That neglect is the reason that it was made worse. Everything added to Windows that was worse is actively designed to generate some kind, any kind, of revenue growth. Without the full force of the organization behind it, it now has to struggle to prove some kind of worth and that enshiftification is the result.

I think neglecting Windows is a huge failure for Microsoft. Azure might be where all the money and growth is, but it wouldn't be anything without Windows. Owning a platform is a massive advantage. Apple has their own platform. Google has Android. Microsoft has Windows. Every other major tech player from Meta to OpenAI is desperately trying to get themselves a platform. Because it's so fundamentally important to succeeding at this scale.

For Microsoft to neglect their platform is, in my opinion, a massive strategic mistake. Microsoft already failed with mobile and it cost them an entire seat at that table. If people hate Windows, it's going to have knock-on effects to everything that Microsoft sells including Azure. I would argue that Windows is what keeps Azure from becoming just another commodity cloud provider.

I believe they've come to realize they've gone too far this time. Simply forcing people to buy a new PC simply to kick up Microsoft's quarterly sales numbers has enraged customers, many of whom refuse to throw out their perfectly good hardware. Many are installing Linux Mint on their machines instead.

Despite newer security measures mandated in Windows 11 computers keep getting pwned by cyber-criminals and miscreants alike revealing the measure for what it really is: purely a ploy to squeeze more money out of customers' pockets.

At some point I guess things became "good enough". The leap to Windows 95 was huge. The leap to Windows 2000 was huge. Leaps in hardware was huge as well around at that time.

It's many years ago I felt things started to plateau. When was the last time you were excited about a new processor? Or a bigger hard drive? If Microsoft makes their money from OEMs, and OEMs want to sell new hardware, I guess Windows needs to demand more resources... to keep the OEMs happy. TPM 2.0? For our security, or an easy way to sell new hardware, since Windows 10 will be "obsolete" and you "have" to upgrade to Windows 11.

And just to squeeze out some extra bucks, Microsoft discovered what Google and Facebook found out years ago... there is serious money in advertising.

I have an old Windows 8.1 PC in a corner. It has all I need, really. Enough disk and RAM for my usage (not a gamer).

Well if it died and didn't go to heaven, where did it go?

Oh, right.

> I see a future where it does roll into azure and become a hosted only “feature”

It seems that way. And most people would probably follow along, not knowing any alternatives. But I like the idea of "local first", no online account required.