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Microsoft's Linux Kernel

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Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#411

Post by ndarwincorn »

posix_me_less wrote: post #394
paranoidrobot wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Version incompatibility is expected, because Linux kernel changes a lot. Expected by whom, though? I could understand it if it was major kernel versions or something like that, but it seems that a whole bunch of things are really tightly linked. > Which now explicitly and clearly says the driver is for Ubuntu 18.04 only - did you not see that? I honestly didn't. I went back and checked - yep, it does say for 18.04[…

Of course, not expected by a basic user. But if you follow Linux, it is quite well known that the Linux project intentionally does not promise stable internal api in the kernel, they "run a tight ship" where if a program needs to use kernel api, it has to be maintained in the Linux tree. Given this modus operandi of the Linux project, breakage of the old drivers with the new kernel version is expected. Advice to Linu…

Those are pretty old cards though (I've had amdgpu support for my six year old 7970 since kernel 4.9, and I think they've extended it back to a generation or two older architectures now), and you can use the open source radeon drivers with any kernel.

I think the folks using Catalyst for better 3D acceleration have probably moved on to cards supported by amdgpu by now.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#412

Post by ryl00 »

cmiles74 wrote: post #393
fortran77 wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the very start, the NT micro kernel was designed with multiple OS APIs in mind. They implemented a Posix subsystem decades ago.

I think it's a little sad that they are going this route (wrapping a running Linux kernel) rather than working to improve Windows disk performance and continuing to improve their WSL 1.x product. It looks like they are missing out on an opportunity to improve the NT kernel for what looks like short-term gain.

From what I understand (which is very, very little!), fundamental NT vs Linux architecture differences wrt their respective file systems prevent much more performance improvement in WSL 1.x.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#413

Post by dehrmann »

nolok wrote: post #323
dehrmann wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you must figure out the Windows IP The existence of c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts cracks me up. Supposedly [citation needed] Windows uses/used part of the BSD network stack.

Ahhh, the eternel dilemna they face. Either recreate the wheel and get complaints about that, or re-use the wheel and have people "crack up" about you doing that.

What cracks me up is the irony of seeing ...\etc\hosts on Windows, not the entire decision.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#414

Post by bnt »

slantyyz wrote: post #409
bnt wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently switched to Windows after 10 years of Macs, because I didn’t fee like forking out €3k for a decent 15” laptop. I switched to a Razer (€1700) which can actually game + with WSL I can actually do Rails development. After a month of using this machine, my carpal tunnel pains dropped off significantly (in part because I ditched the Magic Mouse for a Logitech MX) and my fingers don’t swell or hurt from bashing…

FWIW, when I switched from Mac to Windows, I was able to still do Rails development in Windows itself (I guess it ultimately depends on your Rails app complexity and the gems you rely on) and deploy my solutions to Linux servers. This was before WSL came out.

For sure, but it was pretty slow (every page reload took ages) and with WSL it is much faster.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#415

Post by craftyguy »

hrktb wrote: post #253
meruru wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One contributing factor to that statistic it that the phone lifecycle is a lot shorter than the desktop/laptop lifecycle. Also desktops and laptops are more likely to be shared between family members. The point is people still have access to and use traditional computers.

While this must be true for a sizeable part of the population, more and more people also don’t ever touch a desktop/laptop or only use the one at work. Unsurprisingly, the latter case gets truer for low computer litteracy adults for who investing in a decent smartphone has a better ROI than buying a meh phone with a cheap laptop. Anecdotally we bought our aging parents each an ipad two years ago. They were decent but…

> While this must be true for a sizeable part of the population, more and more people also don’t ever touch a desktop/laptop or only use the one at work.

I have a hard time believing this, do you have any studies to back this up?

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#416

Post by craftyguy »

brighter2morrow wrote: post #388
TeMPOraL wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does every office worker.

Most office workers could get away with a Chromebook, I'm surprised this hasn't caught on in offices yet.

Oh well if office workers in YOUR company get away with using a chromebook then it must be true for everyone.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#417

Post by gambiting »

ex3xu wrote: post #403
rbanffy wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I find it fairly easy to work on both Mac OS X, Linux and WSL2 -- but not pre-WSL Windows The thing that annoys me most on Windows is Windows itself. After using Linuxes for almost two decades now, the notion of the OS taking tens of minutes to self update when all I wanted was to quickly reboot it is unbearable. > I don't know how/if they're going to handle freeing memory again -- here the NT kernel really needs t…

> The thing that annoys me most on Windows is Windows itself. After using Linuxes for almost two decades now, the notion of the OS taking tens of minutes to self update when all I wanted was to quickly reboot it is unbearable. This is definitely a problem especially considering that the shotgun approach to some Windows updates actually hurt the performance of some machines, even breaking Windows on occasion [0]. Howe…

So after a very long hiatus I have decided to try installing linux on a raspberry pi - and wow, the results were amazing. Using my decade-old knowledge of using fstab I added some drives to /etc/fstab and rebooted. Oooops. Raspbian would fail boot with a message "root account locked, couldn't open console".

Fantastic - so if any of the fstab entries are missing, the entire system effectively bricks itself. The only way to fix it was to remove the SD card, put it in another machine, and manually remove the offending entries from the fstab file. Fantastic. I Don't think I have ever managed to get windows to self-brick itself with something so simple.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#418

Post by butterisgood »

_emacsomancer_ wrote: post #216
butterisgood wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it’s an English proper noun?

You mean like 'linux'?

Sure, but if I worked at Microsoft there might be guidelines on the use of the company name. I doubt it’s worth reading into as some nefarious situation.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#419

Post by gorio »

floatboth wrote: post #400
room505 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this sentiment. I'm not a hacker, gamer or coder. I'm an architect who enjoys tech. I've used Ubuntu and other distros. The one thing that stops Linux from becoming mainstream for desktop use is software. Software for enterprises and software for consumers. The tech community doesn't realize that there is more than just office applications and browsers that people use. I can not install BIM (Revit) softw…

In some fields (3D modeling, PCB CAD) FOSS software could be considered mainstream, in others (audio, photography, vector graphics) just really good. Yes, unfortunately, architecture CAD and BIM are not among those fields :(

Few of those fields have professional software available for Linux i.e. what is actually used in the industry. It's the students, engineers and artists that are invested enough to switch platforms. Most people are just going to use the FOSS software on Windows instead.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#420

Post by reaperducer »

StreamBright wrote: post #337
mtzet wrote: post #265

This is really Microsoft catching up to the Mac in terms of integration with the open-source ecosystem which importantly drives the web. In the mid 2000's the Mac really took off due to being a good-enough Linux replacement on the command line, while taking care of all the hardware integration and providing a sleek desktop experience. This really helped the Mac take off among hackers. This system wasn't as open-sourc…

> a good-enough Linux replacement on the command line nit picking but it was more of a good enough bsd/unix than linux.

Not really a nit pick, considering that OSX is certified full-fledged Unix.
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