Windows to become emulation layer atop Linux kernel, predicts Eric Raymond

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by zapjb, Sep 28, 2020.

  1. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Windows to become emulation layer atop Linux kernel, predicts Eric Raymond
    https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/28/eric_raymond_linux_beats_windows_prediction/

    This guy believes as I do Windows will be a wrapper over Linux.

    "...Microsoft Windows becomes a Proton-like emulation layer over a Linux kernel, with the layer getting thinner over time as more of the support lands in the mainline kernel sources. The economic motive is that Microsoft sheds an ever-larger fraction of its development costs as less and less has to be done in-house.

    If you think this is fantasy, think again. The best evidence that it's already the plan is that Microsoft has already ported Edge to run under Linux. There is only one way that makes any sense, and that is as a trial run for freeing the rest of the Windows utility suite from depending on any emulation layer..."
     
  2. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    Many WebApp developers including front-end developers are working on Unix-like OSes such as macOS and Gnu/Linux, so it makes sense to port browser to these OSes.
    Anyway Microsoft enabled DirectX inside WSL. It was one of the weirdness things I read in the past, because this allows using DirectX backed by well-testes Windows drivers to be used inside binaries compiled for Linux inside WSL. You still must have Windows installation and license for that, but nevertheless it is still DirectX for Linux.
     
  3. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    Not going to happen. Ever. And if it was going to happen, seeing Edge on Linux would not be the indicator. Seeing Office on Linux would be.
     
  4. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    So what are you saying is that Windows 10 will be a thing in 2120 still?
     
  5. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    Probably. It will just require a 2000 core CPU, 16 Petabytes of RAM, and a 200 Exabyte hard drive.
     
  6. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    It'll happen. M$ is just waiting for the great unwashed to get even dumber so as not to notice that Linux (free) is virtually the same thing. And Windows isn't needed.
     
  7. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    I have multiple virtual machines for software testing. I still have one with XP that is 13 years old. Still works. I have multiple Linux VMs. At some point after updating them, they all eventually fail to boot. Most of them don't make it a year before they fail. The Ubuntu ones seem to go the farthest before they die. Some of them fail after the first round of updates. As much as I want to like Linux it doesn't hold up long term. We had a production MySQL instance that quit working after months of use. 3 skilled IT people could not get it to work again after spending weeks restoring images and attempting to move forward with it. I can't see the average consumer being willing to take it on as a daily driver. Again, I would love an alternative to Windows but it works well enough for most people and despite its issues it is more user friendly and reliable than anything else we have tried.
     
  8. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    What do you mean by updating? Do you just apply security updates or update to new version? If latter this is not comparable. You would need try to update XP to Vista then 7 then 8 then 8.1 then 10.
    On the other hand I know people successfully updating Debian server with Internet facing websites between version 5 to 6 then 7 then 8 with some small configuration changes that took them like 15 minutes to do.
     
  9. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    Most of them don't survive long enough to update to a new version. These are just the regular security updates. Occasionally I will clone one to test upgrading to a new version. Sometimes it works. One time I updated a Mint server and the mouse pointer disappeared. I restored an rsync snapshot and installed the updates 1 at a time to see which one broke it. Interestingly after doing it that way it still worked. Lots of random issues like that.
     
  10. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    I have very different experience with Gnu/Linux systems. Maybe because I used only few distributions with some longer history and community. Finally settled for one distribution (Debian in my case) and learned how to avoid and fix problems instead of wasting time on distro hopping.
     
  11. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    The Windows kernel already is pretty good, so why should they make the switch to Linux? I also don't see this happening.
     
  12. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

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    Unless OEMs are prepared to provide the hardware support (the companies that make the majority of money for Microsoft from Windows) and provide installed with new laptops and PCs, this is never going to happen.
    The current push for support Linux desktops is to entice developers into using and paying for Azure services, a growing and profitable market, where Linux is most popular (even with Azure).
     
  13. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Whatever M$ says goes with OEMs. So if M$ says this is the OS you're getting the hardware will be ready.
     
  14. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

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    OEMs would (as history shows) stick with existing/old versions of Windows for a long long time. Remember what happened with Windows 8, 7 outlasted it.
     
  15. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Sure they would. But if took 3-5 yrs it'd get done. And then the Windows OS burden would 90%+ lifted from M$. M$ has to get out from under & concentrate on much larger income streams.
     
  16. Nanobot

    Nanobot Registered Member

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  17. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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