Microsoft isn't even a player in most of the linux world.
Linux is always 30 years ahead of Microsoft. It's not that the linux kernel keeps getting better that scares Microsoft, it's actually Microsoft itself that scares Microsoft. Microsoft lives in its own world, the problems is that they have to buy their market. Look at WindX, it's a product made for nobody. I fully agree with this article: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Kommentar-Ein-Windows-fuer-alles-ist-ein-Windows-fuer-niemanden-2411159.html. It's like the author says: Windows 8 was the best but at the same time the worst windows ever, the market Microsoft has left, is a market that doesn't want to change, it doesn't want to evolve, it's not a technological market, the field of application of the Windows software console is getting ever smaller.
As the world evolves, people are ever less willing to put up with the sacrifices they have to bring to ease of use, security, stability, cost price, features and compatibility that are requires for using the Windows software console ecosystem.
For instance: with Office not using an open source format, and everything after Office 2003/2007 being virtually unusable because of the cluttered chaotic GUI's, most people in Europe and China that are still using Office, are using it with the Open Document format set as default. Microsoft also mandatorily has to offer the choice to the user at first start of Office to set the OpenDocument format as standard. Microsoft also has to offer the choice of standard browser to the user, which they did until W7, after which they reverted to the old habit that got them sanctioned by the EU so many years ago, and for which they are going to be fined billions, and because of their repeat offense, will possibly face a complete market ban in the future in the EU for Windows.
WindX for instance still has no scalability in graphical interface, it still uses decades old crappy fonts, it still doesn't work well with 4k, nor with multiple displays, things that linux users have been taking for granted. With kernel 3.17, the linux kernel provides extended 4k support for Apple 4k displays, Microsoft doesn't even provide 4k support for common 4k displays yet, let alone for Apple displays.
There isn't a race going on between Microsoft and open source. Microsoft has thrown that match decades ago by not evolving, by not listening to users, and by opting to capitalize on shareholder dividends instead of in human capital and skills.
Now Microsoft is shifting towards mobile because they've already lost on the desktop. Thing is, they're too late to the show, and they haven't read the memo: the mobile space belongs to open source. So Microsoft has bought Nokia for the mobile patents, to buy its way into the mobile market by force. That has gone south quickly, with Samsung boycotting further license payments for mobile licenses that were held by Nokia and Microsoft. Sure Microsoft sues... let them... they're not fighting a home match here, they're fighting the world, and they've lost every bit of credibility by being so evil and so lazy filthy rich assholes. Microsoft is it's own worst enemy, and is perfectly able to destroy itself. It doesn't need linux or open source for that.
Other things that come with linux kernel 3.17 are for instance the random number generator patches for secure encryption. Basically, the ability to keep the NSA and similar human rights criminals out of the systems of decent and honest regular consumers. What has Microsoft done about that... oh right... it's given backdoors to the NSA to help them, and it's voluntarily obfuscating insecure code. People remember, people don't want to deal with that shit any more, even if Microsoft would offer WindX and even Office for free...
Another feature of kernel 3.17 is User Pointer, a technology by Intel (open source of course) that reduces the overhead of HID input. Intel and AMD offer that for their graphics drivers in linux. It basically reduces input lag in graphically intense applications like games. The reason why commercial games aren't offered full-featured in linux, and why - especially competitive - games that do come to linux are "consolized" to not exceed the Windows software console performance, is not because of lacking linux technology, it's because of money, and money only. Because Microsoft still buys itself a market.
It's like NASCAR, that forces teams to stick with engine technology of the 50's, with lateral valve tumblers and shit, no overhead cams, no variable timing, no efficiency or technological performance whatsoever. It's not about technology, it's about money. Compare that to Formula One with hybrid engines and Formula-e with electric engines (that still shell out 800 HP and aren't just running around in a circle!). NASCAR and the FIA don't compete, just like Windows and linux don't compete. There not in the same class, reality, universe...
I agree that linux has also made some similar mistakes. X has been one of those. X has been an example of how holding on to a technology can really undermine an entire technological effort. It's being mended now with Wayland, but it certainly has complicated matters. Linux has learned, the community has learned not to mind the people that don't want to change stuff, but continue to innovate all the time. Debian for instance was left to chose between keeping with the old ways of never changing anything, or evolving with the rest, and even the Debian community (Debian being the most "'Murican" distro, they are very conservative and oppose to all forms of innovation) has chosen to switch to systemd and to start implementing wayland and weston, even if they offer a stable release that a full two years behind technologically compared to other distros (which is an eternity in opens ource development). Linux development as a whole is becoming ever more efficient, and a lot of the evolution and technology comes from Europe and Asia. Linux foundation members like Intel and IBM have been showing less productivity (sometimes even failing to get things sorted, like last year when Intel fired it's over a 100 top paid open source graphics driver developers, and moved the entire development to China, where a lot less people produce a lot more results, in fact, they produce resultsin months that the big team of US developers couldn't produce in years), whereas newer members like Samsung are showing increasing linux contribution productivity. Same goes for the European SuSE and Mageia and ROSA communities, versus the US RedHat community.
With that goes a complete economical shift. For instance: the biggest chip factory yet is being built close to Seoul by Samsung. It's not an Intel factory, Intel keeps talking about 14 nm, but where are the factories? Samsung has them, and is building newer ones as we speak. Or for instance: Google is building it's new largest ever data center in the Netherlands, not in the US. Microsoft is keeping a firm hold on the US government and institutions, and is holding back technology. With that, they're holding back evolution, and the economy. It is what it is, it's for a big part a cultural thing, and it's not going to change rapidly, but the world doesn't wait for Microsoft, nor for the US, and that includes even US companies like Google. The sad thing is, that the one flaw feeds the other: Bill Gates has invested major ping ping into the US educational standards, and Mircosoft has just bought Minecraft, all to make sure they get the children locked inside of their software and hardware console ecosystems froma very young age. Consequence is that those children have less chances to get acquainted with new technologies and to discover evolved possibilities of computing. Instead they focus on consumption, consumption of patent licenses, consumption of "new media", which are defined as "how to offer virtual reality in the most crappy way possible using old software", and consumption of ever more useless hardware that's marketed as "premium" and sold for a high price.
The most fascinating product development by Intel since the beginning of the 21st Century is the Atom platform. This is so good, that they're locking it down, because it's putting old console software like Windows in a bad daylight. Instead, Intel is actually selling Atom technology as Celeron and Pentium technology, and easily surpassing Core2Duo generation chips with these budget super low power fanless designs. Instead of bringing this technology to the foreground, they're hiding it in marketing strategies aimed at cloaking it. That's pretty sad. They're also lacking software development for their hardware, which is why they moved the whole thing to China. Thing is, China is getting the best of Intel, and the US are stuck with the old stuff that's on a collision course with time.
There are plenty of examples like these, and sadly, they all point in the same direction... a complete technological iceage in the US. So Amazon US catches headlines by claiming they will have drone packet delivery in the next 5 years... whereas Deutsche Post/DHL already uses drone delivery for packets with medicine to remote areas, without catching headlines. The marketing, the talking about, the posting videos about, etc... has become more important in the US than the actual development and the actual realisation of projects. The entire goal of the hot air is to produce more hot air in the US. That's exactly what WindX is, that's exactly why everyone on YouTube is making videos on how great WindX is... because of hot air. The reality is... WindX is the software console nobody needs but Microsoft, and the software console nobody's asked for. In the open source world, something that is not needed or not asked for, isn't developed, because of the community development principle: people don't make stuff to market it, don't make stuff for the benefit of producing more hot air, they only make the stuff they need and the stuff they want. It's an entirely different technological reality, a completely different intellectual league. Samsung doesn't invest billions in open source development because they want a better software console to lock customers down, they do it because they simply need the software to drive their pretty awesome new hardware, and the software to design and manufacture more of that pretty awesome new hardware. Samsung doesn't invest in open source development because they don't want to pay for closed source patents or because they support the FSF (lolz!), they invest in open source because they need to move at a much greater speed than closed source development permits, because they just can't afford putting all of the talent they need for their super fast innovation in a golden cage, they can't afford all of the human resources their innovative development requires.
