MS is betting that their services division(s) will be the future of the company... from Azure to Office 365, XBox services, etc.  It probably is the safest bet given the monumental shift in computer&#x2F;online usage away from typical desktops to phones&#x2F;tablets and their middling encroachments into that space.<p>MS is being open because it makes sense to, and it&#x27;s the only way to maintain mindshare in the near future.  Azure&#x27;s a decent enough offering, but AWS and GCE are right there as well, each with advantages over the others.  I actually like windows (mostly), but need it far less, as I can do what I like with OSX and Linux and do daily.<p>As a developer&#x2F;user it&#x27;s nice to see the changes.