On 2021-04-04 1:18 a.m., Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
As for erosion: consider that this sector that MS dominates is an ever-shrinking piece of the IT pie. PC gaming has to compete with dedicated consoles and the looming VR.
Microsoft does extremely well with its XBox product line, don't forget. Not merely do they have a line of the premiere gaming hardware, they are also considered a AAA game development shop. They've come a long way from MS Olympic Decathlon on the TRS-80. One thing that Microsoft does that it's very open about is accessibility research and development. Many of the standards it contributes to are truly open. Its line of accessibility hardware for the XBox - which can also be used as a general-purpose BT/USB programmable adaptive input device which any system that supports it - is priced not much above cost. Which for the accessibility device market is unheard of: they've been used to charging ~$100 for a single input switch. The disability tax is real, and Microsoft are challenging that. Needless to say, Linux's support for accessible/adaptive input is pretty terrible. Sure, many distros enable BRLTTY on boot, but Braille isn't universally useful. The state of screen readers and alternative input technologies (switch/menu scanning or eye-gaze tracking) is barely there on Linux. cheers, Stewart