Microsoft Gives Unexpected Tutorial on How To Install Linux (theregister.com) 141
Hell freezes over and pigs fly south to their winter feeding grounds. Microsoft has published guidance on how to download and install Linux. From a report: The Seattle-area proprietary OS vendor has published a helpful guide entitled "How to download and install Linux," inspiring reactions from incredulity to amusement. In the humble opinion of The Reg FOSS Desk, it really isn't bad at all. Microsoft suggests four alternative installation methods: using Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, using a local VM, using a cloud VM, or on bare metal. It almost feels cruel to criticize it, but it seems that this really amounts to two methods. WSL version 2 is a VM. It's right there in the screenshots, where it says:
Installing: Virtual Machine Platform
Virtual Machine Platform has been installed.
So the choices boil down to either on the metal, or in a VM. That leaves only the question of what kind of VM: the built-in one, an add-on VM, or a cloud VM. Perhaps the subtext of the article is something more subtle. Could it be a tacit admission that you might need a free-of-charge OS for your PC? The Windows 10 upgrade program that began back in 2015 was meant to end a year later. In fact, it didn't. We described a documented workaround in 2016, but the free upgrades continued to work, even in 2020. Which? magazine reported it was still working in July 2023.
Installing: Virtual Machine Platform
Virtual Machine Platform has been installed.
So the choices boil down to either on the metal, or in a VM. That leaves only the question of what kind of VM: the built-in one, an add-on VM, or a cloud VM. Perhaps the subtext of the article is something more subtle. Could it be a tacit admission that you might need a free-of-charge OS for your PC? The Windows 10 upgrade program that began back in 2015 was meant to end a year later. In fact, it didn't. We described a documented workaround in 2016, but the free upgrades continued to work, even in 2020. Which? magazine reported it was still working in July 2023.
Yikes, some "journalist" is out of date (Score:5, Informative)
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They won. At this point the best we can hope for is a benevolent dictatorship.
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Tech adoption, there is a chasm ... (Score:2)
That all depends on how you define "Linux on the desktop." If you mean good enough for average users to use as their day-to-day OS, as it originally meant, it's been here for about twenty years. If you mean the year that Linux becomes the most common desktop OS, it's not likely to come at all ...
I think most mean a viable alternative in the mass market, like macOS. Something that got past the traditional UNIX markets of scientific and engineering users. Not viable in the mass market in that it exists, but viable in the minds of most people in the mass market as an acceptable option. That's where Linux hits a wall, in mindshare as a viable alternative with the masses.
Or to use the phraseology of the technology adoption life cycle, Linux is failing to cross the chasm between the early adopter segm
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Just being good enough for everyday office stuff isn't enough. Linux distros breaking compatibility all the time is a barrier even if the software you use is Linux based.
Many companies have vertical apps, apps developed for them and their services/products specifically. Because binary compatibility isn't a think on Linux, not even between different versions of the same distro, they would have to build the app for every new version they upgrade to. Worse still, if the need to give the app to customers (say b
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Desktop Linux is Happening - Linux on WIn Desktop (Score:4, Insightful)
Desktop linux is just never going to happen, ...
Desktop Linux is absolutely happening. However its not quite what we expected. Its Linux on the Windows Desktop, completely integrated with Windows running side by side all the Win32 stuff.
For most people, this is the best way run Linux. They just want *nix on their PC, they want its toolchains. I'd add they may want a particular FOSS app or two but those tend to have Windows versions so Linux isn't really needed there. If you want the politics of GNU, that's fine, run natively on the hardware. But face reality, most people just want *nix and not the politics. WSL is a great fit for them.
Re: Yikes, some "journalist" is out of date (Score:2)
Microsoft is actively making Linux more viable on the desktop, whether that is their intent or not, by pushing Office 365. If I can run the office suite in a browser, I don't need Windows to run it. I don't follow the logic but I'm enjoying seeing it.
Re: Yikes, some "journalist" is out of date (Score:2)
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For the bigger part - I'd imagine revenue that they receive from windows licenses is shrinking to the point where it might actually become a cost sink
It always was, but it also supported their Office monopoly. If people don't need Windows to run Office, and as a result start to migrate away from it (my job could be done on a Chromebook if I'm running Office in a browser) that creates a pool of users who could be served by some other web office solution, and therefore provides motivation for someone to make one which can credibly compete with MS Office.
Just putting some money and effort into improving graphing and pivot tables in Calc would make LO a reas
Plus they are a little dimwitted ... (Score:2)
It almost feels cruel to criticize it, but it seems that this really amounts to two methods. WSL version 2 is a VM ... So the choices boil down to either on the metal, or in a VM. That leaves only the question of what kind of VM: the built-in one, an add-on VM, or a cloud VM. Perhaps the subtext of the article is something more subtle.
Or perhaps those commenting are a bit dimwitted and failed to realize the three classes are VM mentioned are very different and deserve to be mentioned separately. That doing so is the point of the article. In particle the WSL route being the better fit for most people. Tightest integration with Windows, running Windows side by side Win32 rather seamlessly, supported by the OS vendor, Linux distros just app of the vendor's App Store.
Short story, you no longer have to choose Windows or Linux, you can have
Stop lying (Score:2)
Your post is utter horseshit. You don't need a credit card or Microsoft account to use several of the methods outlined in TFA, and with all of the methods you end up with the look and feel and default setups of the Linux flavour you choose to use.
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Unexpected? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Unexpected? (Score:2)
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Microsoft has been keeping it less and less a secret that they want out of the OS business but don't know how to quit.
The Windows 12 subscription model will probably help.
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Microsoft has been keeping it less and less a secret that they want out of the OS business but don't know how to quit.
I donno...they could open source Windows and all associated applications and let the open source community re-wire it to run on top of Linux.
NT kernel fine, just add POSIX and userland. (Score:2)
I donno...they could open source Windows and all associated applications and let the open source community re-wire it to run on top of Linux.
Why, there is nothing wrong with the NT kernel? A more realistic path would be to make POSIX a first class API under windows and to make the *nix userland a first class console option, like the "DOS" shell and PowerShell.
Very little FOSS software actually cares if it is running on Linux, it's really written for POSIX and builds and runs just fine on other *nix. Windows could become another *nix, like MacOS did.
Fun reading. Windows has had POSIX (Score:2)
Re: Fun reading. Windows has had POSIX (Score:2)
Not that fun, they only support POSIX version 1, but the world moved on to POSIX 2 a long time ago.
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Not that fun, they only support POSIX version 1, but the world moved on to POSIX 2 a long time ago.
See the "Windows Services for UNIX" link in the article
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I had SFU on my system once, it was inferior to Cygwin but it was pretty decent. I had Cygwin on every Windows system I've had for many years, and I had MKS Toolkit, and before that sh.exe for DOS and so on, Cygwin is by far the best of the bunch and has been pretty much all along. I used to use their X server a lot when I no longer had current Xoftware.
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As the link suggests, these early POSIX implementations seemed to be more about checking a box on a requirements list. Making MS Windows eligible for a pentagon contract for example.
That said, a real effort at POSIX support in Windows, includi
Re: NT kernel fine, just add POSIX and userland. (Score:2)
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Nobody, not even the US military that created the spec, has actually given a shit about POSIX in 20 years. At this point "unix" just means "Probably actually Linux but there's an odd chance it might be some other unixlike" and has meant that for... About the same length of time POSIX has been irrelevant.
Nope. POSIX is still a thing. You stick to the POSIX API and your code runs just fine on Linux, BSD, macOS, ...
Very little FOSS software is Linux specific. It is overwhelmingly POSIX and runs on BSD, macOS, etc in addition to Linux.
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Let's add to dnrb's comment that all of the people screaming about how bad Poettering's systemd garbage is remember his stupid spouting about how "liberating" it was to abandon POSIX when writing system software, so at this point let's just realise how wrong you are.
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Re: Unexpected? (Score:2)
Re: Unexpected? (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft has been keeping it less and less a secret that they want out of the OS business but don't know how to quit.
That's not true in the slightest. If they wanted out of the OS business, they would start with building Office for Linux. Other apps too, maybe some games. They would They would stop pushing Secure Boot that tries to lock out Linux installs. They would stop forbidding OEMs to pre-install Linux. They would stop pushing DirectX and drive developers away from Vulkan. Maybe they would help Wine.
Re: Unexpected? (Score:2)
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Read their info on bare metal install. There's nothing helpful there. They mention doing it as the primary OS or dual boot, but don't offer any assistance or advice for how to repartition Windows.
Re:Unexpected? (Score:5, Informative)
but don't offer any assistance or advice for how to repartition Windows.
The document is aimed at Windows System Administrators, who (hopefully) know how to use Disk Manager/diskpart, and if not, it's a search away....
Re: Unexpected? (Score:2)
Can you shrink a Windows partition without third party tools now?
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Why would you shrink a partition when the average motherboard comes with multiple M.2 slots and countless SATA connectors?
Fucking around with partitions is so early 2000s.
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Why would you shrink a partition when the average motherboard comes with multiple M.2 slots and countless SATA connectors?
Laptops outsell desktops by what, three to one now? The average motherboard is now in a laptop, and doesn't have either of those things. At work we are now using laptops for most positions, with a thunderbolt dock to hook up additional monitors. They have also issued us all iPhones and are planning to do away with the desk phones. This way if there's a disaster (here in Humboldt we are vulnerable to quake, fire, and tsunami) we can work from an alternate location. If we have a problem with our PC it also ma
Re:Unexpected? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is the company that destroyed the competition by bundling their products and ensuring that there were compatibility issues with competitors products. They're not just a software company.
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Really? What about Teams? Bundling with Office was an accident? Cloud? Onedrive? They haven't stopped they just got better at PR.
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What about Word? Excel?
With Lotus and Corel you could always buy/run/use them individually. I remember running Wordperfect and 123 while MS was bundling Office for free in Windows.
Re:Unexpected? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Unexpected? (Score:4)
We remember the 90s FUD and monopoy-bully M$, that is why so many people think that M$ is the enemy. Just because they have a more friendly marketing and different business model now does not change their horrible past.
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It's the Linux community that somehow thinks Microsoft is an enemy.
Any entity that thinks it can or should arbitrarily control me or what I do is an enemy. Not even the US government dares to go that far.
Microsoft is clearly 100% an enemy.
The MSFT server platforms are on life support (Score:2, Insightful)
Everyone in the company knows this. They are accustomed to using Linux for a lot of things nowadays. I can't speak for the desktop - no feeling they are ready to let that go, but using Linux for everything that would go in the data center (especially on the cloud) is well understood. I think a lot of the people within MSFT would wonder why you found them writing this guide notable.
I remember Ballmer. They mostly don't.
Re:The MSFT server platforms are on life support (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not sure I'd agree that Windows Server is on 'life support', unless you're qualifying that with 'on premises'
Microsoft very definitely wants you to use Azure but still supports the 'on prem' scenario if that's something you want/need. Server 2022 is supported through 2031 and most of the available editions are aimed at the 'on prem' user.
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Depends on who you talk to. The Azure PG would prefer that you just use it, preferentially with Linux. I'm dead serious that the server products are literally dead. Every release there's an argument with the salespeople about it, and less and less attention is paid to them. 2022 appearing was like pulling teeth, 2019 was intended as the last version at the time.
Look at the certification exams if you can't see the clear message.
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I look at all the on premises line of business applications I've had to support, historically and currently, most of which assume you will underpin them with Windows Server. Some of these will also work in Azure and there's other reasons (e.g., high availability) to put them there if you can.
I've spent most of my recent career working for Microsoft Partners/Resellers and nobody I know ever claimed Server is dying or 2019 was meant to be the last version. I'd be curious if you have any citation for that?
Re:The MSFT server platforms are on life support (Score:5, Informative)
18-12/22 with Microsoft. I was in sales, actually a CRM guy. We got told what to sell. Windows Server wasn't it. We got told what to push to the customer in terms of consulting solutions. Windows Server wasn't on the list. We were told to encourage the customer to come with Linux-based solutions to Azure. To the extent that MSFT solutions were pursued, they were migrated to Linux in as rapid fire a fashion as possible. The Premier teams stuck with supporting the existing MSFT solutions but even there, they were directed towards migration off the dedicated stuff and onto Azure in any way, shape, or form. Incentivized in fact by the 'revenue based incentive' aka commission that was a significant part of their (and my) pay package. No incentives for server-based solutions, incentives for Azure and 365.
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Well, you've definitely got a different perspective than I, but I'm not surprised they're incentivizing Azure over Server on the sales side. It's recurring revenue for them.
I am skeptical Server is going away though, even if disincentivized on the sales side. Not sure if you've ever worked in the government/defense space but GCC High [microsoft.com] is a royal pain-in-the-ass with asterisks ten miles long. It might be a different experience if you work for the Feds, idk, but I worked for a State Government with nearly
Re:The MSFT server platforms are on life support (Score:4, Interesting)
I work in the DoD space exclusively. Army specifically, MSFT bought me because I can talk to soldiers. Very familiar with their plans on that side. Know some of the people involved in architecting the high side Azure, actually got involved with that Jedi crap for a while. MSFT would have won that one if they understood the idea of work share, but no, greed won the day.
One of these days they'll announce that they are not updating Server. It was a constant scare tactic internally to move the customers off of on-prem. The salespeople would whisper it into the ears of the customers, assuredly still are, probably a good portion of the push to get off on-prem in DoD. The purported $$$ savings are the other bit. MSFT will eventually stop supporting it, it's just not competitive in the cloud compared to Linux. If it weren't for the free licensing in Azure, no one would do it, and someone will legally challenge that successfully, eventually. Restraint of trade is going to be its downfall.
Now, I come from the tactical side and I know cloud can't compete on disadvantaged networks like satellite. At the very least hybrid is required. The bottom line is that MSFT is not going to see an advantage to continuing to support Server when the on-prem market shrinks to just that kind of use case.
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I guess I'll believe it when I see it. It wouldn't shock me to one day see 'Server' become an add-on module for whatever they're calling desktop Windows by that point in time. I have a hard time seeing the countless LOB apps designed to work on Windows server getting the budget to be redeveloped for Linux. I supported a CMS/LOB solution that had Win16 code in it as late as 2015. A lot of these systems are underpinned by SQL Server, which does run on Linux, but a large number of the ones I've supported r
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If you remember WilTel, I did some testing there in 1995 with various LAN protocols over their WAN. It was quite interesting to see how badly the protocols worked there. Educational for everyone. They went ahead and did what you were describing anyway, but at least I convinced them to modify it at the edges so it wasn't quite as horrid as it could be. IPX actually performed better than the other protocols (NetBEUI, Appletalk, etc) over the WAN, surprisingly. No one wanted to eat the configuration hassl
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The FileMaker app they have would be pretty hard to recreate from scratch. Tens of thousands of labor hours, minimum, well outside their internal capacity or budget for external contractors. Their field is pretty niche, niche enough that I can't say without doxing them, suffice it to say, no canned solution meets the need and non-profit budget constraints preclude tossing out the decades of work already done to start over.
Their lead FileMaker Dev knows his stuff, it was a privilege to work with him, and
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Well, the WSL is definitely not targeted at the cloud. The cloud is a stupid option when you're trying to use the Linux directly and not as a server. If it was all cloud based, then dump Windows altogether, and all other operating systems, all you need is a browser in that scenario. Well, browser AND a credit card.
WSL comes with Windows, not an extra fee, so it's guide on how to install seems odd, since those four scenarios it has are four distinct use cases. WSL for home or office direct usage to do re
You are here: "Then you win" (Score:2)
Mahatma Gandhi Quote:
First they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
Then you win.
Why so incredulous? (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft hasn't stood in the way of Linux in years. In the business space, they view themselves as a services company, and that means making it easier to interoperate with multiple Operating Systems. WSL dates back to 2016. They've had support for Linux in Azure for as long as I've been working with Azure. It's as simple to set up as a Windows instance and cheaper to boot, presumably because part of the pricing for Windows in Azure includes the licensing expense you'd pay for separately in an on-prem scenario.
In the consumer space, I truly doubt they care. They know Windows is still shipped with nearly all retail consumer PCs. They know they have a near lock on the gaming market. They know the handful of die-hards for other OSes aren't likely to use Windows in any case. They literally lose nothing by publishing this guide. I would assume this document is aimed at the Microsoft-centric sys/net admin that occasionally gets called upon to spin up a Linux instance for whatever reason. Now they have an official document to reference that details the "Microsoft Way" of doing it.
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Microsoft SQL runs on Red Hat too
https://learn.microsoft.com/en... [microsoft.com]
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"Microsoft hasn't stood in the way of Linux in years" and in the very next paragraph, "They know Windows is still shipped with nearly all retail consumer PCs. They know they have a near lock on the gaming market". ... no, this. This must be what going mad feels like.
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"Microsoft hasn't stood in the way of Linux in years" and in the very next paragraph, "They know Windows is still shipped with nearly all retail consumer PCs. They know they have a near lock on the gaming market". ... no, this. This must be what going mad feels like.
That's not them standing in the way of anything. That's vendors offering people ultimately what they want to buy. You want Linux preinstalled? Buy it that way. It's even $150 cheaper
https://www.dell.com/en-us/sho... [dell.com]
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p... [lenovo.com]
Making a dual boot with Win11 (Score:5, Interesting)
Making my previous Lenovo laptop (w520) dual boot was easy. Now this is without a tutorial not all that obvious, the main reasons (problems) being UEFI and es. Windows Secure Boot. So getting some help from Microsoft is very much appreciated.
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The fact you have to jump through their BitLocker hoops after Linux and Lenovo HW updates is a bloody nuisance.
We ain't there yet...
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That's by design [microsoft.com]. BitLocker detects changes to the MBR and will fail to boot for fear of pre-boot malware in such a scenario. From the link:
We don't recommend modifying the master boot record on computers whose operating system drives are BitLocker-protected for several security, reliability, and product support reasons. Changes to the master boot record (MBR) could change the security environment and prevent the computer from starting normally and complicate any efforts to recover from a corrupted MBR
Just a Link (Score:2)
Immature (Score:3)
It'd be nice if we had people who were not trying to be ungracious in writing about these things. If you shit on people when they throw you a bone, don't expect more bones, or anything better.
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It'd be nice if we had people who were not trying to be ungracious in writing about these things. If you shit on people when they throw you a bone, don't expect more bones, or anything better.
Agreed. For instance, I'm told Edge is Chrome with a different skin. According to a developer with which I correspond, Microsoft gave up and just adopted the Chrome browser code base. After spending countless hours in the old days, massaging code so it'd work on a browser other than Internet Explorer, I will definitely give Microsoft kudos for this.
And WSL2 is way cool, actually. If it supported systemd so I could run centos or rocky it'd be even better. But as it is, I log into Windows, bring up Ubunt
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Edge is Chromium [wikipedia.org] with some Microsoft extensions baked in.
Chrome is also Chromium, just replace the baked in Microsoft extensions with Google ones.
Both are solid choices and the key missing feature (SSO on the other guy's platform) is easy enough to add in after the fact.
Edge is assumed to be "Internet Explorer" by most non-techie users. None of my users want anything to do with it. Microsoft really shot themselves in the marketing foot with the disaster that was IE. Most of my users prefer Chrome with
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It's true. I just can't bring myself to use Edge. I found a website where a drop-down box wouldn't work in Firefox for whatever reason, discovered it worked in Edge, then someone told me to try Chrome and it worked there (probably because they both use the same engine) so I'm using Chrome now.
Edge... I just can't. I've been burned too badly by IE.
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Kudos.
Kudos, for having to ditch all the work they did because after all that money and effort it was still such a piece of trash it was easier for them to take the free stuff they'd been mocking for years.
Kudos. This is the kind of logic that brought us modern Hollywood. Wow.
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I think you know it's more complicated than that. IE and its non-standard way of doing things was a big part of Microsoft's "embrace extend extinguish" philosophy, and I agree, they put a lot of effort into that, not only on the engineering side, but also the marketing and legal side.
The strategy failed, at least that part of it, and clearly they had to do something to stay relevant in the internet world. They were at risk of becoming "everyone else, or microsoft". Dumping the IE codebase and skinning Ch
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You can't even be joking, you must be high as balls. Microsoft shit on the Linux community for decades and you're talking about the COMMUNITY shitting on Microsoft after barely even a bone?
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Not joking. In situations like this, when someone else makes nice, you make nice.
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If you shit on people when they throw you a bone, don't expect more bones, or anything better.
I want no bones from Microsoft. I want them to go away forever. They are like a cancer on computing and advancement of knowledge/technology. There is no change they can go through that will ever make up for the corruption of the computing market they have engaged in. They just need to go away.
Joke of the Millenium (Score:2)
This has got to be a hoax .. it's too damn funny even to consider. ... colleagues are worried about my mental health .. specially Carole :D
Maybe when i stop laughing that one
ill fill her in
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Nope, it's true. Pigs have truly flown.
I hate to admit it (Score:2)
Moreover Ubuntu has a small enough footprint, and PCs are so over-provisioned these days, that it doesn't really matter that it's virtual.
The only downside is that (last time I checked) WSL2 does not support systemd, which means centos distributions act kinda squirrley.
But I'm well aware, ev
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What, seriously? I will have to investigate that. I do my development in Red Hat (job requirement) and being able to work on CentOS on my home machine was an advantage. I ended up abandoning that, and using ubuntu to ssh into Red Hat instances in AWS.
I'll need to go back and investigate that, thanks.
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WSL2, at least in Windows 10, have a few issues. It doesn't own the screen so you need to use a Windows-side X server, though MS has a Wayland image that has a few problems. It doesn't give you control of USB, which can be annoying if you're doing JTAG or device development, even serial ports don't work (though they work in WSL1, which is why I keep both around). It doesn't support IPv6 which is something I need (again WSL1 helps here). And lastly in my experience, setting up dockers or other containers
Preparation for Win12? (Score:3)
Maybe Windows12 will be a window-manager on top of Linux? (Hey, I can dream...)
WSL as a VM (Score:2)
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Sounds like Unity is the game engine, not the desktop environment.
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Yes and no. WSL1 isn't really a VM, it's an emulation layer. The files exist in native Windows file systems, which can slow things down even though the convenience is great. WSL2 is a hypervisor, which technically is a VM but much stripped down. It's got better Windows integration but also is relying on Windows for it's network, GUI, and devices. A full VM controls everything - ie, you can give full control over a network port or a device to the VM. A full VM can use any kernel, any operating system, w
I credit Satya Nadella (Score:4, Interesting)
Satya Nadella fundamentally changed Microsoft. These days they know they are a player in a heterogeneous world, where they need to interoperate with non-Microsoft technologies. Heck, they not only include Linux (WSL) and Docker, they sell SQL Server on Linux! And they contribute to open source projects. It’s not the 1990s any more!
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Where's my Office for Linux? Where's my Teams for Linux, you know, after they discontinued it? Where's my Visio for Linux?
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Where's my Office for Linux? Where's my Teams for Linux, you know, after they discontinued it? Where's my Visio for Linux?
https://www.office.com/ [office.com]
https://teams.microsoft.com/ [microsoft.com]
Both work fine under Linux. Visio isn't part of my Office 365 subscription so I have no idea how well it works under Linux. Oh but it's not the desktop app he says, well guess one the default file handler for office documents when opened from teams isn't the desktop app, when opened from outlook online, or sharepoint it's not the desktop app, when shared cross corporation it's not the desktop app, when you send someone a link to your file it's not the desk
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Satya Nadella fundamentally changed Microsoft.
Microsoft needs to go. There is no way to reform an entity like that in a reasonable manner.
Of course the best way... (Score:3)
Is to install Pengwin on WSL 2. It's the only distribution made to maximize integration with Windows.
If you haven't heard of it...
https://www.whitewaterfoundry.... [whitewaterfoundry.com]
Why not .... (Score:2)
They never made much from Windows - it was what you run on it that counts
Office is cloud based now - and most of the profit is in that and Azure and neither requires Windows ...
A good thing... (Score:2)
A good thing too. A friend of mine wrote an article here:
https://www.admin-magazine.com... [admin-magazine.com]
Yet they said it was a royal pain in the posterior to get Linux for Windows to install, work without sifting through myriad of online and error documentation.
So for Microsoft to publish how to install Linux in Windows is a big help. Too bad my friend did not have it when they needed it, save some aggravation.
JoshK.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
this applies more to people still using this tired old quote against Microsoft in 2023
it's not the late 90's anymore and this only makes linux people look like out of touch cranks
Re: Embrace (Score:3, Insightful)
When Lennart Poeterring who has done more than any other single person to fuck over Linux and Windowize it via systemd is hired by MS it's a safe bet that altruism isnt the first thing on MSs mind.
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systemd has too many serious bugs to list (google), is over complicated and replaces a very flexible init system using powerful scripting language with a very poor once that effectively uses a central registry. Sound familiar?
Oh, and he wrote the abortion known as Pulse Audio as well.
I never said it caused a drop in linux usage, mainly because the majority of distros adopted systemd back when it was even less reliable than now. You'd have to ask them why.
As for religion , I'll leave that to the systemd evan
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Exactly this. People downvoting do not understand that "extinguish" does not mean make Linux disappear, but pervert it, until is not a tool for software freedom any more.
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That's not going to happen. Microsoft has to support customers whose security/compliance needs require air-gapped machines. They may obfuscate setting it up without a MS account, it might only be an available option if you purchase the Pro/Business/Whatever-they-call-it license, but the option will be there. It'll probably come with some drawbacks, like macOS has if you opt out of an AppleID/iCloud account, but the option will remain.
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I agree. And it will not require an enterprise license.
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I doubt that "require". Requiring it would very likely not be GDPR compliant and I am sure MS does not want to pay $500M (or so) per year to the EU...
Re: In case anyone has forgotten (Score:2)
That OSS will probably have been written by Poettering, MSs pet linux dev. As he so ably demonstrates, plenty of OSS is shit too. To whit systemd.
Re: (Score:2)
We'll get an update soon where Microsoft apologizes. There was a typo and they meant to say "How to UNinstall Linux".
But this reminds of DEC, when Ken Olsen loudly proclaimed Unix to be "snake oil", then shortly after they started selling their own version of Unix (a sort of weird variant in some ways, but not nearly so weird as IBM's).