Ex-MSFT Employee: Microsoft Should Run Linux

[thearm]

Now THAT would be a great OS. I thought for years they should do this. Since Linux can't ever seem to do it right, Windows and Linux would be a great combination.

 

[bydesign]

@Marcus Yam
This isn't news and you should be fired for this kind crappy tabloid drama masquerading journalism. You add no value what so ever to this site Marcus.

 

[captaincharisma]

looks like someone is drinking the linux cool-aid

 

[datawrecker]

[citation][nom]randomizer[/nom]If Windows is so simple, why is there such a big 3rd-party tech support market for home PCs?[/citation]

Cause most users have no clue how to handle their own PCs.

 

[tester24]

That guy is batshit crazy... However I hear his point and it would be a good side project. A few hundred smaller programs working together vs one large system. They would also have to port Direct X but it would be interesting. Not going to happen in our lifetime though.

 

[captaincharisma]

and in other news a HP employee tells the CEO they should start using Dell PC's

as for the loser saying your not an IT expert when using windows. all your learning is a different set of commands so basically yes anyone can be an IT expert if there willing to learn.windows just adds a mouse with the keyboard commands.

 

[tester24]

(Sarcasm) And I love that people think they are clever by marking all there "S"s with $ when refering about Microsoft.



We get it, you don't like Microsoft because they are the top selling OS software maker. And because they apparently can't put out the "premium" products you get with a linux environment.

(/Sarcasm)

 

[datawrecker]

[citation][nom]xccess[/nom]oh please give me break, everyone said Linux will take over MS 10 years ago, what happen ? Linux is good free for the nerd/technical people, not for average Joe. MS had come a long way from MS-DOS to current Windows 7. Last 15 years working as Unix administrator/Engineer. I had try Linux so many time and it fail me each time, just so many simple application like iTune, or game simply don't run under Linux, and the WINE is joke. One OS can't fit all the need for the people. each OS can do different thing depend on the person need.[/citation]

Why on earth would you WANT to use iTunes anyway? Did you get suckered into an iProduct? . I rarely have had issues getting WINE to do what I want. Plenty of games work on Linux with minimal intervention. WoW, Warhammer Online, Crysis, CoD4. The list goes on and on, and grows larger everyday.

 

[bk420]

Thank god for Linux. I don't like using Micro$oft junk because it always gives me a bigger headache than pleasure. Linux dominates Microsoft in security and customization.

If it weren't for Micro$oft's retarded monopoly people would have more choices for business applications and software.

Hopefully Google Chrome will shed some light to the windblow$ virus laden world.

 

[djtrailmixxx]

Sweet Christ!!!! Another Lin v Win fest. Well, heres my piece. Its more about open source, on any platform. With windows centric developed apps, you can pretty much fire and forget to get the stuff running. The other day, I began to install a myriad collection of open source components to set up an OpenEMM server. Every component, python, JDK, MySQL HAD to be very specific. This is because in order for OSS stuff to remain slim and efficient, they remove legacy stuff and replace it with new if similar stuff which breaks other stuff...... And thats why OSS is not gaining any ground on the desktop and never will like that.

 

[deck]

Everyone one on here talking about "ease of use" have no clue. Is Android difficult to use? Is OSX difficult to use?

The guy is not advocating Microsoft ditch windows and adopt a Slackware like linux distro. He is suggesting that Microsoft should build their own desktop on top of the linux kernel, similar to what Apple and Google are doing.

Microsoft could easily develop a desktop on top of the nix kernel which is as easy to use as windows.

I think most people commenting in this thread really have no idea what they are talking about.

Building on top of an open source kernel frees Microsoft from having to maintain their own kernel. They could then focus on developing a Desktop environment; which is all end users ultimately care about anyway.

Apple, and Google in particular are in a much better position moving forward because their mobile OS and their Desktop OS are operating on a very similar kernel.

The fact that my Free linux distro provides a feature set more complete than Windows 7 should tell Microsoft that they are doing something wrong. Given their size, they should be able to deliver an OS that is cutting edge and dominates their competition. Instead they release OSes that are just barely on par with what other companies and open source communities have already developed.

The only reason Microsoft won’t do this is because they are a monolithic company totally engrained in their ways of doing things. They are the 1980s General Motors of the computer industry. The inverse of agile.

Some of you MS fans come off as so insecure. Anything that challenges your paradigm is immediately dismissed.

This mans suggestion is exactly what Microsoft needs to do.

Just for the record, I run linux at home.

 

[tester24]

[citation][nom]etichi[/nom]yeah, Linux is free and 7 costs 200 bucks. free < 200. so who ever is putting $ for s is spot on. Microsoft is bloated like Ballmer, fat F'er.[/citation]

wow congradulations you can do math. Did you have put pop it up on your gnome-calculator? Linux isn't a perfect operating system either, sure it is faster and has the Open source community, but if it was as popular as windows like they would get the same virus's as windows.

Half the stuff on there is mostly fluff anyways, I do like linux for programming but as for as an everyday operating system I can't see it. I like it to just work and not have to play with it everyday.

And all someone has to do is come out with a better business product. With the EU and U.S. Government looking over their shoulder I doubt MS will buy up competing companies.

 

[Euphoria_MK]

@Deck: Good post deck!
Apparently, as per some MS employees" the reason that MS hasn't done this is the cost that will take them to switch the kernel or just disassemble to source code.
They've had so many people working on it over the last 20 years, that they cant even figure it out how to untangle that mess... they'll have to create a new team just for that and is not the smartest thing to do now, since they are truly trying to cut costs and they jsut laid off 800 people.
The good thing is that they know they have a problem, and they are thinking about it...

Cheers

 

[eyemaster]

MS dominate the linux market? You mean the company that owns 80% + of the market needs to change things to capture the tiny 1% of the market that Linux has?

HA ha hahahahaha, good joke mr. Ex MS employee.

 

[Guest]

an obvious idiot who was probably fired....

 

[sailfish]

"Nuts!"

 

[truerock]

As a computer scientist, I have always regarde Windows to be inferior to Unix - not that I don't find Unix to have some issues of its own. I think Windows has problems because of 2 reasons:
1. They got into a situation of promising compatibility with obsolete code when they had their pissing match with IBM in the 1980's.
2. They fend off competition by making the very unfortunate design decision to integrate application code with the operating system code.
I think Microsoft could make as much or maybe even more money with a Linux based Windows as they currently do. In fact, I think they have contengency plans to do so if and when Linux becomes a bigger part of the market - especialy in corporate server applications.

 

[captaincharisma]

More popular = more viruses. this is a hypothesis that can not be proven

..

it does not have to be proven because it is common sense. linux has been out for so long now that it should be easy to make a virus because of all the poor quality open source apps that are made for it most likely put holes in your sacred OS plus not to mention every loser in the world makes there own linux distro so there are more holes that can compromise the linux kernel. . same with Mac OSX very few people use it so why waste time with it?

 

[truerock]

I just opened up kernel32.dll with Microsoft Excel on a locked down corporate PC. Windows is a HORRIBLE operating system. It is dangerous and it is a blight on the IT world. It is bad for us and we need a good operating system to dominate so we can all enjoy the benefits of computing tecnology.

 

[flugelhorn]

yeah, Linux is free and 7 costs 200 bucks. free < 200. so who ever is putting $ for s is spot on. Microsoft is bloated like Ballmer, fat F'er.

Yeah. It is free so they can grab market share, and even being free it still has less than 1% of the desktop world. Says something when people are willing to spend $200 a box over a free OS.

As to all thi$ "$" BS... Lets lambast a corporation for existing to make a profit so they can pay their employees and reward their investors and they can feed their families. I know. It is so terrible that a business exists to make a profit. I think we should all boycott any business who make a profit. In fact, I am going to quit my job today and stop taking their blood money so that I can helm an organization designed to protest any business that is actually in business to make a profit. I will force the world to go Galt!

Morons.

 

[flugelhorn]

its weak, irrelevant and a straw man argument

What? I am not playing on any heart strings. People who think corporations exists to altruistically give people things and ask for no payment in return are morons. Plain and simple.

 

[phexac]

Another marcus article. Move along.

 

[hixbot]

LOL It's the year of the linux desktop? YOLD I think we've heard all this before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Linux#Year_of_Desktop_Linux

 

[rooket]

I'm still amazed that we all have to call GDE/GNOME desktop environments strictly to adhere by the snobbiness of Linux gurus. A shell is a shell is a shell. And yeah I know what is meant by shells in Linux, I've done it in command line before. But a lot of people familiar with Microsoft o/s remmember dosshell or even windows 1.1 where you are in dos and launch the graphical (although by today's standards primitive) shell and use that with keyboard and mouse. Rather than confusing people using Microsoft Windows 3.xx and above into more new terms, generally Linux people know what they mean when they say shell and then start saying "bash is the best shell" it is rather annoying tbh. What is the best shell usually is a question concerning GDE, Gnome, KDE, etc.

As far as I remember these 'desktop environments' can be a pain to use since they do not give you intuitive access to the file system nor the hardware etc. It can be a pain to simply change the desktop resolution and since you are in linux I assume you aren't necessarily suppose to worry about these things.

Has it improved since 2006? I suppose you are correct and maybe I have not used a linux distribution since 2004 or 2005. So I definitely can give you that. But you don't see me running back to it because back between 2000-2005 I heard the same arguments over and over again and when I tried a few different distributions it was always a pain. It is even more cumbersome to install than a Hackintosh o/s on a PC. I'm sticking with Windows 7 thanks. Oh and the argument windows isn't free, since when have I ever had to purchase it? This time mine is legit/authentic and I didn't have to pay a dime for it. I have owned several copies of Windows XP in the past those barely cost me anything either. But yeah i definitely understand that other people buy it.

 

[ossie]

[citation][nom]flugelhorn[/nom]Lets lambast a corporation for existing to make a profit so they can pay their employees and reward their investors and they can feed their families. ... Morons.[/citation]
m$'s care for it's employees, and their families, welfare is overwhelming... or did you mean the shareholders' ones?
micro$uxx' accounts are bursting, but if the profits are lowering a bit, due to different reasons, the first measure is to fire employees en masse.
Really compassionate... greedy moron.