40% Server Products and Cloud Services
22% Office Products and Cloud Services
10% Windows
9% Gaming
7% LinkedIn
5% Search and News Advertising
IDK if that number is true, but it sure would explain how much they’ve put into user experience.
It does but it’s really short-sighted from MS’s part. Sure, Windows might be only 10% of its business, but the other 90% heavily rely on it. Or rather on Windows being a monopoly on desktop OSes; without that people Windows servers, Office and MS “cloud services” (basically: we shit on your computer so much you need to use ours) wouldn’t see the light of the day.
Also: even if they are not directly connected, the fact that one monopoly crumbles might result in the next one falling apart too. Someone who successfully got out of Windows might try to ditch their MS365 subscription too.
I don’t think companies are going to ditch their MS365 subscriptions. That would mean getting rid of Outlook and Teams, and that ain’t happening anytime soon.
I don’t think companies are going to ditch their MS365 subscriptions. That would mean getting rid of Outlook and Teams, and that ain’t happening anytime soon.
Can someone more technical than me tell me why Outlook is so awesome for work? I use Outlook 365 for work, and the search function is ass. G-suite worked better on the front end, so I’m wondering about the back end.
It’s just a recognizable brand, and it’s often bundled with the other things businesses are already buying in the Office suite. (think: Teams, Word/PowerPoint/Excel/etc)
The interesting bit is that these businesses are almost always using their custom domain for emails… which means if they wanted to switch from Outlook to another provider, and they linked their domain to that new provider, there is then zero switching cost outside the time to sign everyone up for accounts on the new provider and transfer old emails over, since all the emails directed at their domain would just go to the new provider.
Emails also come in standardized formats that can be downloaded and transferred to a new provider, too.
I genuinely have faith that businesses will begin switching away as the cost becomes harder and harder to justify.
In the hypothetical situation Windows desktop monopoly is over, there’ll be at least some internal pressure to do so. Cost of switch (in money = work hours) might be a pain, but if they believe they’ll profit more by using some competitor that is not Windows exclusive, they’ll eventually do it.
I had to dig through their annual report to find it:
Server products and cloud services revenue growth
Revenue from Server products and cloud services, including Azure and other cloud services; SQL Server, Windows Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (“CALs”); and Nuance and GitHub
So it includes Windows Server, but it’s way more than just that.
This was the same era when I tried to switch, due to the shittiness of Vista. I wanna say it was Mandrake Linux was what I was trying to use, but I couldn’t get it running correctly on my hardware.
Came back some time later and discovered Mepis Linux. After that, I never went back.
I wouldn’t be surprised. Desktop revenue has been a pretty small slice for their revenue long before AI was a thing. Their main drivers were server products and O365, and now AI and Azure are also pushing a lot of revenue.
Direct revenue through Windows sales might be low, but I suspect Windows is still important to drive people to buy One Cloud, office 365 etc subscriptions. So when people move away to Linux, the other services should become less profitable with some time delay
I saw in a recent Youtube video that between web services and AI, Windows licencing is only about 10% of Microslop’s business.
IDK if that number is true, but it sure would explain how much they’ve put into user experience. Does anyone use Windows because they like it?
That’s correct. Here’s some data on Microsoft’s revenue:
It does but it’s really short-sighted from MS’s part. Sure, Windows might be only 10% of its business, but the other 90% heavily rely on it. Or rather on Windows being a monopoly on desktop OSes; without that people Windows servers, Office and MS “cloud services” (basically: we shit on your computer so much you need to use ours) wouldn’t see the light of the day.
Also: even if they are not directly connected, the fact that one monopoly crumbles might result in the next one falling apart too. Someone who successfully got out of Windows might try to ditch their MS365 subscription too.
I don’t think companies are going to ditch their MS365 subscriptions. That would mean getting rid of Outlook and Teams, and that ain’t happening anytime soon.
Can someone more technical than me tell me why Outlook is so awesome for work? I use Outlook 365 for work, and the search function is ass. G-suite worked better on the front end, so I’m wondering about the back end.
It’s just a recognizable brand, and it’s often bundled with the other things businesses are already buying in the Office suite. (think: Teams, Word/PowerPoint/Excel/etc)
The interesting bit is that these businesses are almost always using their custom domain for emails… which means if they wanted to switch from Outlook to another provider, and they linked their domain to that new provider, there is then zero switching cost outside the time to sign everyone up for accounts on the new provider and transfer old emails over, since all the emails directed at their domain would just go to the new provider.
Emails also come in standardized formats that can be downloaded and transferred to a new provider, too.
I genuinely have faith that businesses will begin switching away as the cost becomes harder and harder to justify.
Brand recognition. Offices and businesses have been using a version of Outlook for decades.
In the hypothetical situation Windows desktop monopoly is over, there’ll be at least some internal pressure to do so. Cost of switch (in money = work hours) might be a pain, but if they believe they’ll profit more by using some competitor that is not Windows exclusive, they’ll eventually do it.
Imagine having to babysit Windows servers
Azure has support for Linux servers. They’ve even made an effort to port Dotnet to Linux. A majority of their cloud infrastructure is Linux it seems.
That 40% isn’t for Windows Server, is it?
I had to dig through their annual report to find it:
So it includes Windows Server, but it’s way more than just that.
I did back in the XP days. Long, loooong ago…
XP was alright, but I’m mostly just nostalgic for the aesthetic of 95/98/2000
Vista was the reason I switched to Linux
Boy, have I got some KDE themes for you!
https://store.kde.org/c/2331481
This was the same era when I tried to switch, due to the shittiness of Vista. I wanna say it was Mandrake Linux was what I was trying to use, but I couldn’t get it running correctly on my hardware.
Came back some time later and discovered Mepis Linux. After that, I never went back.
I wouldn’t be surprised. Desktop revenue has been a pretty small slice for their revenue long before AI was a thing. Their main drivers were server products and O365, and now AI and Azure are also pushing a lot of revenue.
Direct revenue through Windows sales might be low, but I suspect Windows is still important to drive people to buy One Cloud, office 365 etc subscriptions. So when people move away to Linux, the other services should become less profitable with some time delay
Most likely. The majority of MS products and services are interconnected in some way.
I don’t think the number is indicative of quality. The office suite is their bread and butter (alongside Azure) and Teams is a steaming pile of shit.
none of the other popular desktop operating systems cost money at all. I don’t know why Microsoft is doing half of the things that it does