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Should The Next Windows Be Built On Linux?
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?
I'm sure that a lot of Windows driver developers will enjoy porting their drivers over to the Linux architecture.
That's about as likely as Jack Valenti saying, "We actually don't need copyrights to last this long," or Duke Nukem Forever being released.
This
No, but it should be built on a BSDish *nix ala OS X. Heck, MS could even use Darwin - wouldn't that be an interesting turn of events!
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
GPL licensing is anathema to them, but they seem to enjoy using BSD licensing....
~ a low user id is no indication I have a clue what I'm talking about.
If anyone could ruin the stability of Linux.....it would be Microsoft.
peace be with you.
Well if i was calling the shots i'd set MS developers to write an alternative to X, perhaps in opengl or directx, that had all the same interfaces as QT and GTK and Motif so existing apps could be recompiled. A really fast graphical subsystem (instead of X) running on a Linux base, would make for an excellent and powerful platform, suitable for games aswell as general work.
Last.fm - join the social music revolution
Let's be realistic now, Windows and Linux do different things. If you want actual control over your computer and a nice development environment, use Linux. If you want to access any kind of file type or hardware simply and easily, you're gonna use Windows. Sure one could be brought to perform like the other, but that would take a damn long time.
Will Linus accept the BSOD patch for the kernel?
The reason that "new" Windows releases still have a MS-DOS command line is backwards compatiblity. (And force of habit, by now.) Linux doesn't automatically offer that advantage (though the DOS emulators that run under Linux were useful to me in the mid-90's, and I'm sure they still exist now.)
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
"If Microsoft wanted to, they could be the world's largest vendor of Free software .. couldn't they? "
/.) get their panties in a bunch accusing MS of over-extending their monopoly into the Linux world?
They'd also be the largest vendor of Free Software filing for bankruptcy.
I don't intend that comment as a troll. I know some investors. (My uncle is one...) I've talked with them about MS etc and what they like/dislike about them. If they were invested in MS, they'd be upset about MS giving their moneymaker stuff away. They'd likely sell their stock in a heartbeat unless MS put one hell of a spin on it. There's the whole matter of how you make free software profitable. They want return on investment. They want what's tried and true.
Now, as for MS porting Windows to Linux: Wouldn't everybody (at least on
Cringly seems to misunderstand something...
Apple released Darwin under the APSL out of the goodness of their hearts (and their PR department, I'm sure). They don't have any restriction against using Darwin source inside their closed source components, like Aqua. I think this means that there are certain kinds of linking that you're allowed to do with BSD code that you aren't allowed to do with GPL code, if you're going to keep your IP proprietary. So Apple may not have been able to do what they did had they used the Linux kernel. For example, wasn't there a recent flap over Linus changing the name of some kind of trap to GPL_ONLY?
I guess Microsoft could make this ok by GPLing anything that linked in that manner to the kernel, but it's definitely something that would have to be a consideration were this ever to occur.
Ooooh. This would be an excellent way for them to embrace and extend, wouldn't it? Couldn't they release a Linux variant that was practically useless without their proprietary components? They wouldn't have to do that at first, but they might be able to work up to it...
Iduno. Just talking.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Since this article was already highlighted on OSnews and Newsforge, I am once again forced to repeat myself: :)
Cringely has no idea wtf he is talking about.
Windows XP is NOT a simple windows manager sitting atop MS-DOS.
But it has a DOS prompt!! Yeah, so does Linux if you install an emulator, does that mean Linux runs on MS-DOS?? The DOS prompt in XP is just another program that happens to look like what you used in the 80's before there was Linux
I could go on and on about how XP is based off the NT core which came from VMS and how different the X server is from how MS does its graphical shell, but I'm sure many other posters will put up the same info.
OK: Even ignoring why Cringely was completely wrong from a technical standpoint, here's why he's still wrong even if he were right (does that make sense?)
MS: Has spent a boatload of money copying and building there own versions of what everyone else already had. They are finally starting to get it right, and are making money hand over fist doing it (at least in the OS sphere which is what we are talking about). Moving to a Linux base would be a HUGE investment, and MS software would go back to the stability of Win98 for 3 generations as they worked out all the bugs. As much as the Linux gurus on Slashdot would love to see MS sabotage themselves like that, they aren't that stupid.
Linux: Linux would NOT be helped by having MS grab the Linux kernel and use it as a base for their OS. I also don't give a fsck what you'll say about "but the GPL!!" If MS were to do this they would withouth question weasal around the GPL or hire an army of lawyers to get it thrown out or watered down to the point it wouldn't matter. Meanwhile, they would either not give any code back to the kernel, or more likely would inject code specifically designed to slowly build up an IP claim over the entire kernel.
MS doesn't like Linux but believe me, they are doing it a major favor by not trying to subvert it, and despite how much everyone here loves to bash MS, a whole bunch of the software running on
Linux owes some credit to MS for providing a model to follow, like it or not.
Once again, Cringely is proved to be a whole bag of hot air.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Okay, this would be nice if Microsoft was purely interested in developing a great consumer OS. Unfortunately, they're not. They are only interested in their bottom line (hey, this is capitalism!). To this end, they want to remain a monopoly and have their software on everyone's computer. Which is fair enough.
.NET server (which will Win2004 or something, now), all of their .NET software, LongHorn and the next SQL Server under heavy development. I'm sure they'd rather continue working on software they know will rake in billions of dollars than start from scratch writing a UI for Linux.
... hardly a good idea, giving competitors a few years to catch up in the software stakes. Or they could drastically improve WINE and run their unported Windows software. But what would be the point of moving to Linux and using it to run Windows programs through an emulator? I doubt Microsoft would even consider this option, especially as WINE is GPL, so they'd have to start from scratch.
There are several problems stopping MS from using Linux:
1) They have
2) Remember all the FUD about the GPL and Linux? Well, Microsoft probably doesn't feel like doing a three-point-turn and adopting Linux and proclaiming it as the underlying foundation to Windows. And I doubt they'll use Linux and just remain silent about the presence of Linux.
3) If they use Linux, they will probably want to extend some of the kernel, or alter parts of it. But it's GPL!! Now, they can dynamically link to GPLed software and that's okay, but if they want to make any alterations, they hve to distribute them. Now, that might actually make a valid busines plan, but it isn't an option as far as Microsoft is concerned. They don't want anyone seeing any source, if they can help it. The past is evidenc.
4) This would mean a re-write of either ALL of their software - Office, IE, VisualStudio, BackOffice
Basically, what it boils down to is: compatability with existing and under-development software, and a desire to keep the Windows platform closed to everyone outside of Microsoft.
Also, MS wants to integrate DRM into the OS. And they definitely don't want anyone getting their hands on the code. So they'd be rather worried about how to distribute the DRM without any legal issues concerning the GPL. They'd have to keep the DRM right away from the core of the OS, which is where they appear to want it to be. (Okay, this is a rather flaky reason, but it may be a small factor).
This sig intentionally left bla... dammit!
Who's got the whiteout?
If you read the article, Cringely seems to have a misconception about how Windows NT works.. he still thinks that Windows is just a binary layer running over a DOS shell, something that hasn't been true since Win9x. The command line in Windows 2K/XP is just an emulation of DOS. Anyway, let's be serious. We all know Microsoft isn't worried about the quality of their products, and certainly wouldn't backpedal the last few years of Unix/Linux bashing (no pun) and do something revolutionary like this.
It doesn't save much even when he concludes that it wouldn't likely happen. This is mainly because the idea of Microsoft moving their windowing system over to Linux has been thought of long ago. And If not also by other people, certainly by myself.
Frankly, I think it would sell all over the place though clearly people would insist on running X with "Microsoft Lindows" anyway... look at people running X with MacOSX.
It's clear that Linux users need a MUCH better windowing environment, but we've been geared to X for so long that another windowing environment is unimaginable... okay maybe not unimaginable, but so far, not projected to be in wide acceptance.
I also fear for what would happen if Microsoft got control of the Linux desktop. Instability is a "feature" I firmly believe is part of their marketting strategy. (Provide patches for a while and then stop offering them while pushing the 'next version.') We would always have problems and would never get fixed.
However, I also see people hackign Windows for Linux by writing compatible libraries and making it free. It is happening with a great deal of stuff in the WINE project... it would just be more complete and more compatible wouldn't it?
Anyway... it's not going to happen. MS would sooner take FreeBSD and put Windows atop of that.
MicroSoft could say "Hey, look at how often Linux crashes now!"
You mean, like OS X?
No, he means like Lindows.
Even today, you can still get to a C: prompt under Windows XP, which means a disk operating system is hiding there no matter what Microsoft wants us to believe.
The command processor has nothing to do with the operating system. This statement displays Mr Cringely's deep ignorance of operating sytems.
Having worked on development of MSDOS,Window 95 and Windows NT, I can state authoratatively that DOS is not the foundation of windows XP (which is really NT with lipstick). Anybody who knows anything about OS's knows this anyway.
Although some of Cringely's comments about the DOS basis of Windows are off-base with regards to modern NT-kernel based versions of windows (the C:\ prompt is there because it has a compatibility layer) the idea that most of what we think of as "Windows" could be ported to a Linux or Unix base is basically correct. Just imagine an officially-sanctioned WINE with its own GUI system and configuration tools...it is not that far from reality.
.NET framework. This strategy makes far more sense, both considering the existing strengths of Windows, and Microsoft's emnity toward open-source software.
But the kernel is neither Windows' biggest problem, nor Linux's greatest asset. By all accounts, the Windows NT kernel is (or at least started out as) a very clean, modular microkernel system. It was built with a POSIX compatibility layer, and actually can host a traditional Unix userspace (and does, if you install the MS "Unix Services" package). On the other hand, Linux is a very straightforward, unexceptional reimplementation of a standard, monolithic Unix kernel, which has become very popular more or less because it works, it is free, and it was there when people needed it. Its novelty is that it allowed for the first complete Free Unix-like system (while *BSD was still in legal limbo). Microsoft could take that kernel, and modify it to run Windows, and neither they, nor we (Linux users), would gain anything...Microsoft would get an operating system more or less like what they have now, except with a pesky kernel under a free-software license, and we would get another version of Windows, which might, with the installation of an X11 server and a raft of libraries, be able to run Linux software, not that anyone would want to.
If Microsoft tries to "embrace and extend" Unix, they probably won't use Linux, or BSD for that matter. Unlike Apple several years ago, they already have a modern kernel. According to another recent Slashdot story, they are already trying to build a new shell environment based on the existing "Unix services" package, and probably running under the
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
Even by pirating Windows you are supporting it. Linux can't begin to gain support as a platform until it is widely used. We need to gain market share, please support Linux by throwing away your illegal copy(s) of Windows!
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
specifically, what a premise.
Let me start thinking that way.
You can get to a root prompt in Linux. You can do so in BSD as well. Solaris, also.
Apparently, these are all actually the same thing - they're all running Linux, underneath it all. And because it's that simple, it's just marketing - since the product is free - Solaris is just hyping it up so that people will use CDE.
Lets go further. Also, you can find a brain inside every animal. Cats have brains.
So, deep down, we're all cats, right*?
*Really old, bad movie quote
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Are we really supposed to take someone who says something like this seriously:
"Even today, you can still get to a C: prompt under Windows XP, which means a disk operating system is hiding there no matter what Microsoft wants us to believe."
Clearly the NT kernel is just a big lie, just like NASA never went to the moon. Thank you, Cringely, you have shown me the light!
And what the hell does he mean by "a disk operating system is hiding there"?? Please, someone, give him a non-disk operating system and see how far he gets after all his drives disappear.
Besides, it's not the NT kernel that's the problem, it's all the crap MS has put around it.
My Sig: SEGV
Cringly is not very well informed in his article. He assumes Windows XP/2k ect are still built on top of DOS. Actually, if he'd read Showstoppers he'd know that the NT kernal was written from scratch, by a group of developers from Digital Equipment Co who set up essentially an independent shop within microsoft to make it. This is why NT is far more stable than earlier versions. The NT kernal is very similar to Unix in how it operates, and essentially is just as good. Also, if he'd read the book he'd know that the DOS command prompt is done via emulation, as well as legacy program support. The core of the system remains NT even when the emulator is running. Anyone who's actually used XP or 2k would find that the vast majority of problems are related to the underlying hardware drivers (this is the ONLY reason why Unix is more stable on some systems, because people building Unix servers use very solid hardware) or to the overlying windowing interface.
Just the linux source. You can link to GPL'ed software/build stuff on top it/whatever. A number of distro's do this to set themselves apart (like SuSe with YAST).
I cringed while reading this.
Honorary Member of Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers
It's time we stopped trying to shoehorn seventies era multiuser designs (or eighties era single user designs) onto modern PCs. What we really need is an OS redesigned entirely from the ground up for the sort of tasks a modern home or business user needs on the desktop. Linux is no more that then Windows.
All of the complaints about Linux on the desktop boil down to the fact that it is a clone of an OS designed for minicomputers with multiple users. All of the complains about Windows boild down to the fact that it is an extension of a single-user, single tasking machine.
In both cases, the OSes have been stretched into something else. In both cases, the stretching has caused problems. Better to start from scratch.
The cake is a pie
The Free Software Foundation (they who wrote the GNU GPL) have a good FAQ which tells you about as much as you can find out about it without needing a lawyer's advice.
XP actually ships with both cmd.exe and command.com. (command.com works via emulation of the DOS calls, of course, so yes, he's an idiot.)
The cake is a pie
MS could only survive in such a mythical model if they concentrated on being a service oriented organization and/or relying on applications such as Office. Why would they want to do this when their business model works perfectly well now? Sure their stuff crashes, is a crackers dream and is always about 5 years behind the *nix world with functionality (but they always have more "features"). However their marketing and legal methods have produced what their lack of engineering and innovation have not, so why change?
The world == several billion people.
95% of the world would be several billion people.
There are not several billion people running Windows. There are not even a billion people running Windows.
There are not even a billion people with computers.
MORTAR COMBAT!
So is anything ANY company does; even your beloved RedHat, or SuSe. The goal of a company is to make a profit. Those cease and desist letters are to protect that; and they have every legal/moral right to protect their own property. What don't the majority of Linux users get about this?
*Sigh*. Once Linux users see that a business needs to make money, Linux will be viable on the desktop. Until then, none of them will buy Linux often enough to support the business until they gain the desktop. See the Mandrake story currently on the front page for more info on this topic.
Cringley isn't an idiot. You may not agree with what he's saying, you may think that he doesn't understand what an OS is, you may even think that Microsoft would never follow that course, but he isn't an idiot.
He is talking about Microsoft doing _exactly_ the same thing that Apple has done with OSX (use someone else's OS), except with Linux instead of BSD. Five years ago, would anyone have thought that Apple would use someone else's OS to run their UI? Heresy!
Is it going to be as easy as simply porting a windowing system? No Way! Does he understand that? Most certainly.
What he is saying is that Microsoft has demonstrated that it doesn't _need_ to control the underlying OS in order to get everyone to think that they're running the show on the desktop.
He points out the benefits of moving to Linux or even BSD. Would replacing XP/NT/9X as the OS remove MFC .NET, C#, DirectX or any other API? Nope, it would just use the underlying OS differently. In fact, Wine has done a lot of this already...
Would Microsoft ever do it? Doubtful, but then I would have sworn that Apple would never use BSD...
Jason Pollock
Did you ever consider that he was makeing an analogy... "MacOS is to Darwin (BSD) as Windows is to Linux" just in case you can't figure it out.
I think that Microsoft did develop NT themselves, but with much help from some of the same guy that did VMS (basic googleing turned up this.
"Should The Next Windows Be Built On Linux?"
No because I hate Microsoft and I refuse to see any good that could come from it.
You're wrong. VMS and UNIX appeared at about the same time, but are very different beasts. Arguably, VMS was better than UNIX, but UNIX became dominant as a result of BSD.
I am fortunate that my employers think Linux is worth using, and it's nice for Linux to have enough popularity that the software tools I need get developed, but they would be there even if the Linux usage had peaked in 1992. Maybe there will be a revolution. Perhaps it's even under way right now. Who knows? I'm not in it for your revolution. It isn't important to me.
This will NOT happen.
It's a shame to see MS take things it definately knows about and reinvent them poorly. They knew about UNIX crypt passwords, but went ahead and made the LM hash for passwords but neglected the salt value used in UNIX crypt to prevent parallel cracking of the entire password file. They later saw some of thier problems and came up with the NT hash based on UNIX md5 passwords (but using the md4 hash), again neglecting the UNIX salt. I'm a security systems guy, so maybe it just happens that MS only reinvented poorly the stuff I'm knowledgable about. Using off-the-shelf MIT-liscenced (similar to X11 liscence) Kerberos instead of making up their own networking authentication protocols and having to revise them when they realize they designed them poorly.
It was a good idea for them to try and make NT a microkernel OS, but it didn't end up working out. It's a shame they didn't reinvent the filesystem as a unified virtual filesystem with C:, D:, etc. being symbolic links for legacy purposes. Oh well.
Copyright Violation:"theft, piracy"::Anti-Trust Violation:"thermonuclear price terrorism"<-Overly dramatic language.
MS could just buy Mandrake and not miss a beat...say hello to the new clippy.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Maybe this is simplifying it too much but . . . if Apple put a nice GUI on top of UNIX and called it OS X then why can't Microsoft develop a nice GUI to go on top of Linux and just call it Windows? If the GUI is nice looking enough, most people won't know the difference, so they'd still be able to sell "Windows 2003" for $100 per copy. Now that Apple has done it, MS could probably get away with the same thing.
The same way that MacOS works. You can distribute the binaries that sit on top of the OS. Just make sure you don't link any of the OS code into your binaries, and you'll be ok.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
That IBM/OS project wasn't aborted! It released OS/2 1.0, which was a fully multitasking OS with no GUI. I believe Microsoft was still involved when OS/2 1.1 was released. This release included Presentation Manager, the first GUI for OS/2.
Also, your progression for DOS isn't really correct. DOS and Windows were concurrent things for years. All 16-bit versions of Windows required you to actually go out and buy DOS. They weren't just two different things from a technical standpoint. They were two different things from a marketting standpoint. It was really more like:
DOS 3.0 >> DOS 4.0 >> DOS 5.0 >> DOS 6.0 >> Windows 95
Windows 1.0 >> Windows 2.0 >> Windows 3.1 >> Windows 95
The cake is a pie
A bunch of folks have already started working on xpde. It aims to be a "transitional" window manager to give people an easier time moving to Linux from from Windows. It's basically a Windows look-alike, but instead of being the end-all like the Microsoft idea, it's meant to give people something that simply looks like windows, so they can get past desktop-shock.
Slashdot
News for Nerds. Stuff that's never gonna happen.
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
but explorer.exe is not the windowing layer/api, just like Gnome is not X-Window
Quick and dirty architectural comparisons:
Linux Kernal -> Windows Kernel
sh -> cmd.exe
X server -> GDI.exe
Window Manager -> Explorer.exe
CORBA -> (D)COM
Note these are just quick approximations. My point is that both OS's are reasonably mature and stable (baring spyware, etc.) and there are a lot of areas where both could improve, but porting Windows onto Linux doesn;t make sense for Microsoft today and is a lot more work than Cringly seems to think.
But then this guy has never seemed to know what he is talking about
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
No, I don't think he is smart enough to even know what it is exactly he was referring to... but my guess is more along the lines of the actual Win32 API as embodied in the Csrss.exe subsystem and the core Win32 DLL's (i.e., Kernel32.dll, User32.dll, GDI32.dll, ComDlg32.dll, AdvAPI32.dll, etc.)
Still, it's hardly even worth speculating since he is such an idiot. Listen, Linux has a lot of strong points and a good future ahead of it, but it is just lunacy to always assume that everything is better with Linux. Banana splits are great. Pepperoni pizza is great. But, that doesn't mean that I want to start putting pepperoni's, cheese, and tomato sauce on my banana splits! Both Windows and Linux will be far better off evolving on their own separate paths, and only a complete layperson would suggest otherwise.
Hitting "MS-DOS Prompt" and getting bash would be sweet though. :-)
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
If for some mysterious, magical reason Windows would be built on Linux, I think it'd be a Bad Thing, not for any technological reason though, but for economical reason.
A healthy capitalist system requires a diverse eco-system, in this case, various technologies to compete, something like this would just tip the balance too much on one side. The ideal situation is that you have multiple operating systems with roughly equal market share, so they compete against each other to gain more market shares, but ideally, they only temporarily gain a lead.
I'm pretty certain the open-source movement generally agrees that different approaches to one problem, is a good thing, like KDE, Gnome, Window Maker, BlackBox, etc. No window manager should ever completely dominate the others, because then it stifles improvement.
*puts on an absestos suit* I wonder how much I'll be flamed this time for posting...
Linux is a Unix-like system. However, the fact that it is partially based on a 30 year old design does not make it any less advanced.
Saying: ``The state of the art is way ahead of this" about Linux is like saying the same thing about a recent BMW. Just because it has roughly the same design as something that is very old, does not mean that the modern implimentation is less advanced by any means.
You could say the state-of-the-art desktop computers of today are obsoltele because they are all based on the Apple II. Sure, technically true, but it's such a gross oversimplification that it doesn't hold up.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
some articles:
More and more junk has been going into the kernel ever since. The multimedia codecs have moved into the Win2000/XP kernel, for example. Start coding your viruses now.
"Even today, you can still get to a C: prompt under Windows XP, which means a disk operating system is hiding there no matter what Microsoft wants us to believe."
This is pretty much total crap. Yes, you can bring up a C prompt. Does that mean that XP sits on top of DOS? No. What you are doing is running a type of "DOS emulator." It's not really DOS at all.
"Windows XP is not an operating system. It is a windowing system that sits atop an operating system much as KDE or Gnome sit atop Linux."
Nope... Total crap here.
Windows, Windows 95, 98 and I believe ME are one branch. Windows NT is a completely different code base. NT, 2000 and I believe XP are all from the same code base.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
I always had a suspision that underneath it all, Windows (NT especially) was running atop of some bastardized form of Unix. Think about it.
H ivelist
A M
What was there 30+ years ago but Unix? Isn't it the grandfather of all anyways? Try this:
-Open the management console in Windows 2000 (the one called "Manage" when you right-click My Computer).
-Select "System Information", expand the "Software Environment" folder and select "Loaded Modules".
In pre-SP1 builds of Win2K the dates on some of the DLLs in this folder were in the 1970's. How can that be? Windows wasn't even around in the 70's! Isn't it possible the kernel is already based on Unix and 'Windows' is just another abstraction layer? It sure would account for the mediocre performance (added overhead).
And some of the hardware names in the registry are Unix-like. Check:
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\
You can see the OS locates volumes the same way Unix does. For example, the location of Registry file \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SAM is:
\Device\HarddiskVolume1\WINNT\System32\Config\S
So what if the '/' is a '\'? It's the same thing right?
After all...
"...The greatest trick the devil ever made was convincing the world he didn't exist..."
I know, corny one...;)
"You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake."...Tyler Durden
It's built with Apple's proprietary Mach kernel
How do you define "proprietary?" Mach started at CMU as a totally open-source project; NeXT used CMU's Mach kernel as the basis for NeXTstep, which evolved into OS X. Apple's fork of Mach (which really isn't Mach any more, in some important ways) is still open-source.
All too often, "proprietary" is a dirty word that's thrown around Slashdot to mean "not what I'm using."
I can download some GNU utilities and copy them to C:\WINNT, now is my OS based on GNU?
Well, considering that GNU is neither a kernel nor an operating system, but rather just a loosely associated collection of utilities, I'd say that no operating system is "based on" GNU.
I write in my journal
Microsoft has $40 billion dollars in cash tucked away.
If they wanted to, the could be the world's biggest just-about-anything.
This is ridiculous. MS persists to achieve its goals, achieve them amidst years of laughter and jokes from Mr Big Iron. Its a bit late Linux. I'm sure you'll mature, but you need the apps. Then again perhaps this article just proves what I've said before. Linux just turns more into windows with every so called improvement. Why build what already exists.
Now before the Linux purists get started up and start modding me as flamebait - I use both Linux and FreeBSD (Linux since 96, BSD since 2000) and although I'm partial to FreeBSD myself, I have nothing serious against either one...
Parts of Windows have used BSD derived code in the past, such as the TCP/IP stack (which may have since been rewritten), and MS is a lot friendlier to FreeBSD than linux (C# anyone?).
Barring legalities, the whole FreeBSD vs Linux argument is a matter of personal preference at the moment for most people. So Linux does better SMP at the moment? How many desktop users have SMP desktop machines out there? Amongst the *geeks* maybe 10%. I've run both extensively and as far as performance goes, there's not enough in it to bicker about.
Again, the BSD license is a lot more compatible with MS - they can base Windows 2008 on xBSD and not have to open the source up at all if they like!
smash.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
You mean "They hired smart people"?
From the article:
I actually have a positive experience after having -finally- moved from 98SE and ME to XP, and despite my very low expectations about XP, I have to admit that it's not working too badly after all, to say the least.
Don't get me wrong, I'm also a happy Linux user since 1994. But with XP I can actually see Microsoft catching up with Linux regarding stability, performance and features....
This article has almost no validity. When you use windows, you get a feeling of reliability and an *speed*. I'm writing an audio application that has very tight time-performance constraints, and I'm finding MFC's threads and gui widgets to be by far the quickest over qt. Why? its native. Don't flame me about qt not being linux. if you do you've missed the point.
The point IS that MFC is native. N-A-T-I-V-E. In the windows sense that means its going to deal with the K-E-R-N-E-L better, and anything else that has to do with the windows platform.
Windows XP is not just a windowing system. It is more complete than linux. I don't like XP for various reasons, but that doesn't change how a business makes decisions. point is, if this all this was true windows WOULD be, how was that? "kissing the ring of linux?"
-P
What Lies Beneath: Why Cringley Should Write His Next Article on Toilet Paper
I was discussing this article with a friend, and he suggested that Cringley should write his next article on toilet paper. And you know, it actually makes some sense!
It's been a long time that I read such completely bogus. I don't want to flame but I have to. Here it goes:
Even today, you can still get to a C: prompt under Windows XP, which means a disk operating system is hiding there no matter what Microsoft wants us to believe.
What a bunch of crap! So there is still a "disk operating system" under Linux because I can open a shell window, too? Man, what are you talking about?
DOS 7.1 brought the FAT32 file system to Win95, not the other way around
So what, FAT32 is a file system, and now - ? What does that say about the operating system? Nothing? Right.
Windows XP is not an operating system. It is a windowing system that sits atop an operating system much as KDE or Gnome sit atop Linux.
What's this guy's definition of an operating system? First, Windows has its OWN KERNEL (microkernel, btw). Second, it has its OWN DEVICE DRIVER and SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE. While I can agree that KDE/Gnome do a fairly large and important part of the work that non-Linux OSes provide as a whole package, Windows is doing ALL THE STUFF an OS does with *no* underlying foreign kernel or architecture.
The history of DR-DOS is especially interesting because it went through so many hands. [....]
Blah, blah, blah... where's all that DOS talk supposed to get us? Does it really make sense to talk about legacy crap like that? And if so, should we really begin to talk about text-mode-only Linux, from back in the days, also? What about legacy mainframe interfaces? Why? To prove the point that DOS is underlying of Windows just as Linux is the underlying architecture to KDE? WTF???
Now back to Microsoft putting Windows on top of Linux. Linux is better, faster, stronger than whatever is living underneath XP now, right? Performance would improve.
Give me a break here! Driver support for Windows often leads to much better performance (because PC manufacturers really cater to the Windows monopoly).
Apple has made a virtue of doing exactly this with MacOS-X, heralding its Mach kernel and BSD roots. Couldn't Microsoft do the same?
MacOS-X is a completely new system, it has a legacy-app compatibility layer (like Wine is for Linux) but otherwise it's a complete new system. And, they HAD to do it, because OS 9 and below where such utter crap (from a purely technical point of view, mind you). If MS where to switch (for whatever stupid reasons) to a *nix kernel like BSD or Linux they would have to provide a complete legacy Windows version inside the new system just to provide backwards-compatibility. And boy would *that* be slow! And, again, why??? It would mean to develop *LOADS* of new device drivers and APIs - for what?
I could go on like this forever. Articles like that make me want to puke. It would be suicide for MS if they did something like that, especially now, the first time they have a workable OS with Win2000/XP. Why oh why?
OK, I asked for it. Bomb me, I don't really care. Cringely articles I actually liked them in the past, but what the fuck is this load of crap supposed to be?
First, the idea of porting the Windows into Linux has been around for a long long long long time. It's always had it's supporters and dissenters, so far nothing in this string of posts have contributed anything new to the argument.
:) It should make at least some of giggle. :)
It comes down to getting decent apps on the Linux platform, and I know I'm probably gonna get flamed for this, but 95% of the software honestly sucks. At least Windows apps generally conform to a standard and typically very polished. Yes, I know that Linux apps are getting better, but they aren't there yet and why we all argue about every little thing, Microsoft moves on to the their next version, happy to throw something at the Linux community to get it all rialled up.
So far, the only version of Linux that I see as promising is Xandros and that's because they are in control rather than 5 million whiney geeks, hackers, cracker, dweebs, or whatever we call ourselves today.
Second, every OS out there sucks. They all do. Windows X.X, MacOS X.X, Linux and every other OS that is out there sucks.
I would love nothing better than to see a free, open source OS dominate the market because it is fast, stable, and actually easy to use. Linux is 2 out of 3. Windows XP is generally fast, stable, and a lot easier to use than Linux. MacOS X is fast, stable, and easy to use to a certain group of people while the rest think it is either moronic or insulting to use. In my book that puts Linux at 2 out of 3 while XP and MacOS are at 2.5. Perhaps Linux, in it current form, isn't the answer for the desktop. Maybe the GNU community needs to develope an OS from the ground up that is geared towards the Desktop, and let Linux handle the server and workstation market (where it is competeing extremely well). That way we aren't wasting are time trying to make the Swiss Army Knife of the OS world.
Oh, BTW, DOS under NT, 2000, and XP is an emulator, just like DOSEMU in Linux. It provides enough of DOS so that many, but not all, old DOS programs will run. The great part is that since those DOS apps run inside a Windows app, if the DOS program pukes, it doesn't take the OS with it like what used to happen under Win 3.x and Win 9.x.
Finally, here is a link to a funny song that helps make my point on OSes sucking.
Cya L8r
Lee
How about on the GNU/Hurd? They could make some Win32, OS/2 modules and work it in over an architecture that's going to try and be compatible with a horde of *nixes.
But then the question is: if a company makes a proprietary component on the Hurd, would they have to release the source as per the GPL?
What is music when you despise all sound?
"Even today, you can still get to a C: prompt under Windows XP, which means a disk operating system is hiding there no matter what Microsoft wants us to believe."
WRONG. From NT onward, Windows has been an entirely new OS, not a windowing system "running on" DOS. Yes, NT/2000/XP etc have a command processor that LOOKS like DOS, and in fact they have DOS emulation SUPPORT (including the familiar "command.com" binary), but that does not mean they run on it, any more than it means Lindows runs on DOS because of Wine, or that any machine is running on Amiga just because it has an Amiga emulator.
_Showstopper_ is a good read.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
What's the point, exactly? Why would MS bother? The NT kernel is stable, fast, and secure if you want it secure. Why would the re-invent the wheel? They've *finally* come out with a good product for the consumers (businesses have been using NT for a long time). After all of these years, and all of this work, why in the *hell* would they suddenly decide to start back at the drawing board again? That was one of the stupidest, for lack of a better word, article that I've read in a *long* time.
> If Microsoft wanted to, they could be the world's largest vendor of Free software .. couldn't they?
Gee what where they THINKING?!
"Wow! We could become the world's largest vendor of Free software!"
-Or-
"we continue to be the world's largest vendor of software that people PAY for.."
Is it still mindboggling? Why is this even a thread?
WTF? Slashdot was never this lame... I've been forced to browse at +5 and I've seen a bazillion posts explaining how smart the poster is that he knows that cmd.exe is not DOS, and how Cringely is by comparison.
If an explanation of why cmd.exe is not DOS +5 interesting gets modded +5, then there's too many mod points floating around. That's what you get when you mod karma whores +5.
This is NOT meant to be a troll. Slashdot used to be better than this.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
But that doesn't mean M$ would give up on basing their OS on other existing OSes. There's always BSD. If you had any memory at all, you'd remember the /. story Why Unix is better than Windows... By Microsoft. M$ goes on and on about all the things BSD does better than Windows. And who could forget that Hotmail used to be run on BSD.
Don't expect Windows 2004 to be based on Linux. It'd be BSD if anything (and if they give a rat's behind about security, they should go with OpenBSD ... but that's just me).
And you KNOW this.
I wonder which mascot they will use...Personally, I'd prefer tux rather than some dancing orangutang. ;)
python >>>
reduce(lambda x,y:x+y,map(lambda x:chr(ord(x)^42),tuple('zS^BED\nX_FOY\x0b')))