[0cf8612b2e1e]

Unless Microsoft has an Activision-sized amount of cash burning a hole in its pocket, that feels unlikely. Seems far easier/likelier to make a Microsoft branded Debian than to go all-in-on Ubuntu. Maybe I could take the aqui-hire angle, but how many Ubuntu devs would want to stay with Microsoft?

[midoridensha]

>Maybe I could take the aqui-hire angle, but how many Ubuntu devs would want to stay with Microsoft?

Probably far more devs than they'd get trying to make their own MS-branded Debian from scratch. Even if a bunch of them left after a while, they'd have competent, experienced people working for them for that time, instead of trying to staff up from zero and having a lot time where there aren't enough people to really get much done, and during that time they can hire new people who aren't going to quit just because it's MS.

[hotpotamus]

I'm not hip to all the big names in open source development, but I know Lennart Pottering and Guido van Rossum both ended up at Microsoft, so they might be able keep a few other engineers around.

[pjmlp]

Add a couple from Java side as well, after all the drama, Microsoft is now an OpenJDK contributor and has their own distribution, after acquiring jClarity.

And a couple from Rust side, after the Mozilla layoffs.

And a couple of ISO C++ members.

And their own Azure Linux distribution went out of preview at BUILD 2023.

[the_common_man]

What is Lennart doing at Microsoft?

[pizzapill]

AFAIK WSL

[ta8903]

Jesus. Is that why my work laptop keeps crashing every 3-4 days?

[cassepipe]

No, that would be just Windows doing its thing /s

[lproven]

More specifically, getting systemd to work on WSL2, but he still has the same collection of projects, including UKI and so on.

[totallywrong]

> Unless Microsoft has an Activision-sized amount of cash burning a hole in its pocket

What? You greatly overestimate Canonical. Buying it would be a rounding error in Microsoft's balance sheet.

[ewoodrich]

The parent comment stated the 40 billion figure (joking or not).

[0cf8612b2e1e]

It feels like once M&A has decided to buy a company, that money is going to be spent. If Microsoft is prevented from purchasing Activision, I expect a foolishly profligate spending spree to follow.