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Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

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Re: Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

#11

Post by jrs95 »

skohan wrote: post #7

I don't think it's a particularly good thing for Microsoft to cozy up with Linux, let alone any of the larger tech firms. In particular, I don't think it's great that Microsoft is such a heavy contributor to the Linux foundation. If the people who work on Linux become financially dependent on large tech firms, this creates potential conflict-of-interest. For instance, is it impossible to imagine that as Proton become…

Linux development is already dependent on large tech firms and has been for a long time.

Re: Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

#12

Post by gwd »

> I think all of these would be strategic blunders from the point of view of Microsoft shareholders. But they’re the kind of things you do for love. Otherwise this is just “love” if your standard is abusive one-sided relationships.

This is awesome.

Re: Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

#13

Post by raesene9 »

From what I see in general MS like Linux on the server, not so much the desktop. The reason for that is pretty obvious.

They want as many organizations as possible to use their cloud platform, for that to work, they need first class Linux server support.

On the desktop, they'd prefer people to be using Windows, but they want to ensure that developers who deploy to Linux have a great experience, thus WSL, VS Code et al.

With that said, I think there are some groups inside MS who would like to see more desktop Linux support, thus announcements like the Linux Teams client. It's probably a mistake to view MS (or any other v.large corp) as a unified entity. There will be groups inside that corp. with differing goals.

You only have to look at MS presence at Kubecon where you'll often see MS staff with Macs or Ubuntu laptops on their stand.

Re: Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

#15

Post by dleslie »

guardian5x wrote: post #5

This article makes it sound like Embracing is a bad thing, because necessarily Extend, and Extinguish will follow. But it doesn't really work that way with Open Source.

Google proved the model for embracing, extending and controlling open source by way of Android and the shift to Google Play Services.

Start open and let the walled garden grow within.

Re: Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

#16

Post by jraph »

beatle_sauce wrote: post #9
de_watcher wrote: post #3

Can add Visual Studio to the Office/DirectX/Outlook/ActiveDirectory section.

Same with document formats: MS Office Open XML instead of just supporting the existing OpenDocument Format (ODF) as open standard.

That is not really related to Linux itself, more to the open source / free software world.

Re: Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

#17

Post by juliangoldsmith »

Microsoft loves Linux because it makes them money. I'm not sure why anyone would expect differently.

They won't release products like Office for Linux (though a web interface is possible), and they won't move away from Windows-only APIs. Neither of those actions would have any tangible benefit for the primary users of those produts (Windows users and Windows developers, respectively).

Active Directory is so deeply integrated into the Windows stack that it will never come out. You can authenticate Linux clients against AD, but I doubt they'll be writing a Linux AD server any time soon. I'd imagine most corporate mail servers also support SMTP/IMAP, and Office365 has a web client. As far as ActiveSync goes, that hasn't been a thing since 2007.

Re: Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

#18

Post by designium »

I think the article misses a bigger fight which is between Microsoft's Azure vs. AWS. All what Microsoft is doing is catering to devs who want better tools to deal with servers in the cloud.

Imagine this potential tactic:

1. Create great tools such as Visual Studio Code to serve as first point contact with devs of all types and stacks 2. Start creating plugin or easy to integrate dev workflow in those types of tools with Azure 3. Make it so easy and reasonably cost effective that people may start switching away from AWS to Azure

I don't think Microsoft is trying to kill or encroach Linux but instead cooping those devs into moving to Azure platform where the market growth is; while still protecting the existing cash cows.

Re: Microsoft's “Love” of Linux

#20

Post by 1996 »

TomMarius wrote: post #6
1996 wrote: post #2

Dear new corporate overlord, if you want to disprove this, please invest in wine! It is an alternative option that would yield great dividends for both linux and windows user. win32 binaries are just more multiplatform that .net/uwp/the next shiny new thing you will try and fail to spin.

I think they want to go the HyperV route for this purpose, wine is not really the solution a company like Microsoft would choose (based on their business needs). HyperV based hybrid desktop seems to be much easier to develop, maintain, sell etc.

Easier, maybe, but it will not succeed. hyperv will be the next big shiny thing to fail.

Meanwhile, wine keep my old binaries useful - and will keep them long after uwp or whatever shades into obscurity.

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