Microsoft Brings ChakraCore to Linux and OS X (cio.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a columnist at CIO: A few days ago I wrote about Microsoft's revival of Skype for Linux. I called it "a big deal" -- less because of Skype itself and more because it signified Microsoft's recognition that Linux is a platform worth supporting... Now the company has done it again. At Node Summit this week, Microsoft announced the availability of ChakraCore for Linux. ChakraCore is the core part of the Chakra JavaScript engine that powers Microsoft Edge and Universal Windows Platform. With this move, Microsoft is putting one of its core technologies on a competing platform. This, more than any other Linux-friendly move the company has made, is a clear departure from the Microsoft of Gates and Ballmer that used its technologies to lock users into Windows...

While Ubuntu is the primary Linux distribution that Microsoft is using to showcase its ChakraCore technologies, the company said that the support should easily translate to other modern Linux distributions.
Microsoft's blog post says the experimental implementation runs not only on x64 Linux but also on OS X.

Comments

Support??

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd call that more "infest" than "support"...

Re:Support??

[houstonbofh]

But come on? How much marketable data can you slurp from a Windows VM only opened to run office? They need a spy on the real desktop! And on Linux, they only thing people run a lot form them is Skype. What do you bet that it is looking at the process list?

Re:Support??

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe if MS contributed to something worthwhile like Wine instead of offering tokens like a sub-par JavaScript engine it would be viewed as a genuine gesture of goodwill.

Re:Support??

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd call that more "infest" than "support"...

It sort of vindicates my long held feelings about Ubuntu, never did trust it or the buggers behind it and I'm glad I've no machines running it.

Re:Support??

[Hylandr]

I can't imagine why I would use a windows javascript engine when the real deal is available already.

Ubuntu is the slowest of the Linux distributions for servers, but lends itself well to the windows95 crowd of users with it's gadgetry and half-whistles to entertain the first waves of AOL style user migrations from windows.

Re: Support??

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry.. did I make a wrong turn into an out of touch old foagies convention? Fucking dinosaurs.

Re:Support??

[Richard_at_work]

Why should Microsoft contribute to a project that doesnt further its goals? Mono furthered its goals, ChakraCore furthers its goals, Wine does not further its goals.

Over here in the .Net world, Microsofts open source contributions are a lot more than "token", btw.

Re:Support??

[Anonymous Coward]

ChakraCore for Linux and OS X does not further any MS goal. It's just a token gesture to say "look at us, we love other OSes so we can't possibly have a monopoly". If they want to put their money where their mouth is, they'd contribute to something meaningful like Wine.

Over there in .NET world, Microsoft's contributions only benefit a small subsection of Windows programs. Nobody else uses it or gives a shit about it.

Re: Support??

[Anonymous Coward]

Do mommy and daddy know that you are on the internet?

Re:Support??

[Anonymous Coward]

If they want to put their money where their mouth is, they'd contribute to something meaningful like Wine.

Or, you know, they'd support cross-platform software using things like .net and javascript.

Oh wait.

Re:Support??

[Richard_at_work]

Thank you for repeating your "demand", but you again fail to explain *why* Microsoft should contribute to Wine - "because they should" is not an arguable reason. And Wine being "meaningful" is a matter of opinion - its not meaningful to Microsoft, so why should they contribute to it?

ChakraCore furthers a lot of Microsofts goal - fully expect a UWP runtime for Linux in the near future, with stuff like Skype etc running the same code across all platforms. How is that not a goal that is being furthered?

And your opinion of .Net pretty much shows that you cam be discounted entirely from any adult discussion on this topic. You are basically saying "no one uses or gives a shit about Linux. Apart from the millions of people that use and give a shit about Linux, but Im going to ignore that because it doesnt fit with my view."

Re:Support??

[exomondo]

ChakraCore for Linux and OS X does not further any MS goal.

Of course it does, what is the point of open source if not to engage the community and work together to develop a better project?

It's just a token gesture to say "look at us, we love other OSes so we can't possibly have a monopoly".

They dont have a monopoly anymore, back then Windows was pretty much the only option for the (Intel) PC but nowadays there are plenty of viable options out there for personal computing. Big box vendors ship Ubuntu systems, Macs use Intel processors now, Chromebooks are on shelves everywhere, Android and iOS tablets are readily available and much of peoples' personal computing is done on their smartphones.

If they want to put their money where their mouth is, they'd contribute to something meaningful like Wine.

Why would they do that? There is no benefit to that at all.

Over there in .NET world, Microsoft's contributions only benefit a small subsection of Windows programs. Nobody else uses it or gives a shit about it.

You could say exactly the same thing about everybody's contributions to desktop Linux systems too.

I think you need to get away from your assumption that Microsoft doing this to somehow please you or show you that they value the same "meaningful" goals as you, which given their actions versus your suggestions it's pretty clear that they don't and aren't trying to.

Epic CEO: “Universal Windows Platform can, s

[Anonymous Coward]

In a scathing editorial in The Guardian, Epic Games cofounder Tim Sweeney spoke out about Microsoft's Universal Windows Platform (UWP) initiative, calling it a "fiasco" and "the most aggressive move Microsoft has ever made."

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/tim-sweeney-to-microsoft-universal-windows-platform-can-should-must-and-will-die/

IEEE

[Anonymous Coward]

Ignore, Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

Re:Epic CEO: “Universal Windows Platform can

[elfprince13]

Yeah, this looks like Microsoft is trying to get on the content store gravy train.

Microsoft not an OS company

[phantomfive]

Microsoft sees themselves as less and less of an OS company, and more of a business services company, especially with the cloud. Windows is only a small portion of Microsoft revenue now, so they don't feel such a need to support it. It's possible that within the next decade, they may become to view it as a cost center, rather than a profit center.

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[AmiMoJo]

Microsoft is a huge company with fingers in many pies. It's tempting to treat companies like people, with a single mind carefully controlling everything, but it's not like that.

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[gtall]

I tend to think of Microsoft as a leech on the common computing infrastructure of the world. Sending it more blood won't make it let go.

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[Kjella]

Microsoft sees themselves as less and less of an OS company, and more of a business services company, especially with the cloud. Windows is only a small portion of Microsoft revenue now, so they don't feel such a need to support it. It's possible that within the next decade, they may become to view it as a cost center, rather than a profit center.

And how much of their other products have any significant revenue on non-Windows platforms? I know they're trying with Office 365 and open sourcing .NET Core and SQL Server for Linux but once you leave the Microsoft platform you also tend to buy a lot less of their other products and services. Maybe it's not the big cash cow anymore but it's the foot in the door so Microsoft can push all their other business solutions. And you know they're dreaming of taking a 30% cut of every UWP application, which they can't do unless people use Windows. Maybe it wouldn't hurt their cash flow much directly but I'd say strategically Microsoft would be fools to give up on the OS, both on the business and consumer side.

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're wrong. Microsoft is pushing so hard for Windows 10, I think it's part of their future Windows-as-a-service-in-the-cloud strategy. When everyone is on Windows 10 a lot of reasonable expectations about previous Windows versions go out of the window (heh...) and they can monetize it in new and heretofore unthinkable ways. Think of advertisements on your lock screen or desktop. Or partially locking down your computer if you don't pay a monthly subscription. Or selling your computer usage behaviour to third parties. I think they're going to make big bucks on this and if you want an estimate, you can start by multiplying what an upgrade used to cost, €100, by the number of installs. They're expecting to make at least that, otherwise they wouldn't be doing this.

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[Anonymous Coward]

When they shutdown the cloud and you lose access to everything you thought you had, wander outside and be amazed at how bright it is.

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[exomondo]

And how much of their other products have any significant revenue on non-Windows platforms?

Not many, hence the move to support other platforms and start making that happen.

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends - if they switch to subscription based pricing for Windows (which I can almost guarentee), then it'll become seen as a 'revenue' centre - it'll pay its way, return a mild profit, but not 'stratospheric power the company' level revenue.

I suspect we'll see subscription based Windows 10 just around the corner, once the dust settles from the Win7 -> Win10 free upgrades. They may well grandfather in all existing W10 instllations as well; so all new ones are "lease W10 for a few bucks per month."

Re: Microsoft not an OS company

[hackwrench]

Yeah, that's also a flaw in Hobbes's logic regarding governments and unfortunately a lot of people worship Hobbes.

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[phantomfive]

lol.
A Tibetan monk once recommended: "when the leeches attach to your body, do not pull them off, let them fill with blood and fall off on their own. Doing so will purify your soul and help you endure pain."

Re:Microsoft not an OS company

[phantomfive]

Of course you're right, but I can't figure out how what you said relates to the current context.

Really interested in supporting Linux as platform?

[lalleglad]

Then I wonder, what about the Skype application?
Why is it so hard to bring that one up to speed on Linux? I mean, if you really wanted to support Linux?

An alternative could be the Line application?
      http://line.me/en/

It is for now only supported on these mobile platforms, and then Windows and Mac: (unfortunately not on MeeGo or Ubuntu Touch, which I have)

iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and Nokia

If we could could get them to support wider, then Microsoft could possibly also be enticed to support wider, and more honest on Linux?!

Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

Linux has just felt the cold embrace of Angel of Death.....

This will be nothing more than Microsoft trying to put its self into the driving seat of competing server technologies where they can push the technology into directions that benefit Microsoft.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[wicka_wicka]

I understand being wary of Microsoft, but every indication is that the company today is a heck of a lot different than the one you're referencing.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

For some reason this put me in mind of Saddam's "I can change" song from South Park.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[hairyfeet]

Yeah....its sadly a lot worse than under Ballmer, because you didn't see the Ballmernator packing their flagship with spyware that uses tactics taken straight from malware vendors like hardcoding IPs to get around HOSTS blocking.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like the forced upgrade to Windows 10 ?
That was pure MS.
Or how about how bad the security is in Office for OSX, and the fact that its only 32 bits.
Or how about how completely sh!t Outlook on OSX is compared to the Windows Version (I have to support both).

Nah, MS has not changed that much.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

If you look at the history of things that statement has been applied to (Java, HTML standards) this would indicate Linux on the desktop could now be a runaway success.

This will be nothing more than Microsoft trying to put its self into the driving seat of competing server technologies where they can push the technology into directions that benefit Microsoft.

It's more likely they will do for Linux on the desktop that Google has done for Linux on mobile. Microsoft doesn't care about killing Linux, they want to be able to make money with it as a platform. If we are on our way to Microsoft Linux and the community don't want that then the distro community needs to get their act together, there are hundreds of distributions and nothing that adequately serves a significant portion of desktop users.

You will always be able to make a Linux distro, the only thing to fear here is Microsoft doing Linux better than those that have been flogging their dead horse ideas for the past 20 years to no avail. Yes I realize around 2% of the market like it that way and they can continue to have it that way but it will be mighty embarassing if MS swoops in (as Google did) and creates a successful OS and application ecosystem where the community has failed for so long.

So take this as an opportunity for competition and innovation, if Microsoft is offering something so compelling to users and devs then why is the community failing to offer something equally compelling?

Re: Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

It is becoming more evil.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

..Or how about how completely sh!t Outlook on OSX is compared to the Windows Version (I have to support both).

Weirdly, we have less problems with Outlook 2011 on the Mac than Outlook 2013 on the PCs (don't ask, weird fsking domain and networking issues which we've inherited and can't change thanks to manglement being luddites..).
Personally, I think you're missing the point, Mac vs PC Outlook, Catshit vs Dogshit, it's still shit.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

We have staff who manage other peoples calendars , under Windows the multiple calendars are separate windows, on the Mac they are ONE window with the different calendars being a different pastel colour.
So many mistakes were made on the Mac we actually run Outlook for windows under Parallels on them. The extra cost was worth the reduction in errors and aggravation.

Most people I know who use their machines just for personal use, I have pushed towards OpenOffice, it does everything they need.

And I refuse to "rent" software fro MS or Adobe (or anyone else for that matter)

Re: Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

The real thing to fear is the legal aspect. M$ dabbling in Linux means they will legislate the crap out of it. Through some bribed court somewhere in east Texas they will end up owning it via some tm or patent bs.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[JohnFen]

every indication is that the company today is a heck of a lot different than the one you're referencing.

I have seen very little such indication at all -- they look pretty much the same to me.

Re: Still the old Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

The real thing to fear is the legal aspect. M$ dabbling in Linux means they will legislate the crap out of it.

What legislation exactly are you thinking they are going to pass regarding Linux? I think you are ignorant of the fact that Microsoft has been contributing to Linux for many years and the only time they have litigated (well actually only threatened to) was when other people implemented their patents and sold products with them without licensing those patents.

Now you might question the validity of those patents and sure that is perfectly reasonable but the USPTO is the one granting patents, if their incompetence is leading to questionable patents then they need to be held to account.

Re:Still the old Microsoft

[wicka_wicka]

*sigh*

I don't know why I thought I could have this conversation on Slashdot, of all places...

doesn't discriminate?

[Anonymous Coward]

"The current cross-plat implementation doesn’t yet support JIT compilation and concurrent and partial GC features"

Which means it will be slow and useless.

Re:doesn't discriminate?

[binarylarry]

Yep. And stupid people will use it and complain to Microsoft that it's slow and sucks on Linux and OSX.

And they'll cry to me to save them.

And I'll say no.

Re:doesn't discriminate?

[MightyMartian]

Which is a good way to describe Edge.

Re:doesn't discriminate?

[tigersha]

On Edge JS is slower than with V8 on Chrome. But the HTML Renderer is lightning fast.
Slower it is, but useless, no.

Re:doesn't discriminate?

[MightyMartian]

I find Edge barely usable, like some sort of alpha piece of software. I have no idea how fast its rendering is, nor do I care, because it is so utterly deficient and prone to errors that it's irrelevant.

At my organization where we've just completed our Windows 10 rollout, there is not a single person who wanted to stick with Edge for more than a few days, and more than a few that were exasperated that the damned thing was the default PDF reader. i sure learned how to make a default applications XML file to stick in the GPO quickly.

ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[Cyphase]

For those who don't know, ChakraCore is open source; the code is on GitHub, under the MIT license.

https://github.com/Microsoft/ChakraCore

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[Torp]

Unfortunately I still remember their patent threats; I don't think it's safe to go anywhere near Microsoft owned source, no matter the licensing.

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[DoofusOfDeath]

Unfortunately I still remember their patent threats; I don't think it's safe to go anywhere near Microsoft owned source, no matter the licensing.

I agree, but I'm even more wary than that. Microsoft has a nearly perfect record of deceptiveness, sleaziness, and overall douchebaggery. Even if software patents didn't exist I would still suspect this is some kind of trap.

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately I still remember their patent threats; I don't think it's safe to go anywhere near Microsoft owned source, no matter the licensing.

What patent threats did they make regarding Microsoft-owned source? If I remember correctly they have all been on source that implements supposedly valid, Microsoft-owned patents. So if you are simply fearing patent lawsuits from Microsoft regardless of their validity then you wouldnt be really be writing or using code from anywhere.

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[Torp]

If you put it like that yeah, I would be afraid to be an US resident and write code :)

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[Anonymous Coward]

And centuries of legal thought disagrees with you.

Look up the notion of promissory estoppel. If they release something publicly alongside a covenant not to sue, and then try to sue, they will get slapped down hard by any court in the land.

They've released the source code, and they've made a public declaration that they will not sue over patents covered by that code. What more do you think you need?

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[Anonymous Coward]

So you can afford the legal bills if they renege on that promise? Does it even matter if you're right? Not in the US, I don't think so.

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[Anonymous Coward]

Explain how they will rack up legal bills, when you could defend yourself in court with about 5 minutes of time?

"Your honor, Microsoft released this source code under an open source / MIT license (exhibit A). They further released it along with a covenant not to sue on patents covered by this code (exhibit B). Furthermore, they have taken no action to enforce patents on this code until now. I ask that the court rule against the plaintiff, Microsoft, based on the doctrine of promissory estoppel, which the evidence shows is adequately met. Further, I ask the court to rule that the plaintiff will cover all legal fees deriving from this case, as this lawsuit is demonstrably frivolous."

Seems pretty open and shut to me... but please, enlighten us as to how you think the legal system works. It ought to be a fun read.

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[lsatenstein]

Unfortunately I still remember their patent threats; I don't think it's safe to go anywhere near Microsoft owned source, no matter the licensing.

I agree, but I'm even more wary than that. Microsoft has a nearly perfect record of deceptiveness, sleaziness, and overall douchebaggery. Even if software patents didn't exist I would still suspect this is some kind of trap.

When do you think MS will release their own Linux version? They must certainly want to compete with Oracle, RedHat and Ubuntu.

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[The-Ixian]

I think that is no longer the "MS way"... as in, they see themselves more as a service company now.

I think they realize that there are just too many ardent opponents who will never buy an MS product directly outside of the enterprise.

So, instead, they will use other people's platforms and design services for those. Just look at how much MS software is on Android and iOS these days. Some of which you might not even realize is MS software (like Swift keyboard).

Being an OS vendor is a tough business... you are on the hook for so much. It is much easier (and more profitable) to just use other people's OS as a delivery vehicle for your software.

Anyway, to your point. I think that Ubuntu is fast becoming the MS distro.

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[Anonymous Coward]

So you can afford the legal bills if they renege on that promise?

How do you even exist living in such fear? By your idiot logic the law doesn't matter one iota and I can make you do whatever I want simply by having more money than you. I'll just sue you for, i dont know, say copyright infringement. It doesn't matter that it has no merit because you can't afford the legal bills anyway.

Re:ChakraCore is open source (MIT License)

[DeVilla]

If it were under GPL3 it would be safe. There are probably a few other licenses with similar patent protection explicitly built in.

Their patent pledges are useless. They have been written in the past such that they could sell the patents to a 3rd party who would be free to sue. They grant a non-revocable license or it does not count.

Be Very Suspicous

[ytene]

Before Microsoft got their hands on Skype, the service was configured to use a central server to determine if your desired counter-party was on line, then the two end-points went through a handshake and all remaining communications were point-to-point.

After Microsoft got their hands on Skype, the initial call setup used a central server - and then the entire remainder of the conversation remains similarly routed through that central server, thereby allowing Microsoft to record the entire conversation.

Skype doesn't generate revenue, which means that the initial purchase was a loss-leader. Microsoft weren't trying to bring their own competition to market. There is nothing in the technology that they needed or wanted for their own business strategy. In other words, it's worth being very sceptical of Skype.

So why would they want to turn their attention back to the Linux client? Is it because the "bad guys" are using Linux and Microsoft want to remain in the middle of point-to-point conversations?

I'm sure that Skype is a very handy piece of software when you want to keep in touch with relatives who are miles away, but there are just too many inexplicable decisions being taken with it... What's that old saying: when something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Re:Be Very Suspicous

[Anonymous Coward]

> I'm sure that Skype is a very handy piece of software when you want to keep in touch with relatives who are miles away

Yes, but to be honest, many many people have an Android device which needs a gmail account. This means all of them have Google Hangouts, most of the time out of the box (on phones anyway).

I don't want to say, Google is not evil or less evil than Microsoft, but from a technical standpoint, what are the advantages of Skype? None.

Really?

[NotInHere]

Wake me up when m$ ditches directx in favor of ogl/vulkan (on the xbox platform and on windows) and when the non cloud version of office is available on linux on the desktop.

Until then m$ is evil.

Re:Really?

[bluefoxlucid]

Vulkan has some merits, or at least novelty; OpenGL and DirectX are actually in competition, and DirectX long had features allowing DirectX programmers to more-readily take advantage of not-always-present extensions while OpenGL historically would just fail and not tell you. OpenGL has long since improved on that front; minor technical arguments still bounce back and forth between the two technologies.

Stuff like that is why I find graphics programmers weird.

Re:Really?

[NotInHere]

Vulkan is more a competitor to DirectX 12, and its better because it is probably more consistent due to throwing out all the legacy crap (read OpenGL).

Re:Really?

[bluefoxlucid]

It's also more-complex than OpenGL, although DirectX 12 is more-complex than DirectX 10. Direct-manipulation of atoms is more-complex than current processor fab tech, too, and can give certain results modern fab tech can't. Assembly is more-complex than C#, and can allow tight, highly-optimized code that C# can't approach; C# can make large, complex programs.

Maybe Vulkan will get some higher-level APIs, or run alongside OpenGL, or something. Who knows? An integrated solution allowing leverage of low-complexity and high-complexity operations in tandem would provide an optimal solution.

Re:Really?

[NotInHere]

Well yes Vulkan is more complex than OpenGL, but its not in the same relation to OpenGL as Assembly is to c#.

True, there is SPIR, but there are already compilers for SPIR out there, and it has been a critique point of OpenGL for a long time that shaders couldn't be compiled, while they could be compiled by DirectX.

Either way, the indie gaming industry seems to be moving towards engines like unity that then expose simple high level APIs. They will enjoy vulkan because it will allow unity and similar engine developers to make their engines faster and have more api functions. And AAA games will enjoy Vulkan even more because they can customize every tiniest part which they couldn't do with OpenGL.

Re:Really?

[bluefoxlucid]

That's the specialist argument: someone further down the line gets to deal with this complicated stuff. It's a valid argument; and the specialists still need to improve their skillset when the complicated stuff becomes more-complicated, with the trade-off that they can engage in their specialty more-effectively.

Haven't we seen this before?

[Locutus]

It was a Microsoft program called WISE and licensed to Bristol, Insignia, MainSoft and Locus( https://goo.gl/nrk4ML ). It allowed these vendors to build libraries for UNIX which let Win32 sources be built on UNIX systems. Lots of UNIX app developers porting UNIX apps to Windows since they could sell their apps for both Windows and UNIX. Only one problem, Microsoft pulled the rug out from under them all( save one ) and left all those UNIX software vendors with no path for their UNIX customers but moving to Microsoft Windows. They more than quadrupled the WISE program cost and only one of the vendors could afford to pay it. The one vendor who could still pay the licensing fee was also the one vendor Microsoft hired to port Internet Explorer to Sun Solaris.

So unless every single bit of this ChakraCore stuff is open source and under a BSD or MIT license(ie loose) then stay away, far far away. IMO

LoB

Re:Haven't we seen this before?

[Bite The Pillow]

Took me two clicks to find the answer, ignoring the comment above yours. You do know how hyperlinks work, right? And reading?

Re:Haven't we seen this before?

[Anonymous Coward]

So unless every single bit of this ChakraCore stuff is open source and under a BSD or MIT license(ie loose) then stay away, far far away.

It is.

Re:Haven't we seen this before?

[Anonymous Coward]

Micro$haft is not satisfied to just slurp data from Windows users, they are looking for ways to steal Linux users private data too! Make no mistake, M$ HATES anything that they don't control. See their continued use of non-existent and/or invalid patents to extort money from manufacturers of Android devices.

I never trusted Skype, and distrusted it even more after M$ bought it. I don't want M$'s shitty browser, nor anything else from M$ to contaminate my computers!!

Re:Haven't we seen this before?

[Anonymous Coward]

..The one vendor who could still pay the licensing fee was also the one vendor Microsoft hired to port Internet Explorer to Sun Solaris.

And we all know how well that one worked out...that was a bloody nightmare to support and was such a POS (I had the thankless task of installing and supporting it when the PHB thought it a good idea, and the edict went round that everyone had to use IE as we now had a 'commercially supported proper browser on the Unix workstations...'
Oh those fun days of yore....

A True Linux-Friendly move would be . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

. . . supporting consistent, non-proprietary standards such as Open Document Format and dropping, forever, their ridiculous, closed Microsoft MOOXML.

Nice, I guess

[Anonymous Coward]

This, more than any other Linux-friendly move the company has made, is a clear departure from the Microsoft of Gates and Ballmer that used its technologies to lock users into Windows...

That's nice, I guess. But Microsoft doesn't get any special props from me for doing what is necessary for their own survival. Microsoft was (and still kinda is) on the brink of irrelevance. They fought for marketshare while open source eroded their mindshare. It's good for their company that at least their current leaders are capable of accepting defeat and embracing what nearly killed them, but they were in a position all along the embrace open source -- in a meaningful way, not just embrace, extend extinguish -- and they didn't until they had no other choice.

So, yay. Good for them to hopefully now finally be actual contributors to the world in the more enlightened way that open source embodies. Hopefully they will continue to be good citizens and be involved in the creation of yet even more useful software for everyone while also being a successful company.. It just really should have happened a lot sooner.

Internet Exploder on a Linux near you?

[guruevi]

Soon all those Windows vulnerabilities will be available on Linux too. Do they allow you to compile from source at least or is it a closed binary that needs root rights?

Re:Internet Exploder on a Linux near you?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's already on Linux. It used to come bundled with Softimage, although I have no idea if that's still the case

Re:Internet Exploder on a Linux near you?

[exomondo]

Well this story isn't about Internet Explorer, it's about Chakra core which is the Javascript Virtual Machine that is used in Edge.

Soon all those Windows vulnerabilities will be available on Linux too.

Not quite sure what you mean by that.

Do they allow you to compile from source at least or is it a closed binary that needs root rights?

The release is source, it's right here https://github.com/microsoft/ChakraCore licensed under MIT.

Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish

[Anonymous Coward]

the last thing i want in linux is MS trojan crap.

the glaze-over gift

[epine]

Microsoft must have an entire division devoted to coming up with names that make me glaze over sooner than I can get to a defining sentence in any article in which the word occurs.

List of Microsoft codenames

Hmm, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was originally codenamed "Snowball", which primarily involved the introduction of a 32-bit TCP/IP stack into a 16-bit OS.

Satan: I've got good news and I've got bad news.

Yourself: What's the good news?

Satan: I'm going to give you a choice.

Yourself: And what's the bad news?

Satan: You can either be known as "Snowball" or "Mr Pink".

Yourself: Wow, that's a relief. I was worried I'd get stuck with "Chakra" or something worse, if there even is anything worse.

Satan: Even in Hell, some dishonours are held in reserve. Now hurry up, or I'll assign you one of each, plus swelling and leprosy.

Re:the glaze-over gift

[squiggleslash]

Hi! Welcome to Pedant's Corner, the best kind of corner!

WfW didn't come with a TCP/IP stack. The bundled networking applications ran over Microsoft's SMB stack. It wasn't until 1994, nearly a year after the release of WfW, that Microsoft released an optional TCP/IP stack for WfW.

And unfortunately for your joke, the name of the stack was Wolverine...

Sorry, not trying to ruin your joke, just trying to avoid some minor misconception about a product that hasn't been sold now for 20 years and nobody uses or is ever likely to come across from ruining the minds of the readers of this website...

Go Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what Microsoft should have been doing a while ago. This can really benefit a project like Ubuntu and other Linux projects. Hate all you want on Microsoft, but they can do good stuff if they want. As a Linux user, I want some better support for technology, and frankly the more support through these channels gives more credence for Linux.

Re:Go Microsoft

[MightyMartian]

Have you actually used Edge? It and it's JS component are utter crap. Why would anyone want to run their JS variant?

Re:Go Microsoft

[jfbilodeau]

Compared to V8 and Node.js, Chakracore is 10 years behind the times. Please explain why I should care to care about it?

Forgive the analogy, but it's the same as a ex-Nazi giving me old rotten potatoes when I already have a huge cellar filled with fresh ones.

Re:Go Microsoft

[ChunderDownunder]

I tried Edge and have stuck with Firefox.

So, no, I don't have a compelling reason to install ChakraCore on my Linux box. However, half a dozen or so already reside there - anything that depends on node requires a JS engine, Gtk+ and Qt embed versions with their toolkits and openjdk has rhino and nashorn for Java EE.

Does the world need yet another JS engine? Well probably not but there may be a use case.

Re:Go Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Compared to V8 and Node.js, Chakracore is 10 years behind the times. Please explain why I should care to care about it?

Forgive the analogy, but it's the same as a ex-Nazi giving me old rotten potatoes when I already have a huge cellar filled with fresh ones.

More like giving you old rotten potatoes laced with crack, after a couple, you're supposed to forget about your cellar filled with fresh untainted ones and crawl back to him for more...

Re:Go Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

And here we are, many years later, wondering what and how the hell is javascript still around after all the exploits, ads, annoying popups. We successfully got rid of flash, very quickly, why can't we get rid of javascript already? It's slow, stupid, and annoying.

Re: Go Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

10 years huh, retard? God slashdot is such a sad parody of itself these days. Out of touch tech dinosaurs ranting and raving about Microsoft still like it's 2002.

Re: Go Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a consistent pattern of MS using tech a decade or two behind times since ever...Slashdot had always people ranting about shitty MS, I am afraid.

Re: Go Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

You are obviously not a programmer...

Re: Go Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, grandpa. Sure. Show me on this dolly where Microsoft touched you...

Re: Go Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Competence is good for software. And you cant have a standard without multiple quality implementations. The more JS engine alternatives we have, the more bugs will be catched in all of them, the more pressure they will have to get better, and the more examples they will have of which is good or bad in a JS engine.
So this is excellent news for not only V7 and Nodejs, but for all the people that benefits from them, including anyone of us. Firefox will benefit, too.

Even better, they are using BSD, so any project can even take code from them, if they choose to do so.

Hell is getting colder, a bit at a time. Even if it were a trap, it is good news, cheer up! After all, by definition, the devil can't get worse ;)

Apple and Microsoft together again

[holophrastic]

Start the timer. Apple becomes a hardware-only company, running mostly microsoft software. One decade or two?

Re:Apple and Microsoft together again

[tlhIngan]

Start the timer. Apple becomes a hardware-only company, running mostly microsoft software. One decade or two?

Or minus half-decade. Ever since Apple went Intel and started supported running Windows (and indirectly, Linux), that has been true.

And Apple has traditionally been a hardware company - their money is selling hardware.

Less so these days as PC hardware designs have caught up to Apple, Apple has started to neglect their Mac line (though, apparently it's because Intel has been dropping the ball with the kind of parts Apple wants).

Re:Apple and Microsoft together again

[tigersha]

Well, let's hope so, for if Apple decides to OSS MacOS/X then Unix on the Desktop might actually come true.

Re:Apple and Microsoft together again

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, let's hope so, for if Apple decides to OSS MacOS/X then Unix on the Desktop might actually come true.

Unix on the desktop is exactly what you get with mac OS, even without it being fully open sourced. You do realize that UNIX doesn't require open source licensing, right?

So their products suck and their OS is useless for

[RightwingNutjob]

real work. But for some reason, I should want to use their libraries on a system that actually is already useful for real work?

Really must be something in the water. Gnome3, Wayland, systemd, Trump, and Microsoft on Linux?

NO THANKS MICROSPY US GOV CUNT

[Anonymous Coward]

>Microsoft brings

All you needed to know right there. Get fucking mother fucking fucked. Fuck your ass, fuck everything about your face too. Ass fuck your face, fuck it.

Do not let anything Microsoft near Linux. Put it in Apple's asshole sure, only faggots use that shit anyways.

Microsoft, Windows 10, backports to 8.1/8/7 etc... ALL spyware. 100 percent spyware and malware. Nothing but. You can play games and get spied on who gives a shit. The rest, all cross referenced with every other tracking and profiling mechanism of big corporations

Google
Microsoft
Facebook
Markmonitor
Cloudfront

You need to really really watch these corporate cunts how much they cooperate with the US government spy agencies. Your money is nowhere to be found. It is purely fiat. That means even if it isn't paper, it is just digits in lala-internet land... there is no difference.

Its a trap

[FudRucker]

smells like a trojan_horse, after years of being belligerent towards Linux i can not trust microsoft to be honest, look at the mess windows 10 is when it comes to privacy and lack of being open to users,

Snooping for the man

[Anonymous Coward]

MS just looking for a way to snoop on non-Windows boxes.

Why?

[melting_clock]

I can't see any reason to want this under Linux. It seems to be entirely MS specific and serves no useful purpose on Linux. Of my five computers, there is only one that runs Windows exclusively and one other that dual boots to Windows maybe once a month. Windows is becoming increasingly irrelevant, as more high quality commercial software is available on other platforms.

Most of the people that I know, use their smart phones or tablets, both Apple or Android, for tasks that were once done on Windows. While many of them have Windows laptops, they rarely use them. Mobile platforms are replacing traditional computing and MS has failed miserably to provide a useful mobile platform of their own. This applies to both business and personal tasks.

Their aggressive tactics to get Windows 10 upgrades installed is a sign of a desperation and one more reason not to trust them.

Mistake to think this isn't undermining Linux

[chris2net23]

Microsoft has a history of partnering with companies with the sole intention of undermining them or otherwise creating a monopoly for themselves. Microsoft's not supporting Linux because it wants Linux to succeed. At best it's a stunt to deceive and at worst they're trying to undermine Linux by initially supporting or claiming to support half-heartedly with the sole purpose of ensuring there are no competing technologies developed. They will probably later pull support leaving Linux with yet another Achilles' heel. Linux works, but we should kill proprietary software off if we want it to succeed. Google, Microsoft, and Apple are all a threat to users because they undermine the diversity and compatibility via different proprietary products, then utilize each owns monopoly influence to kill user's freedoms, choices, and privacy/security.

Re:So their products suck and their OS is useless

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows isn't for real work? Trolololo...

The only reason many of us run windows at all is for applications needed for 'real' work that only run on windows.

How's the view from under that rock?

Re: So their products suck and their OS is useless

[Anonymous Coward]

Real work huh? Know how I can tell you know nothing about the real world outside your cunty neckbeard bubble?

Why do we care?

[JohnFen]

I'm seriously asking -- why should non-Windows OS developers care about whether or not ChakraCore is supported on non-Windows operating systems?

Re:Why do we care?

[Billly Gates]

Because V8 is having a monopoly.

I think running node.js on Chakra will be a nice alternative even if you do not use it. Last thing we want is Google to rewrite standards ala old MS style.

Re:Why do we care?

[fluffynuts]

Totally. Competition is the whetstone which sharpens these tools. Also, Chakra is aiming to run on more diverse platforms (think IoT, etc), so that's also good: encouraging V8 devs to step up their game.

It's the same reason I used to cheer on Opera and why I'm rather sad they just threw in the towel. Who's going to set the ACID benchmarks now? Especially as FF loses ground?

Competition is required for successful evolution (:

Not ready for prime-time (yet)

[fluffynuts]

Whilst I applaud the effort (and welcome alternatives), Chakra isn't quite ready for prime-time on other platforms yet -- more specifically, node-chakra. What it does, it does blazingly fast -- outpacing the v8 core on 6.3.1 -- but there are some specific use-cases which just end in fail, and a commonly-occurring message about buffers not being used in an expected manner.

Next release maybe? V8 needs the competition and I'll gladly take whatever is tops out stability, then features, then speed. I'm not a brand-whore.

Because people don't want Win10.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't this be a good time for Microsoft to try an embed themselves into Linux? I suspect that a number of people (like myself) have no intention of moving to Win10 from Win7. Win10, and everything Microsoft is doing with it, appears to be the final step in getting me to convert to linux on the desktop. Combined with progress in SteamOS and gaming in general in linux (ie. the only real reason I've stayed in Windows), I think the time has finally arrived for me.

Those announced changes coming with the Win10 anniversary patch that disables a bunch of stuff (can't disable Cortana, really?) really drove the point home for me.

Hopefully I can find a place to get linux help that doesn't treat me like an asshole for lacking a reasonable amount of "common knowledge" because I don't live in the environment. :)