[conspire] Microsoft Linux

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Texx (texxgadget at gmail.com):

> I've been watching the animosity ease with the departure of Ballmer and
> speculated that someday Microsoft would do a Linux distro.

And, honestly, if they can make a buck doing so, why wouldn't they?
They've been making money from open source including copylefted code for
literally many decades.  The 'Linux is a cancer' line was already
laughable when Ballmer made it, for that and other reasons, and beating
them over the head for being 'hypocritical' because the firm briefly
pushed an absurdly hypocritical line, decades ago, seems like at best a
waste of time in 2019.

News flash:  Corporate self-interest is a thing.

> A computerworld article today confirms this.

Here, let me fix that for you:  
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3438856/call-me-crazy-but-windows-11-could-run-on-linux.html

A couple of points:

1.  It's not just anyone at Computerworld, but rather reporter Steven J.
Vaughan-Nichols, who is IMO very credible and has a good, long track
record.

2.  However, Vaughan-Nichols is _not_ saying 'Microsoft would do a Linux
distro', just that Microsoft _could_ fix some nagging core technical
problems in MS-Windows that are still painfully present in MS-Windows v.
10 by making the next release be an MS-Windows proprietary layer running
atop a Linux kernel.

That's a reasonable speculation and an interesting idea (and, again, if
it meets their needs, great).  If should be carefully noted that despite
'insiders reporting a limited distribution of a Microsoft Linux kernel',
nobody is going to know about an actual product unless and until there's
an actual product.

Vaughan-Nichols, to give him credit, was clear about that.


> There is speculation of a windows12 with a full Linux kernel powering it.

Minor correction:  Windows 11.

> Rick is going to have the last laugh and it's gonna be a corker!

No.

Dude, I _so_ don't care about Microsoft news, and basically lost
interest in 1993 when I stopped using Windows for Workgroups 3.11 
and never looked back.