Microsoft, like Google has also killed many projects over the years. Some we will miss (Windows Phone), some we will not (Bob). And then there is the iLoo, where you have to wonder what the hell Microsoft was thinking. Have a look at: https://killedbymicrosoft.info/
dftf
<p>I must be the only one around here but… Windows Phone wasn’t that great.</p><p><br></p><p>The only thing that really made it different was the tile-based homescreen, and how it would try to gather data together from multiple apps into one place. If you liked that, great I guess.</p><p><br></p><p>But a former company of mine actually did use them for a couple of years and man were they annoying. Enrollment into InTune (you know, Microsoft’s own MDM service) was a nightmare; Airwatch wasn’t much better. The Store would randomly give errors, or apps would just fail to update or start downloading. Sometimes a reboot would cure, sometimes not. We often had to do system updates over USB as the OTA would just hang or error. The stock browser was slow and rubbish. I seem to recall customising the homescreen was a pain too, given the different tile-sizes and if you choose a larger size, it would rearrange all the ones around it.</p><p><br></p><p>It performed better than Android on low-spec devices, like dual-core, 512MB RAM, I’ll give it that. But otherwise I was so glad the day management deviced we’re not going to buy any more and simply go iPhone for the higher-ups and Samsung devices for everyone else…</p>
dftf
<p>On the site you linked to there’s quite a few things there I’m not sorry to see gone: <em>Silverlight </em>(pointless Flash competitor); <em>Legacy Edge </em>(slow, buggy); <em>Journal </em>(never used it).</p><p><br></p><p>They should add <em>Microsoft Publisher </em>to the list as it’s as-good-as-dead thesedays.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Windows Messenger </em>was always an odd one. You could use it to connect with users on <em>MSN Messenger</em>, but it wouldn’t support all the features, like the window-shakes, games or in-chat animations.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Microsoft Works</em> was a surprising thing to die as nothing really replaces it. I guess thesedays you could argue the online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but even-so it’s odd they have no local, cheap offering thesedays.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Windows Movie Maker</em> is an odd one they never kept going. Even just adding support to import and export newer video-formats would have been enough for many.</p><p><br></p><p>That site doesn’t list everything, too. <em>Outlook Express, Program Manager, Cardfile, Pinball, ActiveSync, Briefcase, AutoRoute, Photo Editor, DriveSpace, Write, Imaging for Windows, MSBACKUP and NTBACKUP, Cardspace </em>and <em>DVD Maker </em>are just some I can think of.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Internet Explorer</em> and <em>Windows Media Player </em>will be dead once <em>Windows 10 </em>is gone. <em>Microsoft Security Essentials </em>once <em>Windows 7</em> is gone.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Windows File Manager</em> is one notable example though of an old app returning; you can get a revived version from the <em>Microsoft Store</em>, or on <em>Github<u>.</u></em></p>
dftf
<p>Here in the UK, I can recall seeing adverts for <em>Zune</em> back in the day, but I can’t recall anyone who had one.</p><p><br></p><p>I had (and still have, albeit running the <em>Rockbox</em> OS thesedays) an <em>iPod Mini</em>, and outside of the <em>Apple</em> ecosystem, the <em>Creative Zen</em> or one of <em>Sony’s </em>devices (either an MP3 <em>Walkman</em>, or perhaps still a Minidisc player) were mostly what I saw. Though many people also just played music-files on their <em>Nokia</em> feature-phones, given many supported microSD storage.</p><p><br></p><p>More people probably installed the "Zune" theme into <em>Windows XP</em> than actually owned one!</p>
dftf
<p><em>Bing </em>is about the only major-alternative to <em>Google</em> in Western markets, though.</p><p><br></p><p>At the current time, there isn’t a rival I can think-of that doesn’t have to fall-back on either of these two. <em>DuckDuckGo </em>gets some results from <em>Bing</em>, and both <em>Startpage.com and Brave Search </em>rely on <em>Google</em> for some results.</p><p><br></p><p>If <em>Bing</em> were to fail, essentially all of those third-party search-engines would just become reliant on <em>Google</em>…</p>