Comment by breppp
3 days ago
That's true for Azure, where contracts are signed due to free credits given over Office and Windows usage.
However, there is a reason why everyone uses Office and Windows. Office is the only suite that has the complete feature set (Ask any accountant to move to Google Sheets). Windows is the only system that can effectively run on any hardware (PnP) and have been that way for decades.
This is due to superior software on the aspects that matter to customers
People use Windows because Office runs on Windows, and Windows ran in any shitty cheap beige box. This is the whole story since the 1990's.
On hardware: it's because Windows has a stable kernel ABI and makes it very simple for hardware vendors to write proprietary drivers. Linux kind of forces everybody to upstream their device drivers, which is good and bad at the same time - DKMS is something relatively new.
But yeah, the NT kernel is very nice, the problem with Windows is the userland.
Windows is the only system that can effectively run on any hardware
...as long as that hardware is Intel-based (and a select few ARM-based boards nowaways). And the reason that it runs on all that hardware is because of Microsoft's business contracts with hardware vendors, not because of their software quality -- that's immaterial, as Microsoft generally does not write the drivers.
Compare the experience in Linux or Mac for getting some random no-name device working with Windows.
A lot of it is the fact that the OS has created a very complex yet consistent system of device compatibility that was completely absent from all competitors who are still behind on that aspect or alternatively the choice of kernel design architecture
It's been like two decades since I used windows on a computer I own, but I always had a way harder time getting hardware to work with windows than I have with linux. I still shudder when I remember trying to track down drivers from different vendors, while avoiding the malware they shipped with it versus letting it just work.
edit:
I just remembered when I first used CUPS to configure a printer in 2003. It blew my mind with how easy it was, and I think that was the moment when I decided to start using linux as my primary desktop. Pre-Novell Suse at the time if im remembering correctly.
The selling point of Excel is not the feature set, it's that people know Excel and are usually very resistant to learning something new.
As someone who’s compared spreadsheet feature sets, though: it’s also very much the feature set.
Well, in a way it is of course, because if your reference is Excel, then you want the feature set of Excel.
Or what specifically do you mean?
3 replies →
I use to think that too.
But if you really look at it the "comfort zone" problem isn't too big of an issue in itself that a few training workshops and brief acclimatization periods for other tool suites can't solve. Making accountants move to Google Sheets is actually doable given enough incentive; there really isn't a lack of features in Sheets against Excel so much as there is a difference of implementation. In fact, for many purposes Sheets and GSuite could even be the "superior software" if only one bothers to make good use of it.
The problem is more that companies hesitate to take the dive because they can't be sure any of the alternatives will stay stable in the long run. Google is infamous for abruptly shutting down applications and none of the other competitors have built enough of a repute yet to ensure longterm reliability.
Microsoft has been (and continues) riding on its first-mover advantage as an unmovable establishment for decades. It has worked out till now, but who knows till when.