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.
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?
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.
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).
> 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…)
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.
That doesn’t work for Windows. The entire MO of Windows is that it runs old unsupported software forever. True, Apple did that twice, but they eventually drop support for the emulator/compatibility layer.
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.
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.
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).
I think the focus are on their apps, integrated services, cloud offerings and direct software. I think X-Box is probably their biggest focus for OS development.
In the end, it isn't a bad strategy. For better or worse, their office software, communications and collaboration tools (office365+mail) tends to be better than competitors and price competitive as well. Their authentication platform ties into what is/has been used in office environments and expands externally. Their cloud platforms are a natural target for their developer tooling, which has made a lot of progress in expanding to support various non-ms platforms.
In the end, I don't think MS is going anywhere, and the strategy seems a bit more friendly than say Oracle or IBM in similar spaces respectively. I don't think this will mean Windows over Linux any time soon, but I wouldn't be surprised to see things closer to that in a decade or so. Of course Linux itself is becoming less Free (as in freedom) lately, which is another concern.
> “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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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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[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 126 ms ] threadThe premise seems simple though: if Microsoft is prioritizing cloud then obviously desktop isn't as important anymore.
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.
Just as long as it's not the God-awful online version or its competitors.
LibreOffice isn't terrible but it's way better than even online office versions.
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).
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…)
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.
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.
In the end, it isn't a bad strategy. For better or worse, their office software, communications and collaboration tools (office365+mail) tends to be better than competitors and price competitive as well. Their authentication platform ties into what is/has been used in office environments and expands externally. Their cloud platforms are a natural target for their developer tooling, which has made a lot of progress in expanding to support various non-ms platforms.
In the end, I don't think MS is going anywhere, and the strategy seems a bit more friendly than say Oracle or IBM in similar spaces respectively. I don't think this will mean Windows over Linux any time soon, but I wouldn't be surprised to see things closer to that in a decade or so. Of course Linux itself is becoming less Free (as in freedom) lately, which is another concern.
> “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.
>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/
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.
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.