Thursday 17 November 2016

Linux Won!

Linux frags Microsoft

Microsoft is behaving oddly. Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO, said that Linux is cancer. But now, Microsoft shook hands with Linux and Microsoft loves Linux became a hot topic at Microsoft Connect.

Not only Linux, Microsoft has been contributing to the open world significantly these days. Microsoft even has its own Linux distro: Azure Cloud Switch. Are the Microsoft executives on LSD?

Actually, no! The simple answer is that Linux has won. Windows is not even the most popular end user OS; it's Android. Most servers use Linux or one of the BSDs. 498 out of the 500 best supercomputers run Linux, the rest two have their own custom OS which is not even a tad bit like Windows. Even Microsoft uses its own Linux distro for clouds instead of Windows. LINUX HAS WON!

But why Microsoft loves Linux?

 

Microsoft doesn't; it's just pretending to. Now that Linux has taken the world by storms, Microsoft was left with two choices:
  1. Fight with Linux: They had tried this before and the results are self-explanatory.
  2. Shake hands with Linux: This is what they chose. Now that they have shook hands with the GNU world; they are getting support from the open world and they are making decent profits out of it.

Microsoft is a for-profit company; it's got nothing against Linux, as long as it gets what it wants. But the objective of Linux is to completely frag Microsoft. Microsoft tried its best to stop Linux but failed completely. How would have they won, when they were wrong?

What should the Linux committee do?

 

We should welcome Microsoft whole heartily. Linux is an open source software; more the contributors, the better. Of course, Linux doesn't need Microsoft, but Microsoft can make Linux better. For example, most Linux users find that Microsoft's open project, Visual Studio Code, is much better than Atom. I see many golden possibilities if Microsoft helps Linux sincerely (I, like everyone else, believe that it won't), better marketing, better hardware support, better firmware support, more users, etc.

Since Microsoft will never help Linux sincerely (in my honest opinion), no one can say exactly how much Linux will benefit from all this. But one thing is clear, working in the open environment, Microsoft may realize the worth of openness; like IBM did.

Share your thoughts in the comments; whether Linux should accept Microsoft (further) or not.

6 comments:

  1. Microsoft can make Linux better ??? complete, total, utter bullshit. Microsoft is not doing mouses, keyboards or consoles for now reason. MS System will vanish soon.

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    Replies
    1. Agree with you that MS will vanish soon.

      Did you try VSCode by Microsoft, all the Linux users who did seem to like it more than Atom. Microsoft has significant man-force (still less if compared to Linux) and can definitely help Linux.

      Delete
    2. P.S.: Please don't be anon if possible.

      Delete
  2. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish
    Has been Microsoft's game plan since it's founding. Ain't no reason to expect different behavior now.

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    Replies
    1. Not this time Azraelle. The Linux community is aware of the Evil.

      Delete
  3. Indeed and we have been for 20 years or so.

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