4 ms·

I have this crazy idea that Microsoft could pull itself out of the "meh" gutter by becoming a Unix OEM again. As a longtime developer, I'm certainly not repres

I have this crazy idea that Microsoft could pull itself out of the "meh" gutter by becoming a Unix OEM again. As a longtime developer, I'm certainly not representative of the general computing population, but I have to think that part of Microsoft's long and painful decline is due to a new generation of computer geeks simply not wanting to use Windows. If Valve can break through the Linux gaming barrier with Steam OS, this could spell the eventual end for Windows as an OS that anyone voluntarily uses. In my (admittedly naive) view, I see legions of young computer hackers who want to write apps, games, and server things. I see them asking the "elders of the internet" what system they should use for programming, and I see them all getting the same answer: "get a Linux box, or at least a Mac if you like it nice and shiny". So they go off and get a Linux box or a Mac. The point is: what they get is a Unix system, and that's what they will come to be familiar with. At some point their parents or friends will ask them what kind of computer they should get. If they don't say "why do you need a computer? Just get a tablet." they'll probably steer them towards a Mac... partly because of the "it just works" reputation and partly because, well, it's a Unix system, and they KNOW this. And so goes the cycle of OS popularity. A large portion of "what tech should I buy" seems to trickle down from the tech geeks in every family or peer group, and as time goes on there will probably be more and more of those. So where does Windows fit into this? Visual Studio is nice but otherwise everything is just... different. It used to be that Windows was "normal" and UNIXy things were a bit different, because everyone "normal" used Windows. Now, that situation is becoming reversed. Personally, I quite like what Microsoft has been doing lately, but no matter how shiny I think their new stuff is , I really don't want a non-UNIX OS on my desktop. I want a normal command line with bash or zsh. I want a homebrew or apt-get package management system, and I want a system where no matter what software package or library I want, I know I can always git clone or untar it, then run ./configure && make && make install. You can kind of get there on windows with SFU and Cygwin, but it still doesn't feel quite right. I think Microsoft could gain a strong second following with the tech geek crowd by committing to a complete POSIX layer, proper fork(), a unified file system, a proper terminal (even though powershell is cool), and an "it just works" philosophy when it comes to GCC and clang and all the open source software and libraries available online. If they can do this before their "windows is for gamers" window closes, I think they can get back a lot of their lost tech geek crowd and then enjoy the reputation and recommendation trickle down that inevitably follows. I have absolutely no evidence to back up this advice; I just know that if Microsoft said "Windows 10 will be a certified UNIX", I would strongly consider replacing my Mac with one of those nice Lenovo Yoga laptops.

yuhong 13y ago
At least, it would be nice if MS could help put an end to the infamous SCO lawsuit. Of course, even SCO OpenServer/UnixWare is outdated nowadays and probably would require a lot of work to run well on modern hardware.
tanzam75 13y ago
Suppose Microsoft does this with Windows X -- releases a version of Windows with an top-notch UNIX subsystem and excellent tooling. All the geeks tell their families to buy Windows PCs, because it "has UNIX underpinnings!" Microsoft splits the UNIX workstation market right down the middle with Mac, and Microsoft's share of the PC market increases from 92% to 96%. How does this help Microsoft financially? Desktop Windows accounts for only 23% of Microsoft's revenues. So Microsoft's overall revenue increases by 1%. But its costs also increase, because they will have to maintain this UNIX environment. Its costs may even increase by more than 1%, because the dev work won't be trivial. Not great for profits. Does it help them sell Windows Server licenses? No. Developers code on the Macbooks today and deploy to Linux -- not to Mac OS X Server. Does it help them sell Azure? I can't see how. Same logic as Windows Server. And Microsoft tries to make a profit. Amazon does not. Thus, Amazon can beat them at pricing. Does it help them sell Office? There's already a version of Office for the Mac. Does it help them sell smartphones and tablets? There's still one heck of a chicken-and-egg problem. Developers are more likely to run the Android tools on Windows X. In fact, the Android tools will now run even better on Windows X, because of the improved UNIX support. It does get Microsoft some "street cred," but how do you turn street cred into profits? Maybe if Microsoft had done this in 1999, then it could've prevented OS X from taking hold as the preferred UNIX workstation of the developer crowd. But in 2014, with Linux and MacOS and Android and iOS already well-established? Frontal assaults are a hard way to win a war. Better to go around the flank. Apple had single-digit share of the PC market when it scored a runaway hit with the iPod. P.S. Services for UNIX has been deprecated. The last release was in 2010.
- yuhong 13y ago
  Maybe if Microsoft had done this in 1999, then it could've prevented OS X from taking hold as the preferred UNIX workstation of the developer crowd. What is funny is that I believe MS acquired Interix in 1999.

yuhong 13y ago

At least, it would be nice if MS could help put an end to the infamous SCO lawsuit. Of course, even SCO OpenServer/UnixWare is outdated nowadays and probably would require a lot of work to run well on modern hardware.

tanzam75 13y ago

Suppose Microsoft does this with Windows X -- releases a version of Windows with an top-notch UNIX subsystem and excellent tooling. All the geeks tell their families to buy Windows PCs, because it "has UNIX underpinnings!" Microsoft splits the UNIX workstation market right down the middle with Mac, and Microsoft's share of the PC market increases from 92% to 96%. How does this help Microsoft financially? Desktop Windows accounts for only 23% of Microsoft's revenues. So Microsoft's overall revenue increases by 1%. But its costs also increase, because they will have to maintain this UNIX environment. Its costs may even increase by more than 1%, because the dev work won't be trivial. Not great for profits. Does it help them sell Windows Server licenses? No. Developers code on the Macbooks today and deploy to Linux -- not to Mac OS X Server. Does it help them sell Azure? I can't see how. Same logic as Windows Server. And Microsoft tries to make a profit. Amazon does not. Thus, Amazon can beat them at pricing. Does it help them sell Office? There's already a version of Office for the Mac. Does it help them sell smartphones and tablets? There's still one heck of a chicken-and-egg problem. Developers are more likely to run the Android tools on Windows X. In fact, the Android tools will now run even better on Windows X, because of the improved UNIX support. It does get Microsoft some "street cred," but how do you turn street cred into profits? Maybe if Microsoft had done this in 1999, then it could've prevented OS X from taking hold as the preferred UNIX workstation of the developer crowd. But in 2014, with Linux and MacOS and Android and iOS already well-established? Frontal assaults are a hard way to win a war. Better to go around the flank. Apple had single-digit share of the PC market when it scored a runaway hit with the iPod. P.S. Services for UNIX has been deprecated. The last release was in 2010.

yuhong 13y ago
Maybe if Microsoft had done this in 1999, then it could've prevented OS X from taking hold as the preferred UNIX workstation of the developer crowd. What is funny is that I believe MS acquired Interix in 1999.