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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 #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RamiK on Wednesday September 30 2020, @09:32AM (6 children)
Post-x86 survival: It's much easier and far cheaper to write a new linux desktop user-land and GUI tools while running windows and linux applications on top of it (in sandboxes and emulations) than it is to port Windows to a new architecture, get hardware partners to write new drivers and run windows applications on top of it (in emulators).
They tried both and are still trying. But combined with their cloud interests and looking at what they've been upstreaming and open sourcing, it's strongly leaning towards an Android-like, Windows-style .NET user-land running on a linux kernel.
Post-x86... It's about the future. Not the present.
"People" already left to the browser, smartphones and consoles. What's left can be done on iOS so they're really just doing legacy at this point.
They've lost their control to the technical needs of backwards compatibility. And since Windows have no value outside legacy...
From the business side of things, the cloud and the linux ecosystem is growing so there's justification for R&D investments. Windows isn't and won't grow so there's no point in investing in it aside from core maintenance.
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(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday September 30 2020, @11:39AM (2 children)
Post-x86-survival. But wasn't there already a version of Windows10 that runs on ARM CPU? I seem to recall there was a piece, or comment about it, here some time during the last few months or so. They should be fairly set then. It's all about the transition then and how backwards compatible they can remain and for how long. It's the slow transition of the user base now over to the new promised land (I guess that is the post-x86-world).
I highly doubt that Windows will just become some kind of new desktop UI theme that goes ontop of Linux. But what do I know.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:30PM (1 child)
"Windows 10 Mobile"... "Windows 10 IoT Core"... "Windows 10 on Arm"... Microsoft always had contemporary Windows ports available for ARM under one name or the next. The current "Windows on Snapdragon" Qualcomm partnership even has seamless emulation layer that lets you execute 32bit x86 windows binaries as is. They're on their 3rd or 4th gen now and there's even a Surface ARM laptop running it on the market.
What I mean by "They tried both and are still trying" is that, like Google's ChromeOS, Android and Fuchsia, Microsoft current business culture leaves room for conflicting porting efforts, linux efforts, emulation efforts, hardware solutions, cloud solutions, remote desktop solutions, etc...
So, for instance, it can start as an attempt to get windows binaries executing on Azure remote desktop instances, grow into a ChromeOS-like embedded laptop solution, and end up as a proper desktop. Or maybe they'll just rebrand EdgeOS at first and add some windows remote tooling... Either way, like how they're already releasing a linux distro for the cloud and another distro for WSL2, it's not too farfetched for them to aim something for desktops and have it grow to a fairly complete windows replacement.
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(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday September 30 2020, @04:59PM
Correction/Update: Now there's 64bit emulation as well [liliputing.com].
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(Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday September 30 2020, @03:41PM (2 children)
This. If Microsoft's moves toward embracing Linux mean the death of anything, it's Windows Server. If you're Microsoft, making the next Windows Server be Linux-based, but with a complete .NET userland and all the Microsoft-backed solutions like SQL Server, would be a great way to simplify Azure and bring Windows shops and normal people together onto one platform.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday September 30 2020, @05:16PM (1 child)
Nothing going to die. They'll just gradually reduce the maintaining team until it's 3 semi-employed seniors sharing office space with the COBOL development staff.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @07:25PM
lmao