Linux

My expectation: nothing. At least, nothing on the OS side. I don’t think windows is very important to microsoft strategically.

Nowadays, the way to capture audiences is not so much via a proprietary OS, but via proprietary apps.

And in that sense, microsoft is proceeding exactly as expected: more and more of the windows ecosystem either exists on the web, or is available on linux and macos too.

I can see a future where windows only exists for backwards compatibility, but otherwise:

• dotnet apps run on linux (via dotnet core)
• edge runs on linux
• powershell runs on linux
• visual studio code runs on linux
• most of the rest of microsoft’s suite runs in the web

So what does microsoft need to do once windows collapses in the desktop space? Imo not much, really. Those people and companies that are tied to microsoft products will still be. Only, they might be running them on linux.

Edit to add: I am gonna place a bet that we’re gonna see an official microsoft linux distribution by the end of 2035