Windows 10 will be the last Windows bc MS's next operating sys will be a linux fork

[gde061-www]

It's a pure coincidence that I happened on this article yesterday: http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-mar...oft-and-linux/

In the context of [Lenovo's locked RAID solid state drive / firmware issues], and other developments, it seems pretty clear to me that the comments in the above article point to the next Microsoft OS being a fork of linux. One that they are able to wield market share control over by controlling the supply chain back to the manufacturers with a two prong attack: ensuring that only their flavor supports the firmware necessary to work with the hardware of major suppliers, and by eliminating any direct-ship installed linux systems.

Five years ago lenovo was shipping thinkpads with linux installed. Arguably their e-series was a crap sandwich out of the box running Windows 8, but proved to be a dream machine running ubuntu, which was one of the pre-configured options for some models. Intel was just introducing the NUC concept, ostensibly using the "build your own" concept at shipping the device without a connected hard drive to avoid offending it's traditional chip customers, the PC manufactures. But in a strange twist, it is not the NUC as an alternative to the Windows PC desktop that has vanished from the market, but the NUC support for linux. You have to go back a generation or two to find any kind of guide to installing linux on your NUC.

It is clear in my crystal ball that at the highest levels of Microsoft, based on the success of android, that their leadership has conceded that Linux is a superior product, and accordingly they intend to take aim directly at the existing distros, forestalling their adoption just long enough that they can expand the empire through a Linux marriage. That's how the Medici's of Florence came to control the thrones of most of Europe.

[QIII]

If you think that article indicates Windows will go away and be replaced by MS-Linux, you should probably read it again.

[gde061-www]

If you think that article indicates Windows will go away and be replaced by MS-Linux, you should probably read it again.

No. I drew the inference from the totality of the things I described in my post.

There are only two reasons that Linux is not totally beating Windows out of the market like a skunk in the living room right now. First is that there is not a single current generation machine shipping from any manufacturer with a linux pre-install. That cuts off the entire "tech-anxiety" segment of casual users. The second is that there are some lingering DRM and other legal "rights" issues that prevent the OS from being distributed "whole" - as in with the full functionality that the personal computer end-user has come to expect as being pre-loaded.

MS can skirt those issues in a hearbeat. They just need to develop the product, and port the appropriate proprietary stuff (think Outlook, Office) in a way that other Linux forks cannot derive common value. In other words, the antithesis of an open-source / community development model.

I did not use the word "marriage", but apparently the author of the link had a similar vibe planted in his brain after sitting down and writing the article. Depending on your marriage and your culture, you might quickly realize that "happy ever after" is just one connotation, the other is "someone is now boss over you".

You can doubt or even deny, but in about 18 months from now, just remember you heard it here.

[QIII]

Or, you can look for "MS-Linux" in the article.

The "mark my words" stuff has been going on since the 90s. Windows is still around.

[gde061-www]

Or, you can look for "MS-Linux" in the article.

The "mark my words" stuff has been going on since the 90s. Windows is still around.

The landscape now is markedly different that in the 1990s. And by the way, in the 90s, MS was still transitioning from DOS to Windows. The next "big" things in computing OS were going to be BeOS and OS/2. I can't even imagine anyone would make that comparison. I may not be a regular contributor here - frankly because the few times I've come here to look for technical advice, there is nobody home... but frankly your trite attitude is a little too much to believe you even read anything but the title of my post.

And your correct, the article doesn't say anything about "MS-Linux". What do you think would happen to Microsoft's stock price, as well as to "second chance adopters" of linux if they came out and announced it. No, they have a two part strategy to hamstring the other linux distros first for example with the RAID lock so that no one can say, geeze, why am I going to give Microsoft control of my OS when there are other linux distros out there that I've been hearing about. The second is probably to time it with some kind of hardware tie-in, maybe a new surface device or a phone... they are not that original at MS (you can't be if your the 10,000 lb gorrilla - it makes the bankers too nervous) so they are going to take that page out of the Android playbook.

[QIII]

The article specifically mentions "MS-Linux".

FUD is FUD, no matter its direction. Please avoid spreading it on the Ubuntu Forums.

[gde061-www]

OK Q3, I see what you meant. You will note that the guy said "We never say never". Also, in a strictly legal sense, the fact that "we are not currently planning 'MS-LINUX'" doesn't mean they aren't moving toward "Windows L" - they'll call it "lifetime or something like that", but it will be using a linux kernel. So in a legal sense, it would not be called "MS-Linux". Also keep in mind the person being interviewed is not a top level boardroom exec. He is just one piece of the puzzle.

Here is another interesting bit - http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/225737-windows-10-will-receive-linux-support-xbox-one-compatibility-and-more . The author of that article himself ponders the question - what's Microsoft's game adding linux bash support? And by the way, there is a bonus effect to "marrying" linux - MS can gut the manpower of the open source linux community by bringing the best of linux developers in-house to serve the corporate master for the ol' greenback. Wim Coekaerts would possibly be an example of that... and for sure he isn't going to spill the beans outright... the statement "never say never" is just enough for the MS Legal team to ensure that his statement wouldn't be construed as outright false either way.

Peace out.

.

[buzzingrobot]

Windows will be around as long as the x86 PC architecture is around. That architecture was standardized to run DOS and then Windows.

The threat to Windows is not Linux but the increasing irrelevancy of the x86 architecture in consumer products, such as phone and tablets, which do not use it. That tech is perfectly, and profitably, capable of providing all the "desktop" functionality consumers want. (Businesses, too, for that matter.)

Microsoft's particular problem is that it needs to find an entry point into that new consumer market to compensate for decreasing Windows sales there.

The issue for Linux is going to be that new non-x86 hardware is very likely going to be closed and locked down, designed to follow the phone/tablet model of rapid obsolescence and replacement.

[speedwell68]

I have read some utter monkey plop in my time, this is something else.

[7dEfOk4AgU]

Microsoft Linux is a huge step from Cooperating with open source. MS releasing a Linux flavour or changing their platform wont happen this decade or the next but maybe some time, some where.