Could Microsoft release a desktop Linux?

I always saw Canonical as trying to do this, considering what pains they used to go through to not use the term 'Linux' in their marketing. They were playing things as though Ubuntu was their own platform (and in many ways, given the different ways that Ubuntu used to break compatibility with plain Debian, it was) — their own software centre, their own desktop, their own services.

Many of those seem to have gone by the wayside: Unity deprecated in favour of GNOME 3, Ubuntu One dead. It makes me wonder if Canonical found out that it just can't be done, that pissing off the people involved in the projects upon which Ubuntu depends by sacrificing some of the sense of community in exchange the It Just Works™ magic towards which they have been working is ultimately a fool's game in the current ecosystem.

I find that a shame. I thought Ubuntu had the potential to be a sort of macOS for Linux: built upon a free base, contributing heavily to other projects from which it takes, but also adding Ubuntu-specific stuff (still open source, of course) that disrupts the Linux desktop ecosystem to make the current other players (KDE, GNOME, Xfce, etc.) feel like amateur hour. At one time, it felt like Unity could've been Ubuntu's macOS desktop and I could swear they were heavily promoting some Python API for desktop apps that might've been to Ubuntu as Cocoa is to macOS. That also seems to have changed.

There would be nothing to stop anyone else launching their own app stores, and other cloud vendors would immediately be better able to compete with Azure, so both those streams of revenue would be dramatically weakened, not strengthened.

Enterprise support contracts are mainly about OS upgrades and patches. That would probably stay the same for MS, they would dominate in the same way Red Hat dominates the Linux enterprise. I don’t think this would be strengthened in any way though. It would be pros and cons.

That’s what I thought.

https://youtu.be/H27rfr59RiE

I think that such a product, even if developed internally, it would be stopped by the business team. The reason being it would be better than Windows in many aspects.

I'm a long time Linux user, but got an ultraportable lately and kept windows on a small partition (mostly for BIOS updates). Linux was installed without any issues, everything except the fingerprint reader works. The interesting thing is that it does not just work, it works better. The most pronounced difference is the touchpad. On windows it is frequently stuck —and it's not palm rejection because I never had an issue in Linux. The 3 finger click that is paste or _open in new tab_ in Linux, in Windows opens Cortana. With Linux battery lasts longer. With Windows, the fan starts turning without any reason while the process manager says _no process is running_. Very annoying. Windows constantly nug me because I used my skype account which, according to them, does not have an associated email. Applications go into full screen without any indication on how to close them. I have to search for software on the internet, via my browser. The other day I wanted to start Windows for a Lync meeting and it decided it has to install updates and restarted a couple times before allowing me to continue with my life. Perhaps the most infuriating thing was the candy crash tiles that greeted me when I first booted the computer.

I'm not saying you should use Linux, but you should ask for better Windows.

Are you saying Linux won't work out-of-the-box on an XPS 15? Because Dell literally sells those pre-loaded with Ubuntu, even saves you $100.