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Should The Next Windows Be Built On Linux?

Posted by timothy on from the yoga-position-questions dept.

scrm writes "The next version of Windows should be built on top of Linux, according to this article by Robert Cringely of PBS." If Microsoft wanted to, they could be the world's largest vendor of Free software .. couldn't they?

1 of 763 comments (clear)

  1. Dumb idea... by Alomex · · Score: 1, Flamebait


    This pressumes that the Linux kernel is in anyway superior to the WinNT kernel, which it isn't.

    There are many reasons to be enthusiastic about Linux and the accomplishment of a group of volunteers assembling a Unix clone is remarkable.

    However in our enthusiasm for OSS we should not lose sight that linux is a reimplementation of a 30 year old operating system (although admittedly a very good one, that has seem some updates along the way).

    In other words, Linux is the open source implementation of a VW bug. The state of the art is way ahead of this (both in car and OS design).

    Mach, the NT kernel, BeOS, AtheOS are examples of where an OS can be. The Apple UI shows what a decent toolkit and window manager ought to look like.

    There is still much work to be done before linux is a state-of-the-art OS worth replacing the NT kernel.