> And from there, what's stopping them from joining Valve to make Proton work for all the Windows-specific applications that are still used in the enterprise?
If they tried, which I don't expect, I'd guess adoption would stop it. Microsoft is entrenched with the public sectors and companies all over the world. The cost of switching would exceed any potential savings for years...
There are already directives in some EU countries to choose open source solutions over proprietary ones whenever they are equivalent.
There are already plenty of schools and universities that are using cloud based solutions and just run ChromeOS.
All I'm saying is that we are closer to the point where the customer will be able to treat the OS as a commodity. That by itself works already as a bargaining chip against Microsoft and in favor of customers when it's time to negotiate their contracts.
The switch won't happen overnight, but the trend has been long in favor of Linux. This 4-5% mark is significant and can lead to acceleration.
If they tried, which I don't expect, I'd guess adoption would stop it. Microsoft is entrenched with the public sectors and companies all over the world. The cost of switching would exceed any potential savings for years...