I think it will become an entirely cloud based OS with a thin client booting the machine straight into their Edge browser. Pay as you go operating system that never leaves their Azure walled garden. Google’s Chromebooks were just ahead of their time. As Spock said: “it’s Linux Jim, but not as we know it”.
There’s a Jon Lajoie song called “Radio Friendly Song”. There’s a moment in that cong where he’s describing the (as of 15 years ago) modern trend of radio friendly songs being the same garbage every song. And the feeling one has thinking that every time a new song is released you would think the general public would eventually reject the same 4 cord note progression in every song. Then, he belts out a line that I wish were isolated, and could becomd a meme onto itself. He’s singing about how you would think the public wojld eventually reject these songs, and follows that up with “BUT YOU WERE WROOOONG!!!”
And I hear that line everytime someone says something blatently wrong, I hear just that line of the song. I wish it were on youtube, isolated so a 3 second soundbyte so I could just post it when I see something like that.
Because readkng you say that Microsoft in 2025 will turn Windows into a Linux distro…
“But you were wrooooong!!!”
Jon lajoie is from my childhood neighborhood. Legend
Wow. That’s a great story. Now show me your genitals, your genitals. Show me your genitals…YOUR GENITALIA!!!
I don’t think they would bother doing that much work at the core of the operating system. They are too busy playing with the UI and cloud integrations they don’t care about the algorithms the kernel runs on and they have a better driver situation currently anyway. I don’t see the route to this.
Dumbest take of 2025, I’m calling it early.
Not “he’s just autistic” or “it was a Bellamy salute?”
I knew Lemmy was Linux centric, but I didn’t realize just how much lmao
Wrong thread?
No, they just said it’s the worst take of 2025. I can think of worse. Lol
Doubt.
Wasn’t there a button in that game where the detective just starts punching? I mean, I’m not saying that would be the appropriate reaponse to this take, but I’m also not NOT saying that would be the appropriate response to this take.
So animals evolve towards being crabs, operating systems evolve towards being linux distros?
Animals evolve towards being crabs? Wait, hold on with the linux stuff. Lets circle back to the core concept of this premise.
…crabs?
Yeah that’s not going to happen.
However, I think Windows will become more and more tied to the Microsoft cloud offerings.
Truly feel the ultimate goal is to make Windows itself a subscription model
Very much this. I can see one potential future Microsoft product being something that is to be installed on a thin client PC sold to consumers for cheap. It will run not much more than a browser in which all apps will load from Microsoft servers, and all storage will be on the Microsoft cloud. And if you miss a monthly payment they’ll basically hold all your files for ransom until you start paying again.
I can practically hear the Microsoft execs making some very unsavoury noises about that idea.
As for (admittedly somewhat weak) proof they’re headed in this direction: Wordpad is a useful small program that would easily fit onto a thin client and there’d be room for documents created by it on the limited storage available. It has to have some storage for browser cache after all.
Wordpad was recently cancelled, and users urged to use Word instead. Which is not free of (further) cost like Wordpad was.
That’s not too far from Windows S edition. That more closely mimics the smartphone model, but still allows the Windows app store.
Wordpad is much more easily explained: They don’t want to maintain it anymore, since that costs money. It was also cannibalizing sales of Word, and often left users frustrated. Frankly, it’s weird that they maintained it as long as they did.
Now, solitaire becoming a subscription, that’s a blatant cash grab.
Windows Chromebook
Edgebook
Windows subsystem for copilot
Windows will become more and more tied to the Microsoft cloud offerings.
imagine spending thousand of dollars on hardware only to have dependencies in NSA data center for your own safety, of course
Mark mine: Microsoft and Windows will be promoted by government and people will lap it up. Linux will be vilified and this will be accepted by the public, at least in the USA.
Eh…I don’t see it.
I think the more common response would be “What’s Linux?”
lmao, if this actually happens, i’m imagining IBM towards windows would be like
“oh, I fancy, meeting you here, you lil bitch”
Well, yeah: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
Nothing to extend/extinguish. UNIX existed first, and has a very different use-case. Linux shares that history.
NT was developed from DEC Alpha, which came well after Unix (so learned some lessons from it). I don’t see it being inferior to Unix/Linux, but different.
Both have strengths and weaknesses.
One area that Linux really beats Windows is the IoT/embedded/low power devices. The NT kernel just has too much built in.
Wsl is the start of that
It can happen if Microsoft decides not to spend money on making a new kernel because they will need one eventually. But a compatibility layer? Why would they not make it exclusive to Windows?
I don’t think it’s guaranteed that Linux will be a viable kernel in a future where NT’s forced to be abandoned unless it’s simply because Microsoft refuses to maintain it. Linux is older than NT, so if age alone killed kernels, it’d die first. I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Linux can be kept viable for a long time, so if Microsoft wanted, they could keep NT viable for a long time.
I heard there were some issues with NT so I assumed it’d die well before Linux (if Linux doesn’t kill itself in the next 2-3 years of course).
The Windows kernel is actually pretty solid. Its is the rest of the system that’s the problem.
Except all the exceptions, like edge having memory read/write right without protection. Or so I have heard.
Source?
Edge is based on Chromium which is arguably one of the more secure pieces of software in existence. If it wasn’t it would be exploited immediately.
Meanwhile Dillo is some hobby project that only has 14 contributors. It lacks the sandboxing provided by bigger browsers and has very few users let alone security testers.
…? Chrome had 10 critical rce vulnerabilities exploited last year alone… who mentioned Dillo?
This is exactly what MS has been doing. They will have a “preview” edition of “new windows” sometime in the next 5 years that is built entirely on GNU/Linux with a port of the windows shell on top.
Honestly I thought they would abandon doing the kernel awhile back and going the apple route of freebsd but it never happened.
