MS-Linux: an exercise in imagination

Windows with Linux background

I have already commented on other occasions that Windows 10 is the latest Windows from Microsoft, but it will not be the last safe operating system. It already has an expiration date (end of support for Win 10), since they continue to improve it as a Rolling Release until they stop within a while and cease their support, which depending on the version or edition ranges between 2021 and 2029. And many they wonder, after this what? If not there will be a Windows 11.

Ok, with that being said, we also have to add the mindset shift from Microsoft in recent years, opening some projects, carrying others to Linux, collaborating in the development of Linux to integrate HyperV, now as members of the Linux Foundation, including that Linux subsystem in Win 10, creating products based on Linux as we have been announcing, the purchase of GitHub, etc. Without a doubt, a quite remarkable change that some see with optimism and others with some suspicion ...

We do not know with certainty if this will happen, but not many days ago, a news broke in a famous international blog where there was talk of a Lindows or an MS-Linux, as I have titled here. And I would like to do an exercise in imagination with you and for a moment to think that this hypothetical future has arrived, it is today and it has become a reality. Microsoft has opted for Linux and is now its replacement kernel for Windows NT. Can you imagine the consequences this would have?

Advantages:

  • This supposed MS-Linux would become the most used operating system on the desktop, conquering once and for all the only sector that remains to dominate.
  • That would attract large number of developers, porting all that monstrous amount of native Windows software to Linux. Adobe, Autodesk, ... and countless large software corporations making programs for him. Even Microsoft Office.
  • If Linux is going to say goodbye to 2018 with more than 5000 video game titles, this move would be a brutal push in this regard, because it would be the complete king of video games, occupying the slot of Windows. Millions of gamers would join the penguin platform.
  • Maybe it would be a lethal blow also for MacOS and AppleSince some of those who need a Unix on the desktop with some support, software and drivers, they would not have to bet on the apple, but they would have everything they are looking for in MS-Linux.
  • Hardware at ease since, although hardware support In Linux it is now very good, in the boxes of the devices that we buy would also appear the support for this OS, and not only that of Windows and MacOS as it usually appears officially.
  • Even nutritive for other distros or open source projects, because perhaps that interest in developing code for this system could also be executed in other distributions.
  • La standardization for Linux it could come almost forced. This may be taken as a disadvantage by many, but Torvalds himself has already spoken about wanting a greater standardization in the Linux desktop to recover quota against Windows and MacOS. That fragmentation and multiple projects in parallel can be good for satisfying different users, but community development efforts are scattered. Remember that "divide and conquer", so all together would be much more interesting for me. And this would also directly affect the ease of developers when it comes to packaging their products, without having to create different packages for different distros or managers ...
  • Ability or some control over the computer marketSince the community does not currently have such pressure capacity, but companies like Microsoft can directly influence other large manufacturers. For example, we all see what it costs to implement the alternatives to proprietary firmware, however, how little it has cost Microsoft to enforce UEFI with Secure Boot.

Disadvantages:

  • Some or many projects of GNU / Linux distributions and others like current LibreOffice would probably die for lack of interest for all that mass of users who would have run towards MS-Linux. Although I am sure that there would still be faithful.
  • The amount of malware and attacks oriented towards Linux would increase.
  • We would have much more proprietary software and drivers (binary blobs) running on our system if we opt for MS-Linux.
  • Perhaps a part of the community or developers who are faithful to the ideology of the FOSS started by Richard Stallman and who would not look favorably on certain movements.
  • More bloatware and less privacy for a greater reporting of user information.
  • Perhaps pay a price for something we now have for free ...

Do not forget to leave your comments with the additional advantages and disadvantages they find in this exercise of imagination ...


10 comments, leave yours

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  1.   Iker Etxebarria said

    The change you are mentioning is not very clear to me, although I really like the reflection.
    Let me explain, I do not know if you are hypothesizing that Microsoft creates a new operating system based on linux, with what entails the use of linux licenses etc., or if on the contrary, you mean that they create a new distro based on Unix more like OSX from Apple ...
    Of course, the one that I see as most feasible (which does not mean that I see it as feasible) would be the second one.
    Of course, I don't think I did it for the sake of winning Apple users who want Unix-based systems, because I think that Apple's market is very small. I am a geek, but of the Apple users that I know, few are for Unix, I was, and that influenced, but I do not think that most are because of that.
    The only thing that could lead Microsoft to do that would be that it be more profitable or that they see that the new operating system MS-Linux is such a revolution in terms of security, performance, new functionalities, that it deserves the wave of criticism that they would receive for this change. Criticisms mainly for backward compatibility, that if they released something like what Apple did in its day with Rosetta (I think I remember) that allowed to run applications of the ppc architecture on Intel, perhaps they could alleviate it.
    But would they really get to improve so much or save so much with this move?
    I can't think of how.

  2.   LeoLopez said

    The reflection is good but come on, in the exercise of imagination I consider that there was some excess of confidence in the kings of proprietary software.
    1. I don't think that MS-Linix allows running linux applications across the spectrum, look at the case of Apple, despite being "Linux-based", they add a layer in their hierarchy that make it impossible to run their applications on Linux and I think vice versa (I have never tried). If they were to make such a move, I think MS-Linux would go along that line.
    2. The migration from MS-Windows to MS-Linux, in terms of development, would not benefit Linux, neither its users nor its developers, nor would it affect them at all. Based on point 1, they would still be two different systems (or three if we add the apple), each shoemaker to his shoes.
    3. I can't help but mention Microsoft's 3Es (Embrace, extend, and extinguish), it seems that the world of free software, it seems that the penguins have forgotten about that. I keep reading the news that comes out daily about the window system and the so-called love for Linux: call me paranoid but I think it is another play, a big one, one with which you are taking your time, I wish I was wrong, the time will tell.
    I think that MS-Linux could exist but it will not be entirely beautiful as you put it, it will not be free at all (I think you did not talk about that), I think we will see more of the same but with a different pillar, with a different heart. He will use the heart of linux to create another window, so the photo that identifies the post will be more than true, it will be a reality.

  3.   Victor said

    Better to stay like this, if Windows invents something, it is to make a profit and the users will pay for it. and as the article says, viruses, and problems that would magically appear.
    I have been using Linux since 1998 and I have not touched it again except for work reasons that use this operating system and I have no choice.
    Thinking back a bit, has windows done something good? not outright ,, has made several windows that disintegrate by themselves for more maintenance that you did, after a few months even weeks these last, I do not want to think that it would aria if you put your hand in linux.
    better leave linux quiet that users enjoy stable systems without viruses and fast as a bullet, the opposite of windows.

    1.    Angel Escribano Home said

      I am new to Linux and this with you

  4.   morphheus said

    More than suspicion, fear ... I am one of those who think that there will be a time when they try to appropriate how you explain here, and there are already things underway:

    https://azure.microsoft.com/es-es/services/virtual-machines/linux-and-open/?&OCID=AID719820_SEM_432pkZSu&lnkd=Google_Azure_Brand&dclid=CJTDhKClsN8CFU5mGwodR9QPNw

    1.    Fabian said

      Totally agree with you….

      1.    Ismael said

        Impossible until they have an MS Office for GNU / Linux. And I do not mean an online Office like the one that is already available now, but a real MS Office, with its full potential, Powers Excel, etc.

  5.   Isaac Palace said

    I think the windows kernel is better, because if not only the mac and Linux kernel would remain, there always have to be alternatives, even if they are proprietary.

  6.   Fabian said

    That they leave Linux as it is, I fell in love with Linux when I bought a recertified tower and it came with Mandrake Linux and KDE desktop until with more confidence I went with Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy heron, what times what joy and Compiz please Guindos stay calm I don't want to imagine ...

  7.   Shadow_Warrior said

    I don't like it, not even as a reflection, Microsoft only gets into something if it smells like money ... And I don't see how free software was going to give it money ... Unless they release (as HP has done, for example) their own version of Linux, but that would not be a Linux, it would be a Windnux.
    That they are integrating Linux in small devices, it is something public and known to all, and it really scares me to think that Microsoft has its own Linux distribution, because it will be completely less free and it will surely spy on users even when they are dreaming in their beds… Giving Microsoft an access key to the Linux world seems dangerous, extremely dangerous and a huge step towards ending our privacy, time after time.
    On the other hand, in Linux, my old HP Laserjet 3050 printer (which works like the first day), is supported via HPLIP, something great, both in Ubuntu and in Mint, I have been able to install (and use) it without any problem. This same printer in Windows, is limited to being used with a generic driver for postscript printers, which only allows printing at a medium resolution, it does not let me use the scanner, copy and fax function ... Why? Because as always, when Microsoft released a new version of Windows, HP left it out and its most recent driver was for Windows XP ... But that's not all, they had an application, called HP Scan and Capture ... Microsoft incorporated it into its store and Although it was created for Windows 8.1, the paradox arises that if you do not have an account created with a Windows Phone or Windows 10, you cannot download it, so scanning in Windows will not work for you ... things like that, I stopped using Windows, my stomach turns over thinking about the blackmail they do to the user in order to sell that garbage called Windows Phone and Windows 10.
    SO SORRY, MICRO $ OFT, I have my printer working at 100% and I have not needed to buy a Windows Phone garbage (how much damage have you done to Nokia), nor that OS garbage called Windows 10.