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The existence of MSSQL-Linux is proof that Microsoft can get this done. The story is pretty interesting: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2016/12/16

The existence of MSSQL-Linux is proof that Microsoft can get this done. The story is pretty interesting: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2016/12/16/sql-server-on-linux-how-introduction/ https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2016/12/16/sql-se...

oaiey 8y ago
Just that a database server is a very specific thing. Own memory handling, own file system handling, own scheduling, ... . The core of these systems give a shit about the operating system.
- kerng 8y ago
  It's even more so true. The complexity of kernel calls is much higher when custom memory and scheduler involved I'd say. Getting Office running is probably rather simple in comparison.
  - jcelerier 8y ago
    > The complexity of kernel calls is much higher when custom memory and scheduler involved I'd say I really don't think so. MS used to render scrollbars in the kernel (was still the case in early Win10 versions)
    - geofft 8y ago
      I believe TrueType fonts are still rendered in kernel mode. (They have a policy option for blocking untrusted fonts, because of course that parser has bugs.)
      - ryuuchin 8y ago
        Although the rendering may still be done in kernel mode the parsing is now done in a usermode sandbox[1] which significantly reduces risks from handling untrusted fonts. [1] https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/secguide/2017/06/15/dropping-the-untrusted-font-blocking-setting/ https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/secguide/2017/06/15/drop...
  - mrweasel 8y ago
    MSSQL is basically a small OS, it uses very few system calls, around 50 if I remember the Microsoft presentation correctly. That’s not to say that porting was easy, but rely very little on the underlaying OS. Porting Office is most likely much more work, just to get the GUI working.
- halbritt 8y ago
  No argument that a desktop environment and a database server are different things. It'd be hard to judge which is a more complex task. Even still, read the story about how they built an OS abstraction layer on top of Windows and Linux and then ported their product to it. That was an impressive feat and an perfect example of Microsoft doing something (maybe only this one thing) right. Unlike Office on Mac which was a piece of shit for very many years and a very different product than Office on Windows.
  - oaiey 8y ago
    Oh I did. I followed WSL and MSSQL development strategies a lot. Cool stuff.
geofft 8y ago
Oh yeah, that's a pretty good point. There's no GUI involved, though... but another good example is Internet Explorer for UNIX, which used a third-party WINE-like product from the mid-'90s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_UNIX https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_UNIX But even then, that was with source access to IE. I definitely believe MS has the skills to make a binary-level implementation of Win32 on Linux happen. I just don't think it will be easy.

oaiey 8y ago

Just that a database server is a very specific thing. Own memory handling, own file system handling, own scheduling, ... . The core of these systems give a shit about the operating system.

kerng 8y ago
It's even more so true. The complexity of kernel calls is much higher when custom memory and scheduler involved I'd say. Getting Office running is probably rather simple in comparison.
- jcelerier 8y ago
  > The complexity of kernel calls is much higher when custom memory and scheduler involved I'd say I really don't think so. MS used to render scrollbars in the kernel (was still the case in early Win10 versions)
  - geofft 8y ago
    I believe TrueType fonts are still rendered in kernel mode. (They have a policy option for blocking untrusted fonts, because of course that parser has bugs.)
    - ryuuchin 8y ago
      Although the rendering may still be done in kernel mode the parsing is now done in a usermode sandbox[1] which significantly reduces risks from handling untrusted fonts. [1] https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/secguide/2017/06/15/dropping-the-untrusted-font-blocking-setting/ https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/secguide/2017/06/15/drop...
- mrweasel 8y ago
  MSSQL is basically a small OS, it uses very few system calls, around 50 if I remember the Microsoft presentation correctly. That’s not to say that porting was easy, but rely very little on the underlaying OS. Porting Office is most likely much more work, just to get the GUI working.
halbritt 8y ago
No argument that a desktop environment and a database server are different things. It'd be hard to judge which is a more complex task. Even still, read the story about how they built an OS abstraction layer on top of Windows and Linux and then ported their product to it. That was an impressive feat and an perfect example of Microsoft doing something (maybe only this one thing) right. Unlike Office on Mac which was a piece of shit for very many years and a very different product than Office on Windows.
- oaiey 8y ago
  Oh I did. I followed WSL and MSSQL development strategies a lot. Cool stuff.

geofft 8y ago

Oh yeah, that's a pretty good point. There's no GUI involved, though... but another good example is Internet Explorer for UNIX, which used a third-party WINE-like product from the mid-'90s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_UNIX https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_UNIX But even then, that was with source access to IE. I definitely believe MS has the skills to make a binary-level implementation of Win32 on Linux happen. I just don't think it will be easy.