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Ubuntu on Windows

(blog.dustinkirkland.com)
2049 points bpierre | 4 comments | 30 Mar 16 16:35 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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takeda ◴[30 Mar 16 19:39 UTC] No.11392296[source]▶
Surprised I don't see anyone else mentioning this.

This looks to me like typical Microsoft strategy that they utilized a lot 25 years ago.

1. when not leader in given market, make your product fully compatible with competitor

2. start gaining momentum (e.g. why should I use Linux, when on Windows I can run both Linux and Windows applications)

3. once becoming leader break up compatibility

4. rinse and repeat

Happened with MS-DOS, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, and others.

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partiallypro ◴[30 Mar 16 21:19 UTC] No.11393099[source]▶
Microsoft is not the same company it was 25 years ago, much less 3 years ago. Microsoft cares about Azure now, and Azure requires GNU/Linux. It just makes sense for Microsoft to do this, and I for one am pretty excited about it.
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1. SXX ◴[30 Mar 16 23:34 UTC] No.11393848[source]▶
Once Microsoft stop charge users of Linux-based products for their patents or at least stop doing that shady way under NDA I'll believe it's not the same company.

So far they get better in communication with open source community, but their business practices are all the same and Windows 10 only prove it.

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2. ed_blackburn ◴[31 Mar 16 07:47 UTC] No.11395609[source]▶
I'm curious how many people actually factor this into any due diligence for selecting technology for a project? How much weight do you give it? If I were to advise against using Azure, Windows, .NET because of patents charges for some Linux products I'm not sure my colleagues or clients would take me seriously. Yes, there are lots of reasons why you may not select MS tech, but patents seems a personal, political reason , which would be difficult to justify if you're trying to project it onto other people / organisations.
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3. fulafel ◴[31 Mar 16 08:23 UTC] No.11395734[source]▶
An approximately shared set of values and/or (business-relevant) political aims is a great advantage in working together.
4. unscaled ◴[01 Apr 16 00:46 UTC] No.11401766[source]▶
This is definitely bad behavior from Microsoft that amounts to patent trolling, but that's still way better than the old Microsoft was. They weren't the only ones though, as any of the fancy patent lawsuit maps of the smartphone patent wars would show you.

Apple was notorious for suing Samsung of using the patented shape of a rectangle and while this was a misrepresentation of the way design patents work, most the patents they've used in their lawsuits were frivolous as well.