Windows to become emulation layer atop Linux kernel, predicts Eric Raymond

[steven36]

Happening in plain sight with Proton, WSL and Edge-for-Linux, says open source advocate

 

 

 

Open-source software advocate Eric S Raymond has penned an argument that the triumph of Linux on the desktop is imminent because Microsoft will soon tire of Windows.

 

Raymond's argument, posted to his blog late last week, kicked off with some frank admiration for Windows Subsystem For Linux, the tech that lets Linux binaries run under Windows. He noted that Microsoft is making kernel contributions just to improve WSL.

 

Raymond is also an admirer of software called "Proton", an emulation layer that allows Windows games distributed by Steam to run under Linux.

 

Raymond rated Proton as "not perfect yet, but it's getting close".

His next item of note was Microsoft's imminent release of its Edge browser for Linux.

 

That collection of ingredients, he argued, will collide with the fact that Azure is now Microsoft's cash cow while the declining PC market means that over time Microsoft will be less inclined to invest in Windows 10.

 

"Looked at from the point of view of cold-blooded profit maximization, this means continuing Windows development is a thing Microsoft would prefer not to be doing," he wrote. "Instead, they'd do better putting more capital investment into Azure – which is widely rumored to be running more Linux instances than Windows these days."

 

Raymond next imagined he was a Microsoft strategist seeking maximum future profits and came to the following conclusion:

 

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.

 

Over time, Raymond reckoned, Windows emulation would only be present to handle "games and other legacy third-party software". And eventually Microsoft will get so focused on Azure, and so uninterested in spending money on Windows, that it will ditch even the Windows emulation layer.

 

"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."

 

The end.

 

Source

[steven36]

Already Microsoft is working on a emulation layer for system 32 apps in Windows 10x for  laptops .

 

Microsoft will bring its new Windows 10X to single-screen devices first  The future of Windows is starting with traditional designs.

https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-will-bring-its-new-windows-10x-to-single-screen-devices-first/

 

"With Windows 10X, we designed for flexibility, and that flexibility has enabled us to pivot our focus toward single-screen Windows 10X devices that leverage the power of the cloud to help our customers work, learn and play in new ways," Panay wrote in the post. "These single-screen devices will be the first expression of Windows 10X that we deliver to our customers, and we will continue to look for the right moment, in conjunction with our OEM partners, to bring dual-screen devices to market."

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2020/05/04/accelerating-innovation-in-windows-10-to-meet-customers-where-they-are/

 

The way Windows 10X is made it runs the emulation layer for system 32 apps  on top of uwp  So there already investing in it  but its yet to be seen they put this on top of a Linux Kernel . But anything is possible with these dudes . Who ever thought that M$ would say they love Linux  when SB  called it a cancer . Also many people report they seen M$ employees using MacBooks  when meeting with them that would never been allowed in the SB ,BG  , days.

 

 

That will be next year to much been going on this year  with coronavirus  to put out Windows 10X were  apps run in containers  like we have on Linux  with Snaped and Flatpac  everybody and there brother are porting Linux apps to these  because there safer and  sandboxed away from the rest of the system.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-dont-expect-any-windows-10x-devices-this-calendar-year/