Ubuntu on Windows

How in God's green earth did Canonical think helping Microsoft with this was a good idea for the Linux community?

-It solidifies Bash as the dev. shell of choice

-It facilitates app cross comparability

-For Canonical, it reinforces the idea that Ubuntu == Linux, which is really good for their bottom line

-I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft forked over a solid amount of cash

It helps push Windows developers to use Ubuntu on Azure.

From the Scott Hanselman link posted elsewhere in this comment thread:

> Note that this isn't about Linux Servers or Server workloads. This is a developer-focused release that removes a major barrier for developers who want or need to use Linux tools as part of their workflow.

It helps Canonical deploy Linux on the server in places that refuse to run Linux on the desktop, since Microsoft has said they're not interested in replacing Linux on the server with lxss on the server. This is absolutely good for certain subsets of the "Linux community" with certain motivations and ideologies. (And awful for others, of course.)

I think Canonical thought helping Microsoft was good for Canonical, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

How is it a bad idea? It's a step to making Linux a more viable platform for software to target and makes life easier for a subset of application developers who already target Linux. I'm sure there will be a few people who would otherwise switch to Linux entirely and may not now, but I would expect this to do more good than harm to Linux.

Basically, Ubuntu steam rolls the other distributions in terms of reach. My guess, looking at previous Visual C++ posts about a gdb extension [0], and them asking about CMake projects [1], is that Visual C++ will support seamless building, and debugging of Linux programs. This then makes it super easy for developers to develop an Ubuntu binary.

Having a large number of people developing on Ubuntu, may increase the demand for Ubuntu Server (with support where the real money is). I really only see an upside for Canonical.

0. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2015/11/18/announcin...

1. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2016/02/29/developin...

I hear you they think its a good thing everyone i know says now no need to stay on linux i'm switching to windows 10 at least my colleages are doing so now

As a dev, I don't use the screwed up bash on any system I work on. It just doesn't work.

> -For Canonical, it reinforces the idea that Ubuntu == Linux, which is really good for their bottom line

And Microsoft manages to undermine RedHat at the same time. Win-Win for them, why the Linux community should be excited about it, I don't know.