Sometimes I think it sucks that I can't play X because the anti-cheat won't allow it to start, then I remember it's a kernel level driver I cross my fingers and hope isn't doing anything nefarious and feel better.
Every time something like this ships out, guaranteed just about every CVP fields angry/annoyed/exasperated complaints about it.
This is where having a strong minded CEO comes into play. You literally have to have someone who can say "although this makes us less money, this is correct approach". In an organization whose entire purpose is to make money, very few people have the authority to make that call.
That's the wrong metric; you should look at the LTV. Guess what: pissing off users reduces your LTV significantly. If their users are too dumb or tasteless to care then they deserve each other.
It's simplicity itself to attribute the revenue growth, and very difficult to link ads to negative sentiment leading to abandonment.
No doubt they see Apple's relentless iCloud spamming as validation, but it's grating to get spam from an OS that you already paid for.
The next step for me here will be migrating clients off of Windows on their machines too.
For example the reason I keep using Linux on my machines is not because the OS works better for me -- it definitely does not. Things are crashing or doing stupid things and the entire ecosystem is completely disjoint and not integrated very well.
The reason I use Linux on my desktops is because I know I own the machine and it is doing my bidding (mostly, if we forget about the hardware part...) It is knowledge that if there is a problem there is a path to fix it -- it just depends on how much effort I am willing to expend.
The first definable moment where I think Windows started being at risk was release of iPhone and then smartphones that followed it (so say 2008). But even then it wasn't yet clear that smartphones will take over the world so thoroughly and drive people from using laptops.
Until that moment I would definitely project that the future will see more and more people having access to laptops. Only after it was clear people are more likely going to go with smartphones (around 2009-2010) it was reasonable to say that the market share of Windows has to start falling in favour of smartphones.
And it still wasn't clear that the same will be true even within laptop/desktop market.
Which MS was aware of but we all know what happened with Windows Phone.
Many recognise it, but don't care. Windows is not longer the cash-cow it once was even on the server. Azure is the new baby there – they don't care what server OS you run as long as you run it on their kit. In homes and offices Windows is just a vehicle for Office and Visual Studio, they are pushing people more towards the online office variants of Office (users therefore becoming dependent on a subscription for access to apps and storage/backups). Back to the server, and SQL Server runs on Linux these days or (even better for them) Azure-native.
If it wouldn't look terrible to just dump Windows, I'm fairly sure they would do so soon if they hadn't already. It would save them all the hassle of hardware compatibility, dealing with manufactures, being blamed for instability cause by bad drivers (on top of instability cause by bad Windows that is their fault!). They could let Linux & Apple deal with all that crap, and just sell cloud services, Office/SQL/Exchange licences, etc. to users of those OSs. They'd keep something of Windows on their console, but that is minute in comparison because it only needs to be the core & they control the hardware selection, and again that is just a vehicle with which to sell a subscription service to the end user and licensing/SDKs to developers.
Windows is only really moving forwards at all due to momentum, MS would rather be concentrating on other things that are more profitable for less hassle & questionable press.
Once my Windows 10 no longer works I will NOT be upgrading to Windows 11, I will either go linux or mac because I can’t tolerate microsofts crap anymore. I will never pay for an azure office or visual studio subscription, I will avoid microsoft products like the plague after all the crap they pulled and I have been using windows since version 3.11
> Windows Server still brings in revenue for licenses, so whatever development on Server that makes its way over to Consumer is probably a subsidy
Windows for desktop brought in almost $25 billion in revenues in 2022, which was more than SQL Server, Windows Server and Visual Studio put together.
I dare to say it's almost pleasant to use after a few Group policy tweaks (disable web search , telemetry, and widgets). No preinstalled Candy Crush either. Can run a local account without too much hassle but the Microsoft store is far more aggressive to make you login in 11 than 10 even for Education.
Honestly it's the only thing keeping me on Windows, but my laptop came with the standard edition of 11 with loads of preinstalled crapware that persists after a Windows reset and I was about ready to throw it out the window.
I already got fed up enough that I basically banned Windows at home and I am impatiently waiting to kill one last Windows box. It is our gaming machine that is generally available to entire household of 5 (3 adults and two kids). All other machines are either Windows laptops converted to Linux or new Macbooks and it seems we will only have more MacOS now that Apple got a bit more sane with their hardware choices.