this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
305 points (82.5% liked)
Linux
50512 readers
1249 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I remember a podcast I used to listen to a long time ago that argued that MS should just make a fork of the Linux kernel and just make the gui work like Windows. Better security and stability, and huge increase in user base with all the normal Linux users seeing it as viable alternative. I thought it was a brilliant idea. Well except Microsoft would likely have figured a way to kill Linux from the inside.
That is the literal opposite of what the world needs.
Windows isn't a bad OS from a purely technical perspective. If Windows were released as FOSS, I would switch to Windows without hesitation.
The full Microsoft XP source code was leaked and is available for anyone on GitHub; not the same, I know, but it's atleast NT based. I've just always wondered why a community never formed to fork it
Because it's not legal and no one's going to develop software for XP. Someone could make and sell security patches for it, but the type of person who still runs XP either doesn't care enough to buy security patches or it's running some hardware that isn't connected to the internet.
There are exactly two games released in the past few years that have XP support, but that was more a flex on the part of the developer then catering to the market. HROT and Zortch are those games if you're curious.