Re: Windows server
It is striking how frequently nowadays you hear someone saying "We only used/chose Windows because {specific software} runs on it". Less and less do you hear anyone say that they chose Windows because of its innate quality, functionality or value for money.
MS probably isn't as stupid as it seems, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, and it seems probable that it's been plotting for many years how it can somehow keep alive its place as a business provider. (I'm assuming that no amount of Win10 dirty tricks, or conspiracies to sell computers that won't install Linux, will ultimately prevail, and that gradually even the relatively clueless consumer market will head for *ix (Linux, OSX, Android etc): what could MS possibly do to sustain usage of an expensive, bloated, resource-gobbling, insecure OS when there are better, often free alternatives?)
If retreat to corporate provision is inevitable, and if even the retarded intellectual metabolism of business finally figures out how much better Linux is, and powerful *ix-friendly business software just keeps coming along, most of it free, MS simply has to do two things: One, try to lock customers in (we know all about that); Two, longer term, reduce its revenue dependence on Windows OSs.
Personally, if I consider the shape of computing in, say, 20 years, it's hard to see why anyone would be using Windows for anything. There will be legacy, of course, but who would actually choose to adopt it?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
