2 ms·

Calls us fools, but we thought Linux on the desktop would happen. I guess it finally did, in a way, with chromebooks.

• magnusmundus 5y ago
  > chromebooks Huh, that's a name I haven't heard in a while. WSL, on the other hand...
  • uh_uh 5y ago
    The idea of WSL would have been laughable back then. I'm really curious what other unthinkable things will happen in the next 30 years.
    • wmf 5y ago
      Check out Interix and Services for Unix. The surprising thing about WSL from a 90s perspective is that it's Linux-flavored instead of Solaris-flavored.
    • pjmlp 5y ago
      It was already there in Windows NT, had Microsoft been more serious about it, and very few would have bothered with GNU/Linux.
  • mkr-hn 5y ago
    Opening up a Linux tab in the open source Windows Terminal from Microsoft would have seemed like dark magic to someone in the '90s. Or maybe I am a witch...
  • kube-system 5y ago
    There are way more chromebooks in the wild than there are installations of WSL
    • pjmlp 5y ago
      If we constrain the market to US, maybe.
      • kube-system 5y ago
        30.7 million sold just in 2020. 40 million has been forecasted for 2021. Various stats for the number of software developers on the planet cite numbers between 24 and 26 million. MS doesn't, to my knowledge, post stats on WSL installations, but it's not 30 million+
        • pjmlp 5y ago
          I bet the amount of Windows PC sold worldwide beats that. Yes not everyone installs WSL, because it is a tool for sell PCs to GNU/Linux developers that rather pay Apple and are neither buying Chromebooks nor Apple laptops.
• zubairq 5y ago
  Sure it did, google runs on Linux. Every time you go to google you are using Linux
• kzrdude 5y ago
  My current company allows us to pick Linux or Windows. So for me, it did happen. Linux on the laptop at home and at work :) Work laptop is a Dell, works fine.