Ubuntu on Windows

Posted Mar 31, 2016 10:40 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: Ubuntu on Windows by Zizzle
Parent article: Ubuntu on Windows

Microsoft understands that problem very well, I think. That's why there's no support for GUI (and I'm pretty sure there are no such plans, either). Just how many important popular Windows non-GUI tools you really know?

Ubuntu on Windows

Posted Mar 31, 2016 11:38 UTC (Thu) by dufkaf (guest, #10358) [Link] (6 responses)

umm, you can install Xming http://www.straightrunning.com/xmingnotes/ (or Cygwin/X http://x.cygwin.com) and X apps should work

Ubuntu on Windows

Posted Mar 31, 2016 13:01 UTC (Thu) by jengelh (guest, #33263) [Link]

And then run a x11-backend weston, providing Wayland on Windows...... oooh the circle closes! :-D

Ubuntu on Windows

Posted Mar 31, 2016 13:26 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] (4 responses)

Sure, but would it work good enough to make development of "native" Windows app superfluous? I seriously doubt it.

Microsoft's goal is not to make it impossible to run Linux apps on Windows (heck, you can do that today with many virtual environments), but to make it unfeasible.

Ubuntu on Windows

Posted Mar 31, 2016 21:37 UTC (Thu) by clump (subscriber, #27801) [Link] (3 responses)

Microsoft's goal is not to make it impossible to run Linux apps on Windows (heck, you can do that today with many virtual environments), but to make it unfeasible.

Absolutely not. Microsoft's strategy is Azure, where revenue is based on consumption, not on preferred operating systems. Given that so much of "the cloud" is Linux/open source, Microsoft has a bit of an ecosystem issue.

Ubuntu on Windows

Posted Apr 1, 2016 17:56 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] (2 responses)

Microsoft still makes lots of money on desktop and it does not look like there are any threat of them losing the desktop (except they would do something totally stupid).

I'm not really sure if Azure even supports GUI Linux applications, but even if so these are so tiny that revenue from them does not matter - but they could threaten desktop.

Thus they need to make sure server apps are well-supported and run well, while desktop apps don't work well. I doubt they would spend too much time crippling them, though: this would happen automatically as a consequence of doing nothing.

Ubuntu on Windows

Posted Apr 1, 2016 19:51 UTC (Fri) by clump (subscriber, #27801) [Link] (1 responses)

Microsoft still makes lots of money on desktop and it does not look like there are any threat of them losing the desktop (except they would do something totally stupid).

No disagreement.

Thus they need to make sure server apps are well-supported and run well, while desktop apps don't work well. I doubt they would spend too much time crippling them, though: this would happen automatically as a consequence of doing nothing.

This doesn't make sense. As you've said, Linux isn't a threat to Microsoft on the desktop. "Cloud" is a different market, a growing market, unlike the desktop market. Microsoft doesn't care at all whether you're using Linux or not in Azure because their revenue is based on consumption.

The desktop is in retreat and Microsoft is betting heavily on the cloud, where they don't care what you're running so long as you're there.

Ubuntu on Windows

Posted Apr 1, 2016 22:25 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

As you've said, Linux isn't a threat to Microsoft on the desktop.

Except they would do something totally stupid: supporting Linux GUI would be "totally stupid". MacOS was also "not a threat". Then Microsoft saved Apple - and Apple ditched Microsoft what it become possible to do. Microsoft wouldn't repeat the same mistake twice, would it?

"Cloud" is a different market, a growing market, unlike the desktop market.

It may be different market, but it still uses the same OSes: Windows and GNU/Linux.

The desktop is in retreat and Microsoft is betting heavily on the cloud, where they don't care what you're running so long as you're there.

Right - as long as are in the cloud Microsoft does not care. But who in their right mind would use Mir or Wayland in the cloud? Yes, some people may try to use it - but why? To bring their apps to desktop, of course!

In the end there are very small upside from supporting of Linux GUI and desktop environments (if any) - and very large downside. Just why would Microsoft do that?