26th January 2018, 10:22 AM
Microsoft is making money, sure, but they aren't making MORE money. That is the greatest sin in objectivism, the irredeemable sin.
How do they make more money? Make money off ALL program sales to their operating system. The only way to do that is to control the store. Now, this may not go anywhere. The pushback is huge, and "win32" is still modern in spite of MS's claims (it's 64 bit in spite of it's own name now, for example). None of their customers want this. MS does though, and so this will be defeated, and the one after that, but MS is going to try and find a way to get everyone to "switch" to their walled garden any time they think they can get away with it. It's just too tempting. Realistically, I really don't think MS can win this. So long as people want to use Windows over anything Unix based, those very same people won't stand for MS breaking software in such an arbitrary way. Companies that aren't MS won't stand for it either. In the long run, we'll be seeing people dowload tools to "break" windows updates rather than be forced to "upgrade" to a version of Windows that runs NOTHING outside what they buy on the store, meaning literally none of their software will work after that update because there is no way the MS Store will recognize purchases of that software from outside it. At best, this will work in very limited environments, like their console and their phones. But what if it didn't? What if, somehow, MS actually won the fight against their own customers? That's when Unix truly takes off.
How do they make more money? Make money off ALL program sales to their operating system. The only way to do that is to control the store. Now, this may not go anywhere. The pushback is huge, and "win32" is still modern in spite of MS's claims (it's 64 bit in spite of it's own name now, for example). None of their customers want this. MS does though, and so this will be defeated, and the one after that, but MS is going to try and find a way to get everyone to "switch" to their walled garden any time they think they can get away with it. It's just too tempting. Realistically, I really don't think MS can win this. So long as people want to use Windows over anything Unix based, those very same people won't stand for MS breaking software in such an arbitrary way. Companies that aren't MS won't stand for it either. In the long run, we'll be seeing people dowload tools to "break" windows updates rather than be forced to "upgrade" to a version of Windows that runs NOTHING outside what they buy on the store, meaning literally none of their software will work after that update because there is no way the MS Store will recognize purchases of that software from outside it. At best, this will work in very limited environments, like their console and their phones. But what if it didn't? What if, somehow, MS actually won the fight against their own customers? That's when Unix truly takes off.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)