31–40 of 154 posts
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Yeah they wouldn't just toss away millions of lines of kernel code.
I recall reading somewhere (can't find it for beans now) that the Windows kernel was a huge mess codewise since many of the original developers have moved on and poor to nonexistent documentation was left, meaning that the modern employees had to basically reverse engineer a lot of the code. Take this with a grain of salt, of course.
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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.
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.
So, is Microsoft planning another plot against Linux?
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Your last paragraph betrays that you completely misunderstand the Linux platform, cloud platforms, or how Microsoft can succeed. What you described would literally be the death knell for all of Microsoft's recent initiatives, and goes in exactly the opposite direction of their movements.
How so? Microsoft want to support everything they can on Azure. That is just sensible business IMHO. However there are businesses out there who like to work in a single vendor system as much as they can. I have no doubt that Microsoft will come out with their own Linux distro in the next 2-3 years. They don't need too, but they also didn't need to do lots of the things they have done recently.
I feel like I've accidentally stumbled upon some internal discussion group of Microsoft's where very low level employees who completely misunderstand the market give their Microsoft-centric view of the world.
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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 betw…
I come from the Microsoft of the 90s where they followed their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish methodology. My "nagging negative thoughts" all stem from those memories. As for dev machine/cloud machine conjecture, I just mean I would like to have a consistent experience between what I develop on and what I deploy too. It isn't a huge deal, just nice to have more than anything.
I develop on Windows, mostly. I deploy to Ubuntu, Redhat, Amazon's AMI, among others. I literally will repeat that you sound like you know nothing about Linux, cloud providers, or Microsoft's play in this market.
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I come from the Microsoft of the 90s where they followed their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish methodology. My "nagging negative thoughts" all stem from those memories. As for dev machine/cloud machine conjecture, I just mean I would like to have a consistent experience between what I develop on and what I deploy too. It isn't a huge deal, just nice to have more than anything.
Not a huge deal, but you'd be "super excited" about it? I develop on Windows, mostly. I deploy to Ubuntu, Redhat, Amazon's AMI, among others. I literally will repeat that you sound like you know nothing about Linux, cloud providers, or Microsoft's play in this market.
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 wild-ass prediction for a Microsoft Linux distribution is one in which Microsoft Windows replaces X-windows. Wayland is already trying to do this because of the perceived security vulnerabilities of X-windows' architecture. In a limited sense, this is sort of an old idea when it comes to nix: there were paid GUI products for layering on top of nix thirty years ago, e.g. Open Look and Motif.
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How so? Microsoft want to support everything they can on Azure. That is just sensible business IMHO. However there are businesses out there who like to work in a single vendor system as much as they can. I have no doubt that Microsoft will come out with their own Linux distro in the next 2-3 years. They don't need too, but they also didn't need to do lots of the things they have done recently.
Your argument is that Microsoft would introduce their own distro (a "proper" Microsoft Linux), and then declare their Linux-related ventures only "supported" on that Linux. I feel like I've accidentally stumbled upon some internal discussion group of Microsoft's where very low level employees who completely misunderstand the market give their Microsoft-centric view of the world.
I am assuming you believe Microsoft will not be venturing into the world of building their own Linux distribution?
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…
What's different this time?
My prediction is that it'll languish in obscurity, rarely used, and eventually be discontinued.