Microsoft is interesting again

If you read that article, what I see is that Microsoft has been forced to do the following:

Give away everything for free

Produce it's own hardware, and at a loss (Surface may have made $1b now, but it's lost more than that over it's lifetime)

Frankly, I don't know how they are making money now a days.

I may be old school but I am not keen on paying monthly fees for software that I use. That is part of the reason I refuse to upgrade to Adobe's Creative Cloud.

Microsoft can't even keep XBOX live up when someone wants to DDOS it, I don't want software that I'm renting that cant run if their servers are down.

You're mistaken about Windows 10.

When I heard that announcement I thought the same thing, Microsoft's language was very ambiguous.

However they have since clarified, and Windows 10 won't require a subscription fee as far as they have said.

The year thing is similar to the $10 Windows 8 promotion (upgrade from 7 to 8 for $10 for the first year). Except this time it is completely free from 7 or 8/8.1 to 10, but if you don't do it in the first year then you'll have to buy an upgrade kit at whatever the retail price is.

The only subscription they've talked about with Windows 10 is Software Assurance, but that isn't remotely new, and has existed for enterprise customers since at least 2000. It doesn't apply to consumers.

Office 365 is subscription though, and it remains to be seen if they'll continue to do boxed software indefinitely. They already tried to alter the box software licensing terms so you could never upgrade your computer without re-buying it until there was a massive public outcry.

Microsoft did miss the boats on open source, search, mobile, social, and cloud, but they continued to #win what they previously cared about: enterprise. No one has meaningfully entered their arena.

Now they want to play ball, which is wise... since business is unfortunately likely to pursue social, mobile, and cloud for enterprise.

It's true, Microsoft is suddenly a palatable company without the greedy, vengeful, angry attitude of Steve Ballmer. With the anachronistic culture of the founders now entirely purged, I see no reason why they would not become a credible competitor in many markets. They are hungry to prove they are relevant again, giving them the incentive of a startup, while they have essentially unlimited cash.

As much as some part of me squirms when I say it, Microsoft really is a player again.