most casual users gave up computers for smartphones years ago
I would consider either statement to be completely false. While less people have full blown desktops almost everyone has laptop and modern laptops are good enough.
I would agree that there are many poor countries/places where people can only afford smartphone. But hopefully the future of humanity is to get better rather than going down to that level.
Good enough for what? I am not sure I understand what you are claiming or how it disagrees with an OP. The point is, for many users the computer is just where they run a browser.
It does not matter whether they have desktop or laptop, and how powerful they are.
Well there is a big difference between MANY and MOST. There is a whole world of creative people to whom browser on a phone just does not cut it.
Which is the bigger threat?
There's no secret plan here. Priorities have changed since 2002...
My point was that we’re not typical users - most users don’t use a traditional computer outside of work anymore as the phone fills that gap for them.
Microsoft isn’t threatened by Linux because they have way bigger things to focus on these days - ubiquitous mobile devices and proving Windows’ relevance in an age of web browsers everywhere.
I sometimes wonder if people are so in the bubble that they don’t realize we’re rarely the audience.
Most software that would’ve been desktop applications moved to web applications a long time ago. Web applications don’t care what the client is running, ergo, the web platform is your competition.
Microsoft used to see Linux as competition, and while that might still be true in some ways, it’s largely moot for a couple of reasons.
In 2019, Windows isn’t competing with Linux for desktop market share not because Linux poses no threat there, but because the desktop doesn’t matter anymore.
Windows, and the desktop operating system as a concept, is competing with the web browser in the enterprise and mobile devices in the retail market (and even then, it’s not really a competition - most casual users gave up computers for smartphones years ago).
Viewed in that lens Microsoft genuinely embracing Linux makes a lot of sense - most of their revenue now comes from service contracts, and the one bedrock they’ve always had is their second-to-none developer support. If developers want them some Linux, then by gosh Redmond is going to give them more Linux than anyone else. Maximum Linux for your organisations’ Linuxy needs!
Microsoft still has great support for gamers on Windows as an incentive not to check out Wine/Proton and things happening there, but really, when was the last time you paid for a Windows license for home use? One way or another they’ve been literally giving the software away as quickly as they can for years. The future is about services, and that means market share (if users leave because they can get a free OS elsewhere then the license has to go). Likewise, if it gets more developers to stay in the ecosystem, then Linux support it is.