Hey y'all, today I experienced another push for Linux from our friend Microsoft.
5 minutes ago, I wanted to use the timer app on Windows, so I could manage my work/break schedule, and this fucker showed up.
Yes, that's a prompt to sign in with a Microsoft account to use the clock. If you close it, it pops up 30s later. Clicking “Don't sign in” or closing the process responsible for displaying it is useless, and guess what… IT PAUSES THE TIMER WHEN IT SHOWS UP.
I guess this is another thing added to the super long list of things which will eventually make me switch my main workstation to Linux once win10 is discontinued.
/endrant
Hope y'all are having a great day :3
Windows is a platform for Office. Linux is not a supported platform for Office. Most businesses will not migrate their desktops off Windows because they will not migrate their workforce off Office.
Beyond that, Windows is not as important to Microsoft as it used to be. The real money makers are Azure and Office. With Azure, they do not care if you run Linux. They even have their own distro ( Azure Linux — previously CBL Mariner ).
Azure is the future ( even for Office ).
Since Windows is less strategic, Microsoft is looking to milk it as a cash cow while they can. So, Product Management is tasked with finding new ways to monetize it. Data is worth a lot of money. The best way to farm data from users these days is to frame it as security ( or AI ).
Expect a lot more SIngle Sign On. Expect a lot more AI. Expect a lot more cloud integration. Expect all of these to focus on data harvesting.
A bit later, expect “services” for Linux that attempt the same. Like Google on Android. This is harder though as Windows does not have monopoly control over Linux as a platform. I am sure they are having many meetings about how to change that.
Which is so weird, because office is crapware. It’s terrible software. The only reason businesses use it is because other businesses use it. Nobody will switch, because everyone would have to switch. It’s a self-reinforcing tragedy.
Excel is the backbone of so many businesses though!