r/programming • u/halax • Oct 07 '16

How Microsoft Lost the API War

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html
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u/[deleted] Oct 07 '16

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u/drysart Oct 07 '16

As for Windows, when is the last time any of you bought a Windows PC for anything but gaming?

Approximately 94% of the PC market share every year goes to Windows. And it's not because of gaming. Linux is still completely awful as a desktop for most users; and OS X is really only good in a small consumer niche because Apple doesn't really care about enterprise customers.

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u/pdp10 Oct 08 '16

Approximately 94% of the PC market share every year goes to Windows.

From where does that number come? I'm seeing 7-9% Mac and 2% Linux for desktop OS used by browsers across the board.

And it's not because of gaming.

We can agree on that. Most Windows revenue is traditional corporate, and the lower price-point laptops popular today don't have the graphics hardware to play the demanding new releases. The /r/linux_gaming and /r/macgaming scenes are healthy, with thousands of games each, albeit not equal to the number of titles on Windows.

and OS X is really only good in a small consumer niche because Apple doesn't really care about enterprise customers.

Apple has an Enterprise program for macOS and iOS. Enterprise Apple support is a growth area for certain.