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I installed Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on an older machine just now. The MSFT of today is definitely a far cry from the MSFT of yesteryear. Such a thing woul
by banachtarski 7y ago
I installed Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on an older machine just now. The MSFT of today is definitely a far cry from the MSFT of yesteryear. Such a thing would have been unheard of 15 years ago.
- fredsted 7y agoEmbrace, extend, extinguish?
- Rainymood 7y agoCurrently in the embrace phase ...
- kingbirdy 7y agoHow would MS possibly extinguish linux?
- kristofferR 7y agoBallmer would have suggested chemotherapy.
- msla 7y agoThey can't. That's why I hate people using that chestnut in relation to Linux: It doesn't work for two reasons which stick out at me. Reason one is because Linux is GPL'd, Microsoft can't extend Linux without giving its extensions back to the community. Reason two is because Linux is already established in multiple realms, so Microsoft can't bully its way into dominance. Microsoft has a respectable presence in server rooms, but it isn't absolutely dominant by a long shot. Microsoft probably has something going on in the embedded/hobbyist SBC space, but there's no path for them to dominate there. And, FWIW, Linux owns the supercomputer world. I also can't see IBM falling over itself to put Windows on mainframes.
- reaperducer 7y agoMy prediction, that my IT department hates to hear, is that Windows is going away. Microsoft doesn't want to be Microsoft anymore; it wants to be Oracle and IBM and primarily make money off of business consulting and the cloud. I think Windows will eventually become a presentation and slowly-phased-out compatibility layer on top of Linux, similar to the way macOS became Unix, but even less different than its underlying OS. However, it should be noted that I'm not very good at predicting things.
- adamc 7y agoVery unlikely, as it would mess with backwards compatibility and cause unhappiness of users and IT departments. Microsoft still makes money selling Office and other products there.
- phoe-krk 7y agoMicrosoft doesn't need to care about backwards compatibility anymore, now that Wine exists precisely to have compatibility with Windows software (including software that even modern Windows itself no longer wants to run).
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago> now that Wine exists Wine is 26 years old.
- phoe-krk 7y agoAgreed, could have worded it better. Now that Wine is good enough to run most of Windows software and backed by Valve via its Proton initiative.
- ralphie02 7y agoHasn't Wine been good enough for at least 10+ years? Furthermore, how does being backed by Valve actually be of any significant value? I've heard of this argument for a couple of years now and I'm still not convinced (not that I follow Wine development that closely).
- geofft 7y agoDoesn't that require actually extending and extinguishing, though? WSL1 was a proprietary reimplementation of the Linux system call ABI as an NT subsystem. WSL2 is actual Linux running in a VM. That seems to be moving in exactly the opposite direction.
- banachtarski 7y agoExactly. There are so many things different about today's MSFT. Another example is Linux support on Azure. People love their tin foil hats though.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 7y agoHow dare they gain market share by putting out products that people want!
- tomnipotent 7y agoCan you give any examples in the last 10-15 years?
- Sammi 7y agoOpen Source copyright licenses exists exactly to make the extinguish part impossible. MS cannot put the genie back in the bottle when it puts out open source software.
- svnpenn 7y agoUm, no you didn't. It only works with windows 10 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-install https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-install
- efdee 7y agoWindows 10 runs on older machines just fine.
- banachtarski 7y agoThanks you saved me a snarky comment
- pjmlp 7y agoActually it is a return to their roots, given Xenix.
- ibiza 7y agoYou do remember one of the original Windows NT subsystems was OS/2 1.x, right? http://www.os2museum.com/wp/nt-and-os2/ http://www.os2museum.com/wp/nt-and-os2/ And look how that turned out :)