetta-like functionality that
makes old apps work seamlessly. First steps: make an Office version for Linux,
and make Adobe do the same with CS. Everybody will follow.

In fact it's turning the current situation with the Ubuntu subsystem around.
Make Ubuntu the main system, and Windows a VM like service. Maybe that's the
whole idea behind this. It would show vision.

~~~
tracker1
I just don't think that will happen in practice, at least not in the next
decade. I would think MS _COULD_ port a _LOT_ of support into WINE and make it
more transparent and closer to in-the-box in linux. I just don't see it
happening.

Even now, I recently upgraded to an X570 based system on Linux. I had to bump
the Linux kernel to 5.2 and download binaries to get the wifi working... I
then got my rx5700xt video card, had waited for review cycles for non-
reference cards. I bumped the kernel, again, and downloaded the blobs...
swapped the card. 1080p on a 4k display (42" so too big to deal with)... two
hours later futzing with it, no gui load at all, and shut it off.

Will probably give Manjaro (with update) and/or arch a try before reverting to
Windows. Why, I'm pretty confident it will all work. Note: this doesn't even
scratch the surface on the state of aRGB support from the hardware vendors.

As much as I prefer Linux, there are _still_ headaches with current hardware.
Not to mention, I doubt MS would switch to Linux for XBox's underlying OS
(though something closer to Android or ChromeOS could be an option, with MS
gui).

~~~
littlestymaar
> Even now, I recently upgraded to an X570 based system on Linux. I had to
> bump the Linux kernel to 5.2 and download binaries to get the wifi
> working... I then got my rx5700xt video card

AFAIK, the minimal kernel for RX5700 drivers is 5.3 (I've been running on a
5.3 rc for a few week but now the 5.3 is stable so you don't need to run on an
unstable rc anymore). With 5.3 it worked at first try. (But I still agree that
needing to update your kernel is a bit annoying, especially when you run on a
distro that doesn't support 5.x kernels, and now you need to update your
distro then update your kernel…)

~~~
tracker1
I got the kernel update fine, but it only "kind of" worked, I couldn't set the
resolution to 4K. I'm not an expert on the underpinnings of the Linux kernel
and drivers. In the end, I now have a borked setup (Pop!_OS, updated kernel
with ukuu, and downloaded binaries from the git repo for the amdgpu/vega*.bin)
... In any case, about to give Manjaro a try, update and see if it "just
works" since Arch is now updated with 5.3, if that doesn't work will try Arch
directly.

Been a Debian/Ubuntu user for years (recently giving desktop another try), so
will be a bit different for me. But so much of my workflows are containerized,
I'm hoping it's less of an issue.

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scott_s
The title is too strong, while the message of the piece is more subtle:
Microsoft no longer has the Windows-or-bust strategy. Their goal used to be to
fight to be _the_ computing platform. Windows is still _important_ , but
they're no longer insisting that it be the foundation of their strategy, which
means they're no longer insisting that the world run Windows in all the
things. They're conceding ground in one area, so they can flourish in others.

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mwyah
The Win32 API and DirectX are of vital importance to me. But hey, if you think
Windows is not important anymore, why don't you just release the source code,
or start cooperating with Wine/ReactOS?

~~~
zaphar
Why are those API's of vital importance? And would you be just as happy if
those API's were ported to a different OS?

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tejtm
Wonder if that would be because computers are not that important any more
because they are no longer "personal computers" personal computers are now
phones. desktops/laptops ... previous generation of compute devices live on
primarily as a means to connect to other companies computers that are
typically running other OSs which also does not matter.

Much as I may prefer a compute environment where OS choice was meaningful we
are a tiny minority and will have to adapt to a world with less choice because
it makes no sense to put effort into something that does not matter.

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jandrese
The article seems to be saying that the OS won't be as big of a focus because
they want to move everything to the cloud? The headline seems a bit click-
baity but the article isn't much better.

~~~
Mathnerd314
It's quotes from the CEO taken out of context, with minimal analysis. Standard
fare for news media these days.

The premise seems simple though: if Microsoft is prioritizing cloud then
obviously desktop isn't as important anymore.

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thrower123
Well, unless somebody is going to invest billions of man-hours in porting
close to thirty years of legacy code, it certainly is.

Or massively invest in Wine so that all that legacy code can run seamlessly on
Linux.

Time after time they get all hot and bothered about their new platform, whip
up a lot of FUD, and then it flops, and we're all still sitting here working
off of Win32 apps.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
I wonder how much corporate software still runs on win32, most of my customers
started delivering their software through the browser years ago. The only
thing they accept on the client is Office.

~~~
tracker1
Even then, there is a _LOT_ of .Net framework code, and commercial
integrations that don't work outside windows. Right now, working on isolating
windows-tethered portions of services in order for the rest of the application
to work in .Net Core (linux/docker/k8s).

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amanzi
This is a dishonest article with a misleading, attention-grabbing, clickbait-
worthy headline, and is no different to other reporting recently (e.g.
Stallman) where quotes are taken out of context and misrepresented into
something completely different to fit the writer's narrative.

I'm 100% sure that if you asked the Microsoft CEO if Windows is important, he
will confirm that it is in fact important to Microsoft. The headline
"Microsoft doesn’t think Windows is important anymore" is extrapolated from a
quote of Nadella's where he is discussing the new Neo and Duo devices. Read in
the original context you can see that at no point does he say that Windows is
not important to Microsoft, he is just giving some justification for not
wanting to revive the Windows Mobile OS.

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amanzi
The first sentence in the article is this:

> “The operating system is no longer the most important layer for us,” was the
> message from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella yesterday.

But I can't tell if he actually said those exact words, or if that was the
message that The Verge writers interpreted him as saying. If he didn't say
those exact words, it's a bit dishonest for The Verge to lead with that
sentence, in quotes, as if he's quoted as saying that.

~~~
iamaelephant
I agree it's ambiguous. I found the original quote in the referenced Wired
article and it is indeed a quote,

>Later on I ask Nadella the same question, and he zooms out even further. “The
operating system is no longer the most important layer for us,” he says. “What
is most important for us is the app model and the experience. How people are
going to write apps for Duo and Neo will have a lot more to do with each other
than just writing a Windows app or an Android app, because it’s going to be
about the Microsoft graph.”

[https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-surface-duo-neo-
phone/](https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-surface-duo-neo-phone/)

~~~
amanzi
Ah - thanks. Interesting to read that quote in context of the discussion. Not
sure we can extrapolate too much from it, but still an interesting position
for the Windows CEO to state.

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DeepYogurt
Does that mean I can get one of those new surface laptops and run linux on it?
IIRC the first gen version had some issues with the keyboard.

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doggydogs94
And the OS isn't important to Apple either.

