Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro • Hacker News Board

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#21

Post by ocdtrekkie » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:32 AM UTC

Alupis wrote: post #20

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a sysadmin and Group Policy is the entire moat Microsoft has. Linux has nothing like it, and it probably can't because it requires a level of top down authority over a platform's design and implementation that would be hard in the Linux space. Maybe something like systemd could do something similar which defined policy over all the components they've taken over, but a distro doing it would be pointless, we're no…

Nothing in the linux world would forbid something like Group Policy. A commercial distro that targets large-scale enterprise customers could implement something exactly like Active Directory + friends. Ansible, FreeIPA, and more can be used individually or together to achieve what AD provides. There are large enterprises that are non-windows...

My comment above already addresses this.

I'm aware there are large enterprises that are non-Windows. All of them are technology companies. They are well equipped to pay their own developers to compensate for not having Group Policy, and may even be Microsoft competitors who don't want to spend money on them. Ansible being a replacement for Group Policy is very funny. That is like saying Postgres is a replacement for Excel.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#22

Post by p_ing » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:32 AM UTC

TacticalCoder wrote: post #5

p_ing wrote: post #3

M365 and Azure run on the NT kernel. This blog post makes zero sense.

Linux runs on billions of devices, including billions of phones, Internet routers, 100% of the world's Top 500 supercomputers, etc. This post makes lots of sense: Windows is and has always been (but it's getting worse now, as TFA notes) a turd whose level of turdiness cannot be understated. At some point they may just throw the towel in and use an OS that powers tens of billions of devices (which is where Linux is he…

Your post lacks understanding of the NT executive and the ways (IOCP, personalities, VMM, WM) where it does a better job than the Linux kernel.

Or the only stable ABI, even on Linux - Win32.

Linux running on 'billions of devices' doesn't mean much when Azure is built on Hyper-V and ODSP/EXO/Dynamics on Windows Server and makes gobs of money for Microsoft.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#23

Post by rpiguy » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:33 AM UTC

This is possible… but surely it will be Linux with a walled garden on top.

The first clue will be a version of the Xbox running an OS with this model.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#24

Post by 1970-01-01 » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:33 AM UTC

Tldr: "Prediction: 2041 will be the year of the Linux Desktop!'

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#25

Post by mortsnort » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:34 AM UTC

I think they're going to do the least funny thing imaginable: make Windows software require a valid Windows install.

It might all be moot tho if nobody can buy RAM and we're all pushed to cloud computing (yay Azure...). Then your terminal's OS will be pretty irrelevant.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#26

Post by hougaard » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:34 AM UTC

Because the "UX" of Windows sucks, Microsoft will switch the "Kernel" to Linux?

I don't get the argument. There are parts of Windows I don't like, so I have chosen a 3rd-party (often open-source) replacement. The exact same process as I do on Linux. I don't see why I have to switch to Linux to have that freedom.

(and to be honest, I don't care where the taskbar is)

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#27

Post by notherhack » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:34 AM UTC

Clickbait spoiler: "I predict that within 15 years Microsoft will discontinue Windows in favor of a Windows themed Linux distribution."

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#28

Post by p_ing » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:36 AM UTC

Alupis wrote: post #11

ThrowawayB7 wrote: post #4

This guy is in for a disappointing future since he seems to be unaware that Windows is more than than the consumer editions. Revenue from Windows Enterprise (which has management tools like Active Directory and backwards compatibility with non-game apps needed for large corporate deployments) and Windows Server (needed for Active Directory, Exchange, SQL Server, etc.) is still in the billions and there's nothing on t…

None of the software and services you mentioned require Windows though - they could be made to run on Linux, and some already do. As more and more revenue shifts from desktop/servers to cloud and services, it doesn't seem too far-fetched for Microsoft to decide maintaining the entire OS stack themselves makes less and less sense. A Microsoft Windows linux distro would free up resources to focus on what makes Windows…

Exchange is very dependent on Win32 and .NET Framework. As is ODSP and Dynamics.

Azure under the hood is Hyper-V with most services built upon that dependency.

Yes, millions of man hours, monkies, and typewriters you could transform this to Linux. The economics aren't there when Azure/M365 keeps pulling in money running on it's current platform hand over fist.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#29

Post by dbcooper » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:37 AM UTC

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #14

As a Windows system and user-mode dev, I absolutely never understand these sorts of drive-by posts with nearly zero technical depth. If there is one thing about Windows that is really good, it is its kernel and driver architecture, and absolute plethora of user-mode libraries that come with the OS , that can be programmed against with a variety of languages from ancient to brand-new, all maintained by the vendor. Doi…

Would it be possible to ship a high performance, lean "modern" Windows, with legacy apps etc run seamlessly in VMs or containers?

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#30

Post by delta_p_delta_x » Mon, Jan 19, 2026, 1:39 AM UTC

dbcooper wrote: post #29

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #14

As a Windows system and user-mode dev, I absolutely never understand these sorts of drive-by posts with nearly zero technical depth. If there is one thing about Windows that is really good, it is its kernel and driver architecture, and absolute plethora of user-mode libraries that come with the OS , that can be programmed against with a variety of languages from ancient to brand-new, all maintained by the vendor. Doi…

Would it be possible to ship a high performance, lean "modern" Windows, with legacy apps etc run seamlessly in VMs or containers?

This is probably the hypervisor that Azure VMs run on, or perhaps Windows Server. Unlike Linux, (most) legacy apps (if they target NT) don't need VMs or containers; they run natively. You can compile for Windows 2000 on Windows 11 25H2 and run it natively on the host to test.