Microsoft Build 2015, Redmond’s huge developer conference, started off a bit on the dry side, with C++ code making an appearance early on in a demo of Azure cloud services programming. But it picked up steam
with news of free Mac OS and Ubuntu versions of the company’s Visual Studio, techniques for easily migrating Android and iOS apps to Windows phones, and finally, the truly staggering HoloLens device.

Facing stiffer competition than ever from Apple, Amazon, and Google, Microsoft is stepping up its tech game under CEO Satya Nadella by being more open to having its systems work across platforms. We’ve already seen some of that with full-featured Office apps for Android and iOS and the open-sourcing of several developer and platform technologies such as .NET(Opens in a new window), and even with its browser incrementally supporting open technologies. At Build 2015, that openness took another leap forward.

Another large theme of the conference was the Universal App. This is related to the apps previously known as Metro and later renamed “Modern” apps. In fact, that last sobriquet is what appears in the interface, like when you search with Cortana for an app. But for developers, the Universal App consists of code that’s largely the same whether it’s running on a Raspberry Pi, a Surface Pro 3, a Lumia Phone, an Xbox, or even a HoloLens.

And of course the cloud, as embodied in Azure and its new machine learning capabilities was another major theme at the conference. How that relates to the estrus cycles of cows…well, click through the slideshow to find out.