I am aware of the Linux subsystem and projects like Linspire and ReactOS that attempt to either better compatibility between the two OSs or replicate the other but I was wondering if Microsoft were to open source the entirety of Windows what the ramifications on the Linux community would be.
Would WINE and Proton’s development rapidly accelerate? Would they be necessary?
Would Windows tools like their file explorer become dominant over others in the Linux space?
Would things like NTFS be installed by default in most distros? exFAT also seemed to be (or was) in a weird legal position.
Do you think a lot of people and businesses would jump on a chimera distro that was half and half?
Bit of a weird question I know but I wouldn’t even know how to word it for a web search. I could also be missing a lot due to my knowledge level on licenses and compatibility projects.
It doesn’t have to be Linux specific either. If you wanted to mention how it would affect BSD or other OSs I’d be interested to hear about that as well.
Maybe, it would also depend on the license used. “opensource” doesn’t necessarily mean GPL, so even if MS opensourced Windows, the license could prohibit the code from being used in Wine or other L/GPL’d projects.
And yes, Wine would still be necessary for people who use Linux mainly not because it’s “free”, but because of its architecture and ecosystem, and would like to retain compatibility with Windows applications.
Unlikely. File Explorer sucks, and so do most of tools built into Windows. Which is one of the reason why there are so many third-party utilities in the Windows world (like xplorer2, Notepad++, Paint .NET etc). The Task Manager is decent now I guess, but we already have a few clones that does the job. PowerShell is also decent, but it’s already opensourced and cross-platform. Can’t really think of any other built-in Windows tool that’s better than Linux alternatives.
It already is. The Linux kernel now includes the NTFS3 driver (developed by Paragon) and it does a pretty good job. exFAT also no longer has legal issues since 2019 and is also part of the kernel.
Probably not. The biggest roadblock to Linux getting mass adoption is the lack of a big hardware backer. Most people don’t mess around with operating systems, they just use whatever OS is preloaded on their device, and it has very little to do with compatibility. Look how gimped Chromebooks are, yet people still buy them, and that’s because you could just walk into a Best Buy or whatever and pick it up from the shelves. You can’t do that with mainstream Linux distros. Companies like System76 are on the right track, but they’re still far, far away from mass-market reach. It would take someone big like Google to package Linux nicely into shiny hardware, partner up with retailers and hardware makers, and market the hell out of it.