WHEN SATYA NADELLA took over as boss of Microsoft in 2014 he started by opening Windows. Unlike his predecessors, who had kept the software giant’s crown jewel hermetically sealed from the outside world, he exposed the operating system (OS) to the breeze of competition. The firm’s other programs, which used to run almost exclusively on Windows, could now operate on other OSs, including Linux, an “open-source” rival which Microsoft had previously called a “cancer”. The manoeuvre both broadened the market for Microsoft’s software and improved Windows by forcing it to compete with rival OSs on more equal terms. In the process, it shook up Microsoft’s culture, helped it shed
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