5 ms·

Have they released anything consumer-oriented on Linux yet?

qume 11y ago
Kind of - Skype. Although it was released before MS purchased the company and since then it hasn't been maintained very well.
- smacktoward 11y ago
  Skype on Linux feels a lot more like "legacy product MS inherited and then ignored" than "hot new product under active development."
- npongratz 11y ago
  Maintained so poorly that we get this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11165568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11165568
- rogerbinns 11y ago
  Skype on Linux seems to have different experiences for different people. For example it is rock solid for me, and always works well. I don't remember any crashes. But it also essentially never gets updated. I have colleagues on Windows, Mac and iOS where skype is getting updated, but it mostly seems to frustrate them by having an unpleasant user experience. Just today I was sharing my screen but they couldn't actually find it in the skype user interface! This is Microsoft's business to lose. But network effects mean you have to keep more of the audience satisfied because excluding people means they take themselves and those they interact with away to an alternative.
- gottam 11y ago
  So basically SQL server on linux is supported until the project isn't fun to work on anymore which then it will be left to rot and eventually support dropped entirely.
  - tracker1 11y ago
    I'd say it will stay as long as commercially viable, which it very much is... I'd imagine a lot of this effort was to get SQL services on azure closer to the metal than running on top of Windows. I don't think it's going anywhere for a while... and I rarely trust MS with anything cross platform.
bigdubs 11y ago
VSCode which is really a nice shell for electron. Other than that, not too much comes to mind.
- tomku 11y ago
  Electron isn't an editing component, it's the combination of Node and Chromium that sits under VS Code and Atom and a whole bunch of other apps, many of which have nothing to do with text editing.
  - bigdubs 11y ago
    shell implies vscode wraps electron, i'm not sure what your statement is clarifying further.
    - tomku 11y ago
      Sorry if there was a misunderstanding, I've seen a lot of people who seem to think that Electron is the "text editor" and that Atom and VS Code are just different "shells" built on top of it with Github and Microsoft branding.
tomschlick 11y ago
Other than the CLI tools others mentioned before no. But they have started to treat OSX/iOS as first class citizens which is awesome. Shows a huge culture shift over there in Redmond.
- aninteger 11y ago
  What CLI tools are you talking about? Can you please clarify and or provide a link?
  - Permit 11y ago
    They were likely referring to the cross-platform .NET Core stuff: https://github.com/dotnet/cli https://github.com/dotnet/cli
- shanselman 11y ago
  And Visual Studio Code
mozumder 11y ago
There was an announcement a few weeks back about their Python JIT VM that they're developing, which is currently only for Windows but they say they're planning for other operating systems as well: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/pythonengineering/2016/02/12/welcome/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/pythonengineering/2016/02/1... And also a few months ago they posted to the Django developers mailing list about developing MSSQL as a first-class database for Django: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django-developers/FbBcUCzrSZo https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django-developers/Fb... It seems pushing MSSQL for Linux is the next step. Meanwhile, I hope they can get things running ported to FreeBSD, since that's what I use for the server.
anonymfus 11y ago
They released many applications for Android, ever their own launcher.
- umanwizard 11y ago
  When people say "Linux" in a context like this, they usual mean "a typical GNU/Linux distribution", not "anything that happens to be running the Linux kernel"
TheRealDunkirk 11y ago
Some of us remember Internet Explorer for Unix, AND it's sudden disappearance. Or FrontPage Extensions for Apache. Microsoft LOVES to ANNOUNCE things like they've solved world hunger or something, but then things die on the vine, and they get only a smattering of updates, and the docs get really stale. I'm a 20-year Linux fan, but my main project right now is running on SQL Server in Azure. I've got a side project running to convert it to Rails using the tiny_tds driver, but I'll wait for a couple/few years and see how this REALLY works out. The more Microsoft tries to brand themselves as "loving Linux," the more I'm getting suspicious. If they really want to wear that crown, then they need to release Office for Linux, in DPKG and RPM formats. The product matters a whole lot less these days, in this cloud-based, app-driven world, but that's the ONE thing that would actually prove it to me.

qume 11y ago

Kind of - Skype. Although it was released before MS purchased the company and since then it hasn't been maintained very well.

smacktoward 11y ago
Skype on Linux feels a lot more like "legacy product MS inherited and then ignored" than "hot new product under active development."
npongratz 11y ago
Maintained so poorly that we get this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11165568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11165568
rogerbinns 11y ago
Skype on Linux seems to have different experiences for different people. For example it is rock solid for me, and always works well. I don't remember any crashes. But it also essentially never gets updated. I have colleagues on Windows, Mac and iOS where skype is getting updated, but it mostly seems to frustrate them by having an unpleasant user experience. Just today I was sharing my screen but they couldn't actually find it in the skype user interface! This is Microsoft's business to lose. But network effects mean you have to keep more of the audience satisfied because excluding people means they take themselves and those they interact with away to an alternative.
gottam 11y ago
So basically SQL server on linux is supported until the project isn't fun to work on anymore which then it will be left to rot and eventually support dropped entirely.
- tracker1 11y ago
  I'd say it will stay as long as commercially viable, which it very much is... I'd imagine a lot of this effort was to get SQL services on azure closer to the metal than running on top of Windows. I don't think it's going anywhere for a while... and I rarely trust MS with anything cross platform.

bigdubs 11y ago

VSCode which is really a nice shell for electron. Other than that, not too much comes to mind.

tomku 11y ago
Electron isn't an editing component, it's the combination of Node and Chromium that sits under VS Code and Atom and a whole bunch of other apps, many of which have nothing to do with text editing.
- bigdubs 11y ago
  shell implies vscode wraps electron, i'm not sure what your statement is clarifying further.
  - tomku 11y ago
    Sorry if there was a misunderstanding, I've seen a lot of people who seem to think that Electron is the "text editor" and that Atom and VS Code are just different "shells" built on top of it with Github and Microsoft branding.

tomschlick 11y ago

Other than the CLI tools others mentioned before no. But they have started to treat OSX/iOS as first class citizens which is awesome. Shows a huge culture shift over there in Redmond.

aninteger 11y ago
What CLI tools are you talking about? Can you please clarify and or provide a link?
- Permit 11y ago
  They were likely referring to the cross-platform .NET Core stuff: https://github.com/dotnet/cli https://github.com/dotnet/cli
shanselman 11y ago
And Visual Studio Code

mozumder 11y ago

There was an announcement a few weeks back about their Python JIT VM that they're developing, which is currently only for Windows but they say they're planning for other operating systems as well: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/pythonengineering/2016/02/12/welcome/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/pythonengineering/2016/02/1... And also a few months ago they posted to the Django developers mailing list about developing MSSQL as a first-class database for Django: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django-developers/FbBcUCzrSZo https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django-developers/Fb... It seems pushing MSSQL for Linux is the next step. Meanwhile, I hope they can get things running ported to FreeBSD, since that's what I use for the server.

anonymfus 11y ago

They released many applications for Android, ever their own launcher.

umanwizard 11y ago
When people say "Linux" in a context like this, they usual mean "a typical GNU/Linux distribution", not "anything that happens to be running the Linux kernel"

TheRealDunkirk 11y ago

Some of us remember Internet Explorer for Unix, AND it's sudden disappearance. Or FrontPage Extensions for Apache. Microsoft LOVES to ANNOUNCE things like they've solved world hunger or something, but then things die on the vine, and they get only a smattering of updates, and the docs get really stale. I'm a 20-year Linux fan, but my main project right now is running on SQL Server in Azure. I've got a side project running to convert it to Rails using the tiny_tds driver, but I'll wait for a couple/few years and see how this REALLY works out. The more Microsoft tries to brand themselves as "loving Linux," the more I'm getting suspicious. If they really want to wear that crown, then they need to release Office for Linux, in DPKG and RPM formats. The product matters a whole lot less these days, in this cloud-based, app-driven world, but that's the ONE thing that would actually prove it to me.