this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Microsoft generally doesn't worry about losing market share to Linux over games. They don't even worry about losing desktop share for the public sector. Only businesses matter, and they have heavy vendor lock in there as Microsoft Office, Teams, and to a lesser extent, Azure, keep them subscribed/enslaved.
Microsoft also gives a shit ton of money to the Linux Foundation,along with the rest of MMAANG and many other companies. All these companies know Linux runs the back end servers, and its free for them to use however they want, and they have a vested interest in Linux being around for servers as even they are aware it's superior for that specific purpose.
Microsoft runs the Desktop, Apple runs the phone, Google and Amazon compete for cloud, and Meta owns marketing. Sure, they sometimes compete in other spaces like Android and Azure, but those are generally the established fiefdoms.
And Linux is all of their removed, but also all of their main support beam without which nothing works.
The true underdog is BSD.
Azure and Cloud Services is over 30% of their revenue and a growing percentage of the total revenue, while their Office products and services are closer to 20% and a shrinking portion. I’d claim Azure is their largest business by a good margin.
Oh, BSD runs in lots of places.
In secret. Because of the "do whatever the fuck you want" licence
something like 80% of phones worldwide use Android. Maybe there are different metrics for "runs the phone"
This is their most profitable sector, by a large margin (along with 365 offerings, whatever they call it this month). Even Windows Server and Enterprise pale by comparison.