Call me crazy, but Windows 11 could run on Linux

ComputerWorld ^ | 17 September 2019 | Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

[ShadowAce]

With Microsoft embracing Linux ever more tightly, might it do the heretofore unthinkable and dump the NT kernel in favor of the Linux kernel? No, I’m not ready for the funny farm. As it prepares Windows 11, Microsoft has been laying the groundwork for such a radical release.

I’ve long toyed with the idea that Microsoft could release a desktop Linux. Now I’ve started taking that idea more seriously — with a twist. Microsoft could replace Windows’ innards, the NT kernel, with a Linux kernel.

It would still look like Windows. For most users, it would still work like Windows. But the engine running it all would be Linux.

Why would Microsoft do this? Well, have you been paying attention to Windows lately? It has been one foul-up after another. Just in the last few months there was the registry backup fail and numerous and regular machine-hobbling Windows updates. In fact, updates have grown so sloppy you have to seriously wonder whether it’s safer to stay open to attacks or “upgrade” your system with a dodgy patch.

Remember when letting your Windows system get automatic patches every month was nothing to worry about? I do. Good times.

Why is this happening? The root cause of all these problems is that, for Microsoft, Windows desktop software is now a back-burner product. It wants your company to move you to Windows Virtual Desktop and replace your existing PC-based software, like Office 2019, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) programs like Office 365. It’s obvious, right? Nobody in Redmond cares anymore, so quality assurance for Windows the desktop is being flushed down the toilet.

What’s that? You can’t run your Windows applications on Linux? Wrong.

[ShadowAce]

Tech Ping

[datricker]

aw crap - that’ll ruin linux better go read the OpenBSD install guide. Been meaning to do that for awhile anyhow. Just its been since 1996 or 97 I’ve been all over that kernel.

[ShadowAce]

From the Article:

Is this just the pipe dream of a hard-core Linux aficionado with little basis in reality? No. For one thing, I’m quite content using my Mint laptop, and what happens in Windows world is of little real concern to me. But more importantly, Microsoft has already been doing some of the needed work. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) developers have been working on mapping Linux API calls to Windows, and vice versa. With the first version of WSL, Microsoft connected the dots between Windows-native libraries and programs and Linux. At the time, Carmen Crincoli tweeted: “2017 is finally the year of Linux on the Desktop. It’s just that the Desktop is Windows.” Who is Carmen Crincoli? Microsoft’s manager of partnerships with storage and independent hardware vendors.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I still won't buy it or any MicroSlop product.

And as the old adage goes, "You could put wheels on my grandmother but that don't make her a wagon."

[ShadowAce]

I still won't buy it or any MicroSlop product.

Agreed. Why buy a replacement for something I already have that works better?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Get a Mac.

[ShadowAce]

Why?

[dayglored]

I've been saying and posting for years (you can check my FR comments for the last decade) that Microsoft should just rip out the NT kernel/codebase and replace it with either BSD Unix or Linux.

This is not a new concept. But it's a risky one; not for Microsoft, but for the Open Source Linux community.

Would it improve Windows? Quite possibly.

Would it kill off Linux as a Windows-independent OS? Quite possibly.

Embrace - Extend - Extinguish

[dayglored]

Windows  10  11 ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

Thanks to ShadowAce for the Tech Ping!

[Openurmind]

Same here, but want to make a bet that they take linux, something that works, and screw with it so much that it does not work.

With MS it’s an obsessive compulsive disorder.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Free updates.
No need of anti-virus.
Toll free # to call if needed.
Best photo handling program of all.

[MichaelRDanger]

Sorry but this guy seems like an idiot:

“Remember when letting your Windows system get automatic patches every month was nothing to worry about? I do. Good times.”

I started building PC’s for people in the late 1980’s. Because PC’s have so many different configurations, include so many different devices (each with there own drivers), there has “always” been the potential for conflicts with new updates.

Apple’s are a closed system which Apple tightly controls. Microsoft is an open system which allows people to “roll their own” and hot-rod their systems. This increase in variability increases the probability of software conflicts.

I remember the world of DOS with config.sys and autoexec.bat and the need for memory management. I was a beta tester for Windows 95 and XP. There has “always” issues with security patches and updates. That the author of this article doesn’t remember this casts doubts on his credibility...

[MichaelRDanger]

The absence of a need for virus protection is not do to technical superiority but a reflection of it’s obscurity...

[ShadowAce]

Linux gives me all but one of those--and that one is opinion.

I get free updates, have no need of AV, and support is all over the internet, typically with the actual author of the code.

And my money doesn't go to libtards in CA.

[TomGuy]

Remember when letting your Windows system get automatic patches every month was nothing to worry about? I do. Good times.

I disagree with that statement. Various Windows upgrades/updates have created problems going back to 95 and 98. Numerous times, upgrades have killed log-ins for some brands of computers/laptops. MS updates have always been iffy. That is why I turned them off with XP and later with Win7. That is why I have still not fully jumped onto the Win10 version -- where updates cannot be turned off. Even with Win7 updates turned off, emergency/critical updates still happen and numerous times I have had to resort to a System Restore just to get Win7 running.

I do have a Win10 tablet. (I only use it to listen to radio streams, because it is just too frustrating to use for 'real' computing.) Sometimes it will upgrade once a week. Other times it will upgrade 2 to 4 times in a 24-hour period. The problem is that with frequent upgrades, any open programs are automatically closed and the tablet stalls out. I have to hold the ON/OFF button to shut it down and then press and hold again for it to start up from scratch.

A Windows-11 might be a saving grace for MS, because 10 is about a bad as the ole VISTA and Win8.

[redhead]

I’ve been gradually moving my favorites over to Firefox for the last 6 months. My daughter works for MS, but I’m really done with the way they handle some of my platforms. I can’t even watch my Rugby on windows! LOL!

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Not a bad idea.

[Seruzawa]

Wait. I thought Windows10 was supposed to be the last OS. Lol

[Openurmind]

I think you are right on the money here. And after open source is extinguished they will make it proprietary and their own effectively STEALING it, eliminating all competition, creating another monopoly, and then they will start charging for it. I don’t think they deserve the chance to try this. Preemptive legal license restrictions need to be in place to protect the kernel from proprietary assimilation by the MS Borg.

What I’m worried about is that while it is linux, they will make it proprietary linux that open source linux apps will not function with or reverse. Basically stealing linux and putting their own proprietary passkey on it in violation of the open source license. Who has the power to fight it? Yep... the license needs to be reaffirmed and strengthened now before this goes any further.

This needs to be nipped in the bud.