Without Microsoft's Monopoly (and Monopoly Rents) the Inevitable Microsoft Mass Layoffs Carry on Endlessly
There's no room for anything that only ever makes losses (e.g. XBox)
Microsoft Windows is not retaining the dominance it once had. As noted a couple of days ago, even places where GNU/Linux used to be measured at about 1% are now about 5% GNU/Linux and Windows sank from high nineties (like 95%) to about 70%.
As an associate notes, "one of the major problems caused by that monopoly on the desktop market is that it enabled Microsoft to charge monopoly rents. It is those rents which actually produced most of their income back in the day."
There are more Microsoft mass layoffs coming, with some likely set to begin next week, happen again next month, then continue at the start of next year. Companies are hesitant to lay off lots and lots of people ahead of Christmastime because it's regarded as cruel, tasteless.
"Without the monopoly rents," the associate opines, "they have little income and must resort to layoffs -- that is between government bailouts / handouts..."
And "it needs to be clear what these stats refer to," the associate adds, "is it desktop, server, embedded, all combined? I suspect that it is about desktop market share..."
Suffice to say, as is commonly said, GNU/Linux (or just Linux) already dominates a lot of the technical sectors; laptops and desktops are the exception, though that too is quickly changing. The insistent focus on laptops and desktops is because of their relative visibility. █