> let go of the Windows monopoly, and Azure in its early days was based on Windows servers. Then Satya came in and said, no it is OK to support Linux, and in fact it is OK to run Microsoft's own services on Linux. It is OK to support Open Source, and in fact we'll open source some of our stuff. That put Microsoft back on track

Not to be over cynical, I'm happy when big corps give away stuff for free, but has this made them any money?

They seem to have lost all their moats. LibreOffice is on par with MS's offering (which hasn't really done anything interesting in decades). Windows is semi abandoned and bloated adware. The unified OS ecosystem between desktop console and mobile is pretty much dead. The MS "ecosystem" is a half hearted afterthought at this point

Sure, Azure happened to boom in the meantime, but that seems coincidental and not a product of them giving everything away. It's also a lot less of a moat. Cloud is becoming commodity over time.

MS is now Azure with a bunch of atrophying vestigial bits hanging off the side.