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> and Linux finally wins the desktop wars, not by displacing Windows but by co-opting it That's not a "win", though. That's "being subsumed". After all, if LSW
by TheRealPomax 6y ago
> and Linux finally wins the desktop wars, not by displacing Windows but by co-opting it
That's not a "win", though. That's "being subsumed". After all, if LSW works, why would anyone with normal computing needs ever need to install Linux on a computer ever again? Or even in a VM, for that matter? As long as they have Windows, they get the parts of Linux they need for free, without the headache of actually learning the convoluted finer points of properly using a well configured Linux distro.
If anything, Linux finally loses the desktop war, by no longer being needed as a standalone OS. It's now something you just fire up on the side if you need something that only has a Makefile, rather than an .sln file...
Your desktop is still Windows, your applications are still Windows, and LSW is there for when you need to do "that thing that only people who work with computers for a living need to do". No one even needs to be told that when they run "bash", they're running Linux: it's now just another app you run. Linux didn't just lose, it got made irrelevant.
- pjmlp 6y agoNot all, my Windows machines are yet to see any instance of WSL running. As for your bash example, I have run various versions of it across many kinds of POSIX like OSes. Yes Linux is irrelevant, it is just a free beer UNIX clone, tomorrow another UNIX clone can take its place.
- TheRealPomax 6y agoIf you've run many kinds of POSIX-like OSes, it should be fairly obvious you're not the vast majority of folks when it comes to the Windows user base.
- pjmlp 6y agoIndeed, I don't mix up Linux with UNIX.
- TheRealPomax 6y agoAnd that's another thing the vast majority of folks this is for couldn't care less about. It's all the same "make it irrelevant, this is not something I should need to care about to do whatever I need WSL for".
- pjmlp 6y agoIndeed, had Microsoft been more serious about the POSIX subsystem on NT, and Linux would be as relevant as Minix. WSL is about fixing that little mistake, while taping on Linux ABI as extra.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- executesorder66 6y agoI don't necessarily see it as a "win" for Linux, but I do see it as an admission of defeat for windows. If windows (and it's related tooling) is so garbage that you have to literally bundle an entire OS and tools in it just so that a developer can get real work done, then that speaks volumes. And also why would I want all of the pain of using windows, (with linux bundled in it) if I can just use linux?
- Kuinox 6y agoNever needed linux until xyz tool chain that is not crossplatform require linux to compile... I welcome WSL only because it will be easier to test my apps against linux.