During the Microsoft Build 2020 developer conference, Microsoft has raised a number of eyebrows at their Linux plans. We've had a lot, and I do mean a ridiculous amount of people emailing in and messaging across various places about Microsoft. So, to get it out of the way and provide you a place to comment, here we are.
Microsoft put up a developer blog post titled "DirectX ❤ Linux", which is a nice bit of PR bait. In reality, it means nothing for the standard desktop Linux. It's focused entirely on the Windows Subsystem for Linux which Microsoft tightly controls and DirectX itself remains firmly closed source. Not only that, this current implementation relies on pre-compiled user mode binaries that ship as part of Windows itself. Right now it seems to also be focused on CUDA and AI / Machine Learning, however, they also announced Linux GUI applications will eventually be supported on WSL as well.
A Microsoft developer even said on the Linux Kernel mailing list, that there's "no intent" to have people coding for DX12 on Linux. Although another developer also said they "consider the possibility of bringing DX to Linux with no Windows cord attached". That's just words for now though. I wouldn't read much into it.
That's not all, they also announced the Windows Package Manager under an MIT license, which works much like the ones on Linux do in terminal. Better late than never.
Going even further, Microsoft also announced .NET MAUI, an "evolution" of the Xamarin.Forms toolkit which Microsoft said "supports all modern workloads" which once again did not mention Linux anywhere. However, to be properly clear, at least .NET MAUI should work on Linux like Xamarin.Forms but be entirely community supported (as noted on GitHub). Oh and Maui is already used—oops? It's GVFS all over again.
First they embraced Linux doing away with the Ballmer era of "Linux is a cancer", now they're extending a branch saying they were "on the wrong side of history" with open source and now they continue the extending. How long before extinguish phase starts (EEE)? Don't be fooled about Microsoft's stance and their aim here, it's not because they love Linux. They're going where the developers are to continue pulling people to Microsoft services. Nothing more.
If any of it concerns you: I hope you put that energy and effort into continuing your support of the Linux desktop. Help it to grow and prosper. Support your favourite distribution, your favourite application and/or game developer by throwing some money at them.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
DasCapschen May 20, 2020
Quoting: appetrosyanAnd now i’m thinking how much better it would have been if GNU Linux was released under GPLv3. In that case we could sue Microsoft (never name a company after your penis).
Ignoring the penis joke and taking your comment seriously (will I regret it?), how would GPLv3 allow us to sue Microsoft over this?
They are just shipping proprietary libraries and drivers with a linux distribution, which is not something that any GPL forbids, to my knowledge.
The only change from GPLv2 to GPLv3 that comes to mind here is the tivoization ban, but I don't see how that would apply here.
Mohandevir May 20, 2020
If it's a tool developped for Microsoft. it also feels like MS could be laying the ground, block by block, for a DX12, Linux based Windows UI OS... But I'm still highly skeptical about this one. Could it be related to Project XCloud?
I'm just trying to figure out what could be MS' internal use case for WSL. It would explain why they keep pushing it, even if it's not a much requested feature.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 20 May 2020 at 12:29 pm UTC
Quoting: MohandevirIf it's a tool developped for Microsoft. it also feels like MS could be laying the ground, block by block, for a DX12, Linux based Windows UI OS... But I'm still highly skeptical about this one. Could it be related to Project XCloud?
Probably not that, since xCloud runs on modified Xboxes, not normal servers. And WSL is used by quite a bunch of developers who don't want Linux VMs. It's too polished to be a Microsoft-internal tool, this is meant for the mass market and seeing real use out there.
The DX12 thing seems to be mostly about machine-learning and AI at this point.
Mohandevir May 20, 2020
Quoting: psy-qThe DX12 thing seems to be mostly about machine-learning and AI at this point.
Yeah... You are probably right, but not long ago, there was no UI or DX12 support at all, either... WSL is constantly evolving...
I'll post that here... There is a nice paragraph about DX12 outside of Windows that could look, imo, like a PR statement to "test the waters":
Microsoft Wayland Compositor
What is not specified is in what context did Microsoft hold that discussion...
Last edited by Mohandevir on 20 May 2020 at 1:09 pm UTC
Nevertheless May 20, 2020
Quoting: KristianQuoting: NeverthelessNext variation: "I love goose, says the fox." ;-)
and he says it without lying, he just means something very specific by that that the goose would not like! :)
It would be much more credible the other way around... :)
Quoting: LinasAnd here I thought that Microsoft Linux was a joke. Joke's on me, I guess.
With this you could write a Linux program that talks DirectX directly. Which is where it gets weird, because then you get a Linux program which only works when running on Windows. At this point, is it really a Linux program at all?
DX12 is the first layer. What they want is to implement OpenGL, OpenCL, etc. on top of it. IMO is a way to say to GPUs drivers developers: "just focus on the DX12 driver, we take care of everything else". So if they eventually focus on a Vulkan -> DX12 layer and Nvidia and AMD jump into the bandwagon, now you can guess what will happen with the performance of our native drivers...
Last edited by x_wing on 20 May 2020 at 1:55 pm UTC
Quoting: EhvisQuoting: Liam DaweQuoting: EhvisNever say never when it's Microsoft. Changed in some ways, not at all in others ;)QuoteHow long before extinguish phase starts?
Never. Not because they don't want to, but because the importance of Linux as a whole is way bigger that than the worst-of-both-worlds WSL system can ever be. It simply doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
You could argue that trying to pull developers from Linux to stick with Windows, and just use WSL for ML/AI/CUDA is part of an extinguish strategy. It is when you think of it quite literally, as keeping people on WSL where they control it. All depends on your point of view and what we're referencing when we say extinguish.
But the landscape is different. EEE applied to things microsoft could control in some way. The battle fought against Linux was lost long ago and the foothold that Linux has in the total market is way too big for EEE to work. Sure they can do the first E. They can try to do the second E, but it is doomed to fail because it won't find significant adoption. Which means the third one is out of the question.
To me the whole WSL thing is a curiosity. They made a Linux kernel work on Windows in a VM like manner, but what is the point? To have your Linux service go down with a windows update? Making things dependent on two systems instead of one is a guaranteed way to make it less reliable. As a whole WSL actually looks the same as Stadia. Sure, there is a narrow niche that might see an advantage in it and would use it, but it is not objectively better and will therefore be ignored by the big crowds.
its far worse than that.
intel have their own distribution wich is the only one who can take full advantage of their processors in some niche of the market.
IBM has their own distro and you can bet that there are some asic on their processor, or some transistors only acessible by their distro.
and so on, EVERYONE extends linux, that is why no one can extinguish it.
android is linux, but it has its own ecosystem completely independ from the desktop, stadia is linux but it has it own ecosystem that is only acessible via streaming, they are even making games like roblox/mario maker where you create content to be played on it...
my tv runs linux, so what? it has an free kernel with an proprietary UI that i can change, and the system is locked to an app store with a few apps that i can install on it and nothing more.
my router runs linux, and its pretty much the same, a few built-in functionalities and nothing more.
an air-drone runs linux, and they dont even have an official software to control it from an linux device...
where is the freedom on that?
do you see the patern here?
every one use linux either as an single apliance or to as the base to run e applications of their own ecosystem.
everyone creating their own extensions only avaliable on their ecosystem...
in other words:
google is extending linux with android.
microsoft will be extending linux with their own distro.
everyone will be using linux, and we will have some base in common such as libraries to build softwares on top of...
but most of the ecosystem that is what really matter may be exclusive to some apis, services, or system.
BrazilianGamer May 20, 2020
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