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Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

zdnet.com

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Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#11

Post by bithush »

talideon wrote: post #7
bithush wrote: post #2

It would be amazing to see a Microsoft GNU/Linux distro in the future. To be honest it wouldn't exactly be hard for Microsoft to do. Take a Debian base, add whatever bits they need to make sure it works nicely in Azure, have an official Microsoft apt repo and they are done. I actually think it will happen. It makes sense for Microsoft to have an official Linux distro that they can offer true support for.

They're already done something not exactly unlike that, albeit not for general use: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/09/microsoft_sonic_debi...

Kind of. SONIC is very specialised. It isn't a desktop or server version of Linux for general purpose applications.

Also it just happens to run on Debian.

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#12

Post by bithush »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #9
diskcat wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the point of using microsoft's linux?

Taking back market share from Mac users. Especially among developers.

This. I would be very interested in running Microsoft Linux instead of Ubuntu on a physical dev box. With .NET Core, ASP.NET, etc. having an MS proper Linux would be great.

Something along the lines of "We officially support development with ASP.NET, .NET Core, Mono, etc. on Microsoft Linux for deployment to Azure Microsoft Linux instances".

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#13

Post by vostok »

toyg wrote: post #6
diskcat wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the point of using microsoft's linux?

They could use it as stepping stone for businesses heavily invested on Linux or already having a mix of Linux and Windows: "we guarantee this is the best Linux distribution for compatibility with MS tech (Msad, powershell, Azure, mono etc etc)".

I don't know how appealing that is. Even from a GUI perspective, moving from Linux to Windows is such a huge step backwards.

I have to keep an eye on a whole bunch of things at work so I only run a Windows box for one or two pieces of software. This box takes up less than 25% of my screen real estate.

Every window on the Linux box is automatically placed and I usually have to put in literally no effort. On the Windows box every window is such a pain to manage. Some applications make an effort to remember where their windows were placed, but this is usually broken in some way and still does not allow me quickly switch layouts like on Linux.

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#14

Post by hollander »

diskcat wrote: post #3
bithush wrote: post #2

It would be amazing to see a Microsoft GNU/Linux distro in the future. To be honest it wouldn't exactly be hard for Microsoft to do. Take a Debian base, add whatever bits they need to make sure it works nicely in Azure, have an official Microsoft apt repo and they are done. I actually think it will happen. It makes sense for Microsoft to have an official Linux distro that they can offer true support for.

What would be the point of using microsoft's linux?

> What would be the point of using microsoft's linux?

Azure. It will be like Amazon Linux, which is based on Fedora if I'm correct. I wonder what Microsoft will use, and if they choose Debian, if the Debian project will profit from it.

Furthermore, they will want better support for Ubuntu on Windows. If people don't need an Ubuntu machine to run Linux, without having to mess with Virtualbox, that will keep more people on Windows, well I guess that's what they hope.

They seem to move into a new world, where they are no longer the one superpower. SQL Server can run on Linux, just another example.

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#15

Post by JustSomeNobody »

bithush wrote: post #2

It would be amazing to see a Microsoft GNU/Linux distro in the future. To be honest it wouldn't exactly be hard for Microsoft to do. Take a Debian base, add whatever bits they need to make sure it works nicely in Azure, have an official Microsoft apt repo and they are done. I actually think it will happen. It makes sense for Microsoft to have an official Linux distro that they can offer true support for.

I posted my prediction over here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11388418

> I think eventually, we'll see Windows transform into a Linux distro with a Windows UI.

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#16

Post by greglindahl »

revelation wrote: post #4
diskcat wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the point of using microsoft's linux?

The same as using a lot of the other Microsoft stuff: you can pay and have someone fix $problem on a deterministic timescale. You can upgrade without having to fear your production system will come crashing down.

Huh, I've done both of those with Linux for more than a decade. Can you name some features more unique to Microsoft?

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#17

Post by wslh »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #15
bithush wrote: post #2

It would be amazing to see a Microsoft GNU/Linux distro in the future. To be honest it wouldn't exactly be hard for Microsoft to do. Take a Debian base, add whatever bits they need to make sure it works nicely in Azure, have an official Microsoft apt repo and they are done. I actually think it will happen. It makes sense for Microsoft to have an official Linux distro that they can offer true support for.

I posted my prediction over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11388418 > I think eventually, we'll see Windows transform into a Linux distro with a Windows UI.

Windows [kernel] is a very advanced operating system with an incredible wide support for third party drivers. I think the prediction would be more oriented to running them side by side.

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#18

Post by danpeddle »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #9
diskcat wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the point of using microsoft's linux?

Taking back market share from Mac users. Especially among developers.

Just to share one example - visual studio has an amazing developer experience for exploring and debugging node apps. I wonder if there's anything else out there which comes close..?

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#19

Post by zeta0134 »

Intermernet wrote: post #8
bithush wrote: post #2

It would be amazing to see a Microsoft GNU/Linux distro in the future. To be honest it wouldn't exactly be hard for Microsoft to do. Take a Debian base, add whatever bits they need to make sure it works nicely in Azure, have an official Microsoft apt repo and they are done. I actually think it will happen. It makes sense for Microsoft to have an official Linux distro that they can offer true support for.

My prediction is that they'll continue to work on the recently announced "Windows Subsystem for Linux"[1] and attempt to cover a larger and larger portion of the Linux ABI. If people can develop, and run the majority of Linux programs on Windows, and those programs are competitive in performance, and those programs have MS support backing, then they have a huge win in the enterprise space. Personally, I'm happy to ke…

I think this is an amazing move for Microsoft. If they get the kinks worked out and get it working well on Windows Server, they'll have one platform that can run pretty much all the major enterprise software without virtualization. That's great; it's a way for Linux shops to convert to Windows Server without having to fully commit right away, because they'll still be able to quite easily run their existing stack and leverage their developers who are used to Linux tooling.

Re: Head of Oracle Linux Moves to Microsoft

#20

Post by osweiller »

bithush wrote: post #10
diskcat wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the point of using microsoft's linux?

The same as using Red Hat's Linux. You get a well supported environment. If you are a Linux shop but want to run on Azure then it makes sense, to me anyway, to go with the best supported OS on that platform. I love Linux and while I also have some nagging negative thoughts about Microsoft getting so cosy with the Linux world, I also can't pretend I wouldn't be super excited to run a Microsoft Linux on my dev machine…

I don't think there is a widespread "nagging negative thoughts" about Microsoft working with Linux. That isn't where the skepticism comes from.

Azure, like all other cloud providers, fully supports and functions with all mainstream Linux distros (indeed, the Linux kernel includes a large number of kernel contributions from Microsoft, particularly around hypervisor support). When you conjecture about some synergy between your dev machine and Azure cloud machines, it makes me wonder if you are just extrapolating based on some assumptions of the platform, or if you have a real working knowledge of it.

All of this conjecture just seems bizarre. It's good that Microsoft is getting more knowledgeable about other platforms, but there is nothing at all exciting about some conceptual Microsoft Linux.

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