Posted on 09/18/2019 7:06:41 AM PDT by 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, Im not ready for the funny farm. As it prepares Windows 11, Microsoft has been laying the groundwork for such a radical release.
Ive long toyed with the idea that Microsoft could release a desktop Linux. Now Ive 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 its 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. Its obvious, right? Nobody in Redmond cares anymore, so quality assurance for Windows the desktop is being flushed down the toilet.
Whats that? You cant run your Windows applications on Linux? Wrong.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
Tech Ping
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.
Is this just the pipe dream of a hard-core Linux aficionado with little basis in reality? No. For one thing, Im 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. Its just that the Desktop is Windows. Who is Carmen Crincoli? Microsofts manager of partnerships with storage and independent hardware vendors.
And as the old adage goes, "You could put wheels on my grandmother but that don't make her a wagon."
Agreed. Why buy a replacement for something I already have that works better?
Get a Mac.
Why?
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
Thanks to ShadowAce for the Tech Ping!
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.
Free updates.
No need of anti-virus.
Toll free # to call if needed.
Best photo handling program of all.
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...
The absence of a need for virus protection is not do to technical superiority but a reflection of it’s obscurity...
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.
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!
Not a bad idea.
Wait. I thought Windows10 was supposed to be the last OS. Lol
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.
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