Update: Microsoft admits being wrong on Linux
**Hell is actually freezing over….
Having been in the IT industry for a while, I’ve learned a few things. One of those so-called things is, Microsoft and Linux are different worlds. I mean, every other computer operating system is POSIX based but Windows. In fact, back in the Ballmer days (circa 2001), Linux was deemed a cancer. So obviously, when it was announced that SQL would run on Linux, Windows was getting a Linux subsystem, and Azure runs on Linux it started to make sure sense why the Linux mascot is a penguin. Hell is starting to freeze over.
Microsoft Loves Linux?
What’s more, Microsoft is porting tools over to Linux, which includes MacOS (which is a Linux variant) as well: Office, Visual Studio, and eventually SSMS(?). I’ve watched a number of demos where Microsoft employees are running MacBooks. So you know the Ballmer days are long gone, thankfully. At least we’ll be spared someone jumping around the stage for 10 minutes yelling Developers, Developers, Developers.
Windows-powered by Linux?
The point of this post is, I’ve been thinking a bit about this marvelous change of direction from Microsoft and I have been wondering. Is Microsoft going to switch to a Linux kernel as Apple did back in the day? Are we starting to witness the conversion/migration of Windows to a more POSIX type of operating system? In 5-10 years, are we going to wake up to an announcement that the next version of Windows for the desktop and server is Linux/POSIX driven?
I mean seriously, think about that for a minute. It wouldn’t take much more for that to happen, would it? Microsoft has done the heavy lifting with Azure and SQL. It has the experience now porting applications. If Azure is running on Linux, then they have had to solve issues moving Exchange to it right, after all….Office 365 runs on Azure. With PCs in decline, tablets, and smartphones taking over with Cloud backends, businesses are not going to continue to invest heavily in desktops except for maybe IT departments. So that’s a major loss of revenue for Microsoft. That’s also an incentive for software vendors to move into the cloud like we’re seeing now.
Definitely not something I was expecting to see in my lifetime. I guess we’re just going to have to wait and see.