5 ms·

Probably Ubuntu will be bought by Microsoft. With the cloud, especially containers, there is little future in a business that involves paying for operating sys

Probably Ubuntu will be bought by Microsoft. With the cloud, especially containers, there is little future in a business that involves paying for operating systems licenses. Most interesting is probably supporting legacy versions of operating systems for customers who value compatibility to be able to continue to run existing applications with the minimum changes.

jaboutboul 7y ago
I sort of agree with this. Either Microsoft will purchase Ubuntu outright from Shuttleworth or they will just create Microsoft Linux, in whatever form that is, probably something more container focused than a general purpose OS.
- testvox 7y ago
  https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel
- magduf 7y ago
  >they will just create Microsoft Linux This sounds like something right out of a dystopian nightmare I might have had in the early 2000s.
  - ekc 7y ago
    http://mslinux.org/ http://mslinux.org/ Quite literally!
- MikusR 7y ago
  Microsoft has at least two Linux distributions: Azure Sphere and Azure Cloud Switch. And their own Kernel fork for WSL 2.
- checktheorder 7y ago
  I've sometimes found myself wondering what kernel is actually running Microsoft's new "Modern OS", and if the userspace has any Ubuntu input.
  - muricula 7y ago
    Hello from Redmond. It's all good old NT under the hood. NT is in Azure, XBox, anything which MS builds really. What is interesting is that Windows Subsystem for Linux v2 will actually run a Linux kernel in a VM. I guess implementing a syscall emulation layer for all of Linux was too much, but they still did a very impressive job.
    - anticensor 7y ago
      WSL 1 allows for more security. What they should have done was map WSL users 1:1 to Windows users (Wine users work like that). setuid(), seteuid() and/or capability elevations would raise an UAC prompt as if they were called from Windows.
      - muricula 7y ago
        UAC is not a security boundary, unfortunately :(
- squarefoot 7y ago
  "Microsoft will purchase Ubuntu outright from Shuttleworth or they will just create Microsoft Linux" I'm pretty sure since like 2 years they're working on at least the second, but the purchase of Ubuntu too doesn't sound that absurd to me. What really concerns me is their power as a big corporation, which could play a role in attracting a growing Linux user base to their distro. This could lead to disasters should Microsoft pollute their OS with proprietary extensions: developers writing software for Linux on a MS branded Linux would create software that "runs better" there or wouldn't run at all on others. No conspiracies here, this happens every day in all offices when printers refuse to work with non same brand ink cartridges; so let's say tomorrow Microsoft ports a significant part of their windowing object model to Linux - to their Linux - as a closed linkable blob, then update their development systems so that one can develop full desktop linux applications with the same graphics interface model of the Windows ones. Technical issues aside, how many developers would resist the temptation? And how many of them would keep dual booting when they could build a career by working exclusively on Microsoft Linux? This is pure speculation of course, but I have this feeling that Microsoft becoming a top Platinum Member of the Linux Foundation was the corporate way of slowly getting to the captains chair.
- tech_tuna 7y ago
  I predict that Ubuntu, Hashicorp and/or Docker are acquired in the next year. I could see Microsoft acquiring any of them.
  - h1d 7y ago
    Leaving only Debian as an independent popular distro maker sounds bad for the game.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
I have thought and wondered about this for a while. It would make things interesting if Ubuntu had the resources of Microsoft but would be allowed to be independent in regards to the OS itself. If they wanna push Azure thats ok. You dont necessarily need to use Azure to use Ubuntu if you dont want to.
BrandonM 7y ago
That would be hugely ironic considering https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1. Then again, Shuttleworth spoke pretty positively about Microsoft when he closed the bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1/comments/1834 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1/comments/1834

jaboutboul 7y ago

I sort of agree with this. Either Microsoft will purchase Ubuntu outright from Shuttleworth or they will just create Microsoft Linux, in whatever form that is, probably something more container focused than a general purpose OS.

testvox 7y ago
https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel
magduf 7y ago
>they will just create Microsoft Linux This sounds like something right out of a dystopian nightmare I might have had in the early 2000s.
- ekc 7y ago
  http://mslinux.org/ http://mslinux.org/ Quite literally!
MikusR 7y ago
Microsoft has at least two Linux distributions: Azure Sphere and Azure Cloud Switch. And their own Kernel fork for WSL 2.
checktheorder 7y ago
I've sometimes found myself wondering what kernel is actually running Microsoft's new "Modern OS", and if the userspace has any Ubuntu input.
- muricula 7y ago
  Hello from Redmond. It's all good old NT under the hood. NT is in Azure, XBox, anything which MS builds really. What is interesting is that Windows Subsystem for Linux v2 will actually run a Linux kernel in a VM. I guess implementing a syscall emulation layer for all of Linux was too much, but they still did a very impressive job.
  - anticensor 7y ago
    WSL 1 allows for more security. What they should have done was map WSL users 1:1 to Windows users (Wine users work like that). setuid(), seteuid() and/or capability elevations would raise an UAC prompt as if they were called from Windows.
    - muricula 7y ago
      UAC is not a security boundary, unfortunately :(
squarefoot 7y ago
"Microsoft will purchase Ubuntu outright from Shuttleworth or they will just create Microsoft Linux" I'm pretty sure since like 2 years they're working on at least the second, but the purchase of Ubuntu too doesn't sound that absurd to me. What really concerns me is their power as a big corporation, which could play a role in attracting a growing Linux user base to their distro. This could lead to disasters should Microsoft pollute their OS with proprietary extensions: developers writing software for Linux on a MS branded Linux would create software that "runs better" there or wouldn't run at all on others. No conspiracies here, this happens every day in all offices when printers refuse to work with non same brand ink cartridges; so let's say tomorrow Microsoft ports a significant part of their windowing object model to Linux - to their Linux - as a closed linkable blob, then update their development systems so that one can develop full desktop linux applications with the same graphics interface model of the Windows ones. Technical issues aside, how many developers would resist the temptation? And how many of them would keep dual booting when they could build a career by working exclusively on Microsoft Linux? This is pure speculation of course, but I have this feeling that Microsoft becoming a top Platinum Member of the Linux Foundation was the corporate way of slowly getting to the captains chair.
tech_tuna 7y ago
I predict that Ubuntu, Hashicorp and/or Docker are acquired in the next year. I could see Microsoft acquiring any of them.
- h1d 7y ago
  Leaving only Debian as an independent popular distro maker sounds bad for the game.

giancarlostoro 7y ago

I have thought and wondered about this for a while. It would make things interesting if Ubuntu had the resources of Microsoft but would be allowed to be independent in regards to the OS itself. If they wanna push Azure thats ok. You dont necessarily need to use Azure to use Ubuntu if you dont want to.

BrandonM 7y ago

That would be hugely ironic considering https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1. Then again, Shuttleworth spoke pretty positively about Microsoft when he closed the bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1/comments/1834 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1/comments/1834