4 ms·
Ask HN: Should Microsoft rebuild Windows as a *nix based OS?
Is it a good idea?
- alrs 9y agoThe whole point of NT was to provide Win32, POSIX(UNIX), and OS/2 all atop the same kernel. No need to rebuild it, NT was built like that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1#Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1#Architecture Nothing stops Microsoft from putting an entire GNU or BSD userspace atop their NT kernel. They probably built the proof-of-concept 15 years ago. EDIT: Considering that they used the BSD network code to put TCP/IP in NT 3.1, it's likely that they had at least a minimal BSD userspace running atop the NT kernel circa 1991/1992. That could have meant x86, Alpha, or MIPS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution