Is this a 'fork' of an ARM/MediaTek chip?
I'm currently on the Espressif platform for our stack.
How does it compare overall and in terms of security?
Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
131–140 of 304 posts
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#132If you didn't know Microsoft used to have its own version of Unix a long time ago: Xenix. Never seen it personally though, my first experience with PC was MSDOS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix
It was kind of ok.
That is how I learned UNIX back in the day.
As anecdote, given the UNIX prices even for PCs, the teacher would carry a PC with Xenix into our lab and then each group would have about 20 minute turns to test what was already prepared typing on MS-DOS.
This is why getting a C compiler for MS-DOS mattered to many of us, we wanted to maximize our slot as much as possible, it wasn't about its qualities.
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you used Windows 10 Server Core, or Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB? There's no data collection in either of those, because they're for serious people. The Home and Pro editions, meanwhile, are effectively "Xbox OS for PCs." They turn your computer into an entertainment appliance run and maintained by Microsoft itself. Of course they collect data, just like there are data-collection agents on all the nodes of your av…
IIRC Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB is for Specialized systems—such as PCs that control medical equipment, point-of-sale systems, and ATMs. I wouldn't recommend to a developer or an average user.
It's on a slower update ring and only gets security updates, not feature updates.
Sounds fine to me.
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Windows Is For Games™. Despite the existence of things like SteamOS, I don't think your average e-Sports player is going to run anything besides Windows any time soon. Windows Home/Pro is essentially "the firmware for a custom-built Xbox."
Interesting. I am now curious about the demographics. How many Windows 10 users are there soley for either games or Photoshop, or Illustrator, for example? I instinctively feel like ChromeOS and OSX (and mobile OS variants) are going to kill Windows desktop off. But I'm also aware I might be off base.
Maybe on US.
Around here ChromeOS is a kind of rare animal hardly seen on any consumer shop, and when it appears it is usually tied to some promotion to get rid of those in stock.
OS X is everywhere on northen Europe big cities, but go south or to the country side where many people dream to go over the 500€ barrier and it too becomes a rare animal.
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
It does. But, it's also pretty surreal for those of us that worked through the anti-linux Microsoft of the 90's. Windows subsystem for Linux, and initiatives like this are a real confirmation that MS finally "gets it". Right tool for the right job. Good for them. It's also a big swing for me in that I trust MS more than Google now to do the right thing. I'd have thought that impossible a couple of decades ago.
Generally agree with you, but those of us who knew Microsoft in the 90s are also cautious about the company getting too cozy with the Linux ecosystem, or any competing technology in general.
I put Apple and Google on the same position as well.
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#136Microsoft has a lot of great engineers that have no religious bias against Linux. This was strictly a Bill Gates/Steve Ballmer thing. The smartest thing Nadella did was get rid of the Windows religion aspect to their work and let their engineers do the best thing, and not be afraid of Linux.
where is the office suite for Linux then?
If Linux users don't have any issues putting their documents on Google's servers, they can do the same with Office 365.
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#137After seeing this I think the Amazon AWS/FreeRTOS combo is looking like the better architecture for a node solution. FreeRTOS can run on lowly M3s at 120Mhz, like the LPC2478. A 500MHz A7 part is way too much silicon for an IoT node. How much external SDRAM and Flash are connected to that MediaTek core?
You call 120MHz lowly? I call that luxury! I am working on a product where we're running an M4 way below 1MHz. And our hardware guys have me counting bytes in software...
FreeRTOS is a pretty good fit for this situation. I am only disappointed that newlib is so ridiculously huge in comparison. Some functions in there are twice the size of FreeRTOS.
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you actually used Windows 10?? The spotlight is squarely on Facebook and it's privacy intrusions right now, but the data collection when you own the OS must be several orders of magnitude larger. Don't be so eager to forgive them. They're not hugging Linux right now because they're a Good Company trying to Do No Evil.
This is completely false and has been debunked countless times. Your telemetry data is no where near as invasive as what Facebook or Google does.
That ... is far from ok.
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you actually used Windows 10?? The spotlight is squarely on Facebook and it's privacy intrusions right now, but the data collection when you own the OS must be several orders of magnitude larger. Don't be so eager to forgive them. They're not hugging Linux right now because they're a Good Company trying to Do No Evil.
Ubuntu is following MS lead and introducing data collection by default in 18.04. Google also have a couple of linux based options that are built with the sole purpose of collecting your data. MS for all their faults are at least still in the business of selling operating systems and not selling you.
For Ubuntu is a checkbox at install, this is a big difference between that and 20 hidden switches in registry that each stop different spying code and also get reset by mistake at each update.
Re: Microsoft built its own custom Linux kernel for its new IoT service
#140Am I paraphrasing this correctly: > Microsoft-branded ARM microcontrollers running an embedded linux distribution. Microsoft rolls out security updates over Azure to reduce the risk of the device becoming part of a botnet. It sounds great.
It does. But, it's also pretty surreal for those of us that worked through the anti-linux Microsoft of the 90's. Windows subsystem for Linux, and initiatives like this are a real confirmation that MS finally "gets it". Right tool for the right job. Good for them. It's also a big swing for me in that I trust MS more than Google now to do the right thing. I'd have thought that impossible a couple of decades ago.
It's been an interesting ride for sure to follow Microsoft the last few years. The work they do with Azure and dev tools and open source is pretty neat. Folks like Scott Guthrie and the new CEO certainly made Microsoft more appealing again. It's kind of funny even how times change and how I think of Microsoft as one of the top cloud and online companies now, even before Google but still behind Amazon. Certainly a personal opinion, but that's how times and my opinion changed.