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Microsoft will release a custom Debian Linux

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Microsoft will release a custom Debian Linux

#63

Post by Sanddancer »

justin66 wrote: post #50
cbd1984 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot possibly imagine how this could be true. Linux is, legally, not Unix, and it is released under a license which does not discriminate based on who you are.

Criddell is right about the history, and Xenix was literally not Unix either. At some point Microsoft agreed to not compete in the "Unix" operating system market, broadly defined. An awful lot has changed since then, including Microsoft buying a System V Unix license when SCO was extorting everyone (including Sun, as I recall) into doing that. There is so much water under the bridge, I imagine Microsoft could do it i…

Xenix was a Unix. It started out as based on Unix V 7, then System III, then System V when MS finally sold it to SCO.

MS tends to keep a lot of fingers in a lot of cakes, even in surprising areas. Given the number of kernels MS Research has released, it wouldn't be too terrible of a stretch to see MS release some sort of unix at some point.

Re: Microsoft will release a custom Debian Linux

#65

Post by rbanffy »

Sanddancer wrote: post #60
dsr_ wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I recall, it was mostly that backwards-compatibility with 8086 was so required that they put every useful performance enhancement except raw MHz in a separate protected mode... and then you couldn't switch between protected and real mode without (I am not making this up) asking the 8042 processor controlling the keyboard to hold your beer and reset you, which could take an agonizingly long time.

The 8042 had another "fun" function on the 286 too. Because there were a number of poorly written programs that expected the memory to roll over at 0x0FFFFF, in order to maintain compatibility, they needed some way of turning off the A20 line. Now, in order to save money, IBM noticed that there was a spare pin on the 8042 that they used to control whether or not the A20 pin would be held low or not. Now, because this…

I know the PC was designed under a very tight deadline, about a year. I wonder what the hardware team spent the remaining 10 months...

Someone should apologize for the whole machine...

Re: Microsoft will release a custom Debian Linux

#68

Post by cbd1984 »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #51
hoodoof wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to recall Xenix ran on an 80286. Speaking of which, did anyone ever end up apologising for the 80286?

Not iirc. But I wasn't around at the time, so nobody told me anything about what was wrong with the 286 in the first place.

What was wrong with the 80286 was that Intel expected it to be used like processors are used now: Flipped into protected mode once at boot-up and kept there the whole time application software is running.

Re: Microsoft will release a custom Debian Linux

#69

Post by simoncion »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #52

Ah, how wonderful it will be to live in a world without embrace and extend. Wait. systemd, kdbus, GNOME and systemd-udevd. Shit. We have met the enemy, and befriended it. Now we are the enemy.

Well, the "peanut gallery" [0] pushed back on kdbus back in the 4.1 merge window and -incredibly- it looks like the devs in charge of kdbus are redesigning it. (kdbus may or may not now be called bus1... it's not clear at this point.)

Last I checked, kdbus isn't even being shipped in Fedora latest anymore.

[0] AKA: The engineers in charge of QA and technical critique of major changes to the Linux kernel.

Re: Microsoft will release a custom Debian Linux

#70

Post by justin66 »

Sanddancer wrote: post #63
justin66 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criddell is right about the history, and Xenix was literally not Unix either. At some point Microsoft agreed to not compete in the "Unix" operating system market, broadly defined. An awful lot has changed since then, including Microsoft buying a System V Unix license when SCO was extorting everyone (including Sun, as I recall) into doing that. There is so much water under the bridge, I imagine Microsoft could do it i…

Xenix was a Unix. It started out as based on Unix V 7, then System III, then System V when MS finally sold it to SCO. MS tends to keep a lot of fingers in a lot of cakes, even in surprising areas. Given the number of kernels MS Research has released, it wouldn't be too terrible of a stretch to see MS release some sort of unix at some point.

Wow, thanks. It's been 24 or 25 years since I used Xenix (dammit) and the funny part is, when I googled a couple of Unix family trees just now, it didn't even appear on some of them. But you're obviously right.

I think the big thing that would keep MSFT from rolling their own is fear of antitrust law, in the US and Europe. Less of a concern for them when it comes to Linux on phones or embedded, I believe.

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