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posted by takyon on Wednesday September 30 2020, @01:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the embrace dept.

Open source's Eric Raymond: Windows 10 will soon be just an emulation layer on Linux kernel

Will Windows lose the last phase of the desktop wars to Linux? Noted open-source advocate Eric Raymond thinks so.

Celebrated open-source software advocate and author Eric Raymond, who's long argued Linux will rule the desktop, reckons it won't be long before Windows 10 becomes an emulation layer over a Linux kernel.

[...] Looking further into the future, Raymond sees Microsoft killing off Windows emulation altogether after it reaches the point where everything under the Windows user interface has already moved to Linux.

"Third-party software providers stop shipping Windows binaries in favor of ELF binaries with a pure Linux API... and Linux finally wins the desktop wars, not by displacing Windows but by co-opting it. Perhaps this is always how it had to be," Raymond projects.

Is It Time for Windows and Linux to Converge?

Last phase of the desktop wars?

The two most intriguing developments in the recent evolution of the Microsoft Windows operating system are Windows System for Linux (WSL) and the porting of their Microsoft Edge browser to Ubuntu.

For those of you not keeping up, WSL allows unmodified Linux binaries to run under Windows 10. No emulation, no shim layer, they just load and go.

[...] Proton is the emulation layer that allows Windows games distributed on Steam to run over Linux. It's not perfect yet, but it's getting close. I myself use it to play World of Warships on the Great Beast.

The thing about games is that they are the most demanding possible stress test for a Windows emulation layer, much more so than business software. We may already be at the point where Proton-like technology is entirely good enough to run Windows business software over Linux. If not, we will be soon.

So, you're a Microsoft corporate strategist. What's the profit-maximizing path forward given all these factors?

It's this: Microsoft Windows becomes a Proton-like emulation layer over a Linux kernel, with the layer getting thinner over time as more of the support lands in the mainline kernel sources. The economic motive is that Microsoft sheds an ever-larger fraction of its development costs as less and less has to be done in-house.

If you think this is fantasy, think again. The best evidence that it's already the plan is that Microsoft has already ported Edge to run under Linux. There is only one way that makes any sense, and that is as a trial run for freeing the rest of the Windows utility suite from depending on any emulation layer.

So, the end state this all points at is: New Windows is mostly a Linux kernel, there's an old-Windows emulation over it, but Edge and the rest of the Windows user-land utilities don't use the emulation. The emulation layer is there for games and other legacy third-party software.

Also at The Register.

Previously: Windows 10 Will Soon Ship with a Full, Open Source, GPLed Linux Kernel
Call Me Crazy, but Windows 11 Could Run On Linux
Microsoft Windows Linux for Everybody


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2Original Submission #3

 
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by YeaWhatevs on Wednesday September 30 2020, @01:57AM (9 children)

    by YeaWhatevs (5623) on Wednesday September 30 2020, @01:57AM (#1058857)

    Oh boy, that guy. Yes, Microsoft is cool with saving a buck. Yes if you're doing any sort of modern development WSL is much better than dual booting. No, that is not "Winning the desktop war", since the brand is still windows, and deeper under the hood just ask the guys over at ReactOS about why they aren't just putting their desktop on a wine layer.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Zinnia Zirconium on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:12AM (5 children)

    by Zinnia Zirconium (11163) on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:12AM (#1058861) Homepage Journal

    The brand is still Windows and marketing is supremely important. Nobody cares that Linux achieved world domination through Android. It's not called Linux so the marketing just isn't right.

    Marketing is everything. Code is worthless. Linus wasted his life coding an actual kernel when only the brand matters.

    Don't ever code. Learn marketing.
    </sarcasm>

    • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:19AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:19AM (#1058863)

      Everyone loves Raymond? Or everyone loves takyon? I miss the cartoon.

    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:28AM (3 children)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:28AM (#1058865) Journal

      I think it's kinda nostalgic. Windows rode in on DOS, and now will ride off on tty7

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 2, Disagree) by Zinnia Zirconium on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:33AM (2 children)

        by Zinnia Zirconium (11163) on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:33AM (#1058868) Homepage Journal

        I'm gonna miss the NT kernel when it's gone.

        • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @06:37AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @06:37AM (#1058940)

          But Eric F. Raymond has become a gun-toting, young girl chasing, Patreon begging, basket case of a former free software person? Even Barbara has remarked his passing in a journal. The man is an ass. Has nothing to say after 9-11. He is the Denis Miller, or the Rudy Guiliani of the free software movement. Lost him mind, lost his moral compass, and lost his supporters! Nobody loves Raymond, anymore. (Don't get me started on Perens. Linus is the only real man, and most of the rest are posers and marketers!)

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @07:22AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @07:22AM (#1058952)

            He sounds like a misandrist who believes that buttery males have a "critical age" or "military age" when violence is a foregone conclusion.

  • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday September 30 2020, @03:02AM (1 child)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 30 2020, @03:02AM (#1058878) Journal

    Yes if you're doing any sort of modern development WSL is much better than dual booting.

    [Citation Needed]

    Do you have anything to back up the assertion that WSL is being used anywhere? M$ has not published any figures but going from some peripherally related leaks and some black-box guessing, it looks like global adoption (not just downloads) is a 4-figure number, if even that.

    The name sure as hell is annoying. It is a Linux Subsystem for Windows but as with everything from M$, it is mislabelled. Actually it's not even Linux, it is paravirtualization.

    --
    Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @11:50AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @11:50AM (#1059004)

      I use WSL to get around the lack of usable CLI on Windows. Specifically, for quickly identifying file contents (file, xxd, grep, sed, awk), and to get good cross-platform remoting capabilities (ssh, git, gnupg).

      Actually it's not even Linux, it is paravirtualization

      In what way is paravirtualization "not Linux"? Linux domains on Xen on Solaris (an actual, proper paravirtual host) were still called Linux, IIRC. And in what way is Hyper-V "paravirtualization"?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @10:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @10:15PM (#1059236)

    Yes if you're doing any sort of modern development WSL is much better than dual booting.

    I've been under the impression for quite some time that Microsoft's endgame with this is that Linux is forcefully assimilated as another layer of Windows API. Not overly realistic that this alone would help it get that far, but that doesn't mean it won't do a lot of damage to Linux if things go in Microsoft's favor over the long term.