Linus Torvalds To Head Windows 9 Project

An anonymous reader writes "Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, and a champion of free and open source software has finally called it a day and has agreed to join Microsoft as the project head of the upcoming Windows 9 project. According to Bloomberg, Linus will be working on a new Kernel design for Microsoft that will make, usually vulnerable, Windows OS virtually impossible to be infected by viruses and malware."

Comments

The 90s called

[Anonymous Coward]

They want their MS criticism and jokes back.

Just the mobile version

[halcyon1234]

Saw this on the announce newslist the other day. As always, editors get it wrong. Linus is only working on the Windows 9 Mobile division, not the head of the whole project.

Re:Just the mobile version

[MatthiasF]

No no, you have it all wrong. Linus is on the fast track to taking over for Balmer. He's the only one in the tech industry with the temperament for the job.

Except Linus throws wireless printers, not chairs.

Re:Just the mobile version

[Rob Riggs]

Ballmer? That's not what I heard. According to inside sources, Billy Gates secretly adopted Torvalds. (How do you think he got into this country so easily?) Gates needs a someone with real geek cred to take over as Chairman when he fully retires. He has been grooming Torvalds for this role outside the MS spotlight. Torvalds stands to inherit Gates' fortune and company. His constant criticism of the company is due to him worrying about the shape it will be in when he is finally allowed to take over. Anyone at MSFT that wants a job when that happens better heed his warnings.

Re:Just the mobile version

[ByOhTek]

RMS was stolen by Apple for hygenic reasons.

Finally

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally someone at Microsoft made a good desicion

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Stop with the lame April Fool's encryption.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not using an Ad Blocker? Slashdotter, I expected better from you.

Re:Stop with the lame April Fool's encryption.

[Anonymous Coward]

A user getting self-righteous butthurt over stupid April Fool's joke... Slashdot, I expected exactly this.

Re:I'd expect something like that from Linus...

[Sarten-X]

I haven't really cared much about Linus' philosophy, so I may be way off on this, but I'm under the impression that Linus cares most about the users having machines that work well to do whatever they want. That's different from Apple's view (machines that work cleanly to do what we want) and the Microsoft view (machines that do what vendors want, regardless of how messy the implementation), and the GNU view (machines that the user can use to build what they want).

If Linus were to head Windows 9, I might just forgive Microsoft for the past few decades. Linus comes with his notorious vitriol for sloppy implementation, so I could expect a cleaner API that might survive more than three years before Microsoft deems it "too limiting" and replaces it. His complete detachment from current Windows architecture would also promise a Unix-based Windows, much like Classic Mac OS was replaced by a Unix core for OS X. I might just actually enjoy that... Bash, rather than PowerShell. Executable commands, rather than COM, ActiveX, or OLE. Strict configuration files, rather than the corruption-prone registry...

President Lincoln filled his cabinet with people who opposed each other and the President himself. His meetings were filled with opposing viewpoints, from which the best were selected. Microsoft is in a position to make a similar pride-swallowing decision, but I doubt it will ever happen.

Re:Best April fools ever

[Monkey-Man2000]

I have to give kudos to /. for the most original and hilarious April fools prank. Well done! The ROT13 is genious :)

The OMG Ponies' fools day was by far the best 04/01 in /. history. This is not too horrible though.