[speeder]

I came from the gamedev side of things.

In there Microsoft now is perfectly still the 90s Microsoft.

From my point of view, the Linux on Win10 is a strategic move to incentive people use Windows as their sole desktop (since with this move many people won't have any reason whatsoever to use Linux at all).

I tried to convince lots of people on the Linux community that they need to react... of course, not blocking Microsoft (that would be silly, and unfree), but by fixing stuff that people wants fixed for years: Audio, driver support in general, ease of use, not having to edit text config files, and so on...

But instead I got EXTREMELY negative reactions, some people even told me they are against AMDGPU driver efforts because it would make Linux more accessible to stupid people that will need help.

[ocdtrekkie]

This is, honestly, why Microsoft doesn't need to "incentivize" using Windows as their sole desktop: The reasons are already there: People have wanted things fixed for years like audio, driver support in general, ease of use, not having to edit text config files, and so on...

Linux isn't really much of a threat to Windows because Linux hasn't even really tried to successfully reach consumer product quality. Linux developers need to focus on this.

[pjc50]

What do you think of the Steam work on this?

IMO they're doing it as a means of keeping their options open against the day when Microsoft decides not to allow a third-party app store on Windows and cuts off their air supply.

[ocdtrekkie]

That's definitely why they're doing it, and it's a good idea for a business to hedge it's bets this way. (Zynga would be sunk if Facebook ever blocked them, being dependent on one platform is a huge risk.)

But the likelihood that Microsoft would ever fully disallow third party install on Windows is nonexistent.

[sinxoveretothex]

> But the likelihood that Microsoft would ever fully disallow third party install on Windows is nonexistent.

Unless you can predict the future for as long as Microsoft exists, you can't say that.

I'm pretty sure that before the iPhone there were people saying Nokia was too big to fail, same for IBM before Windows probably.

I'm still on the fence about car companies. I sure have heard people very convincingly say that oil is a risk-free investment, that there never will be a time when oil isn't needed anymore. I have good reasons to disagree with that today.

Then again, Nokia still exists today, so I suppose a pedant could get technical about oil still filling a much diminished market in the future.

[ryao]

Having configuration files provides a superior experience to the Windows registry.