Posted on 09/25/2017 5:29:29 PM PDT by dayglored
Full Title: Will Microsoft love Linux to death? Shuttleworth and Stallman on whether Windows 10 is free software's friend
If you believe Satya Nadella, then Microsoft loves Linux.
Under Nadella's leadership, Microsoft has a discovered a new enthusiasm for open-source software, leading it to join the Linux Foundation and build support for GNU/Linux directly into Windows 10.
Yet, in some quarters, there is skepticism that a company whose former CEO described Linux as a cancer could be reborn as a true believer.
The greatest suspicion is reserved for the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which allows Windows 10 to run various GNU/Linux distros and software.
Stories about WSL regularly attract comments and Tweets referring to Embrace, Extend, Extinguish, a commercial strategy that a US anti-trust hearing was told Microsoft used to "smother" the Netscape web browser in the 1990s.
Opinion as to why Microsoft has changed its tune vary, from open-source operating systems being too popular on cloud platforms and on servers for Microsoft to sensibly ignore, to suspicion that this is part of a plan to undermine the use of Linux in the long run. But what do key members of the open-source and free-software communities think?
Richard Stallman is a free-software activist and creator of the GNU OS that forms part of the basis of modern GNU/Linux distros. He believes that Microsoft's decision to build a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) amounts to an attempt to extinguish software that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve.
(Excerpt) Read more at techrepublic.com ...
It will make it very convenient to get root.
Cooperate. Coopt. Corrupt. Control.
Richard Stallman or Mark Shuttleworth |
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Does Stallman wear a Che t-shirt under his exoshirt?
Is Microsoft’s strategy to move into the Linux world, and do their own version incompatible with the rest of Linux? As they tried with Java years ago?
https://www.cnet.com/news/sun-microsoft-settle-java-suit/
Is Microsoft’s strategy to move into the Linux world, and do their own version incompatible with the rest of Linux? As they tried with Java years ago?
https://www.cnet.com/news/sun-microsoft-settle-java-suit/
I doubt it. I certainly would hope that Stallman is bright enough to realize that Che and freedom are polar opposites.
As far as I can tell, Stallman's political beliefs are personal and are not part of his public image at all. I would be quite disappointed if he mixed politics into his beliefs about free software.
If you have an authoritative source (like cited quotes from Stallman) that indicates otherwise, please pass it on.
Is it all part of a giant subversive conspiratorial plan?
Hell if I know...
Just wondering.
Stallman is old enough now to just work on maintaining the essence of his body of work.
I’m quite satisfied with Linux Mint 18.2 on a ~8 yr old quad core computer with a year old video card ilo on m/b video.
I have a number of Virtual Boxes to run the occasional flavor of Windoze as desired.
Stallman did well, on average.
I’m happy to be mostly off Windows and though I do have a Win10 VB, I never need to use it.
I may build one more Desktop with current “budget” hardware as my end-of-life unit...It will have Linux as the main O/S.
Not Mark Shuttleworth. I’m hearing a lot of negative talk about Ubuntu as a result of Shuttleworth decision making in the past few months.
Besides MS did this same exact thing in the 90's, then pulled the rug out. They have to pretend to include linux compatibility to get some mainly server software ported over but it will end up bastardized #ifdef MS_CRAP
What is Neither, Alex?
They will invent, patent, copyright, and/or trademark “Linux”.
Or some devious legal twisting that shows that LINUX is infringing on MS, due to some obscure historical patent or ruling.
Do not trust MS.
“Embrace, extend, extinguish” has long been Microsoft’s policy for killing competition.
I ditched Microsoft and now use Linux Mint. Like a jilted lover, MS is now stalking me.
Mark Shuttleworth flew as a space tourist on Soyuz ™-34. Nice to have that kind of disposable income.
Personally I think MS is focusing on cloud/Azure (which is where Nadella came from). Viewed from that perspective the embrace of Linux makes sense since they don’t care what OS you run in Azure as long as you run something and of course pay them.
I don’t think there is some nefarious embrace of death conspiracy afoot.
Linux developers and the administrators of some of the most well liked distributions, at least, have maintained readiness all along for the kind of move that some are suspecting. The same goes for developers of the tens of thousands of free packages.
Linux is amazingly easy to download, install and get running now—even Debian. Very automatic compared to the way it was during the ‘90s and very quick to get running.
And Linux provides all that I need, although I prefer NetBSD because of its extra stability, security and usefulness with more platforms (quite a bit of manual user configuration required). For security in running *BSD, though, most end-users might prefer OpenBSD for its ease of installation with even more security as a default instead of needing to add it manually.
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