Microsoft's New Core OS Team Learning from Linux

sokk writes "Seems like Microsoft is paying attention to the Linux way of doing things. According to itworld.com, a new central engineering division will work on the core of Windows: "The Windows Core Operating System Division (COSD), within the company's Platforms Group, will be responsible for the core OS platform, including development, program management and testing, Microsoft said in a statement sent via e-mail.". A little further down the page analyst Rob Enderle: "They have been studying Linux extensively. Part of their study has been on how Linux has been able to maintain a high level of consistency in the kernel while groups around it maintain maximum flexibility,". "

Ummmmmm

[phunhippy]

YAY?

Re:Of course they're learning from Linux

[boomer_rehfield]

If that was the case then they would have already learned from their own.

Better watch that innovation

[Craig Maloney]

Microsoft better watch out! That GPL software might corrupt their innovation!

Re:More Power To Them

[Duncan3]

Nah, Linux developers have cut out the middleman and are copying Apple directly now :)

steve jobs

[Lord_Dweomer]

Sssshhhhhhh, nobody tell Steve Jobs, he might get jealous that M$ is stealing someone elses R&D!

Heh

[CormacJ]

First they ignore us
Then they despise us
Then they ridicule us
Then they become us...

Oh, now I get it.

[Our Man In Redmond]

Linux is anti-American, unconstitutional, hippie-dippie, probably communistic, causes cancer in laboratory animals . . .

and now Microsoft wants to be more like Linux. Got it.

Re:This really is not news

[cscx]

I'd say. Wait till Bill Gates dumps his haircut and grows a full-out Santa Claus beard in the style of Jon 'maddog' Hall.

Re:Better watch that innovation

[niko9]

I thought the GPL gave you cancer? Have I been on prophylactic chemotherapy for naught?

Obligatory...

[karlandtanya]

So, when does SCO sue them?

Ignore parent post

[Anonymous Coward]

Never trust anyone who can't spell "lose".

Rob Enderle wrote Linux User = Terrorist essay

[sdcharle]

aka 'Priests, Pros and Zealots', one of the most poorly constructed arguments I've ever seen get published to the web, and that's saying something. That one was also a Slashdot story some weeks ago. His logic was at the level of 'she weighs the same as a duck, so she's made of wood, and therefore a witch. Burn her!'.

Rob Enderle=Quote Mill, and it's just not worth it to pay any attention to him whatsoever. It just feeds his twisted 'Linux users are persecuting me!' fantasies. There are plenty of people who dislike Linux AND have technical knowledge and ability to write, unlike Enderle. Attention is better spent on them; at least we can learn something from them.

Re:Ignore parent post

[rifter]

Never trust anyone who can't spell "lose".

In this case perhaps a Freudian slip? What Microsoft loses in this case is control, when they have to loose their source code. :)

After years of studying Linux....

[zanderredux]

...Microsoft researchers found out that they couldn't keep Windows stable, even after the last major rewrite, which modularized the Windows' kernel, implemented fully-compliant POSIX and is known to be compiled with GCC.

"It seems that GPL must be in place to bring stability to the thing", said one of the core group leaders.

It is puzzling since the exact same version of Windows was setup and only the GPL-labeled boxes were able to keep an extended uptime. The same core group leader said "It is extremely odd. We suspect that the GPL has some magical attributes to it, making everything under those three letters run better. See, we've made a test and enabled users to select the licensing scheme, whether to follow our usual EULAs or GPL. After the selection, the software was installed as usual, with no differences whatsoever, since we did not let users customize the install after the license selection. We found out that installations made when the user clicked on the EULA option tended to be more susceptible to hangups than installs made under the GPL".

hmmm...

[LordNor]

Does anyone find it funny that COSD is really close to BSOD? There has to be some relationship there...

Re:More Power To Them

[CrosseyedPainless]

So, how did the Linux developers get the Windows SMP code? Or are you saying that any functional SMP implementation comes from Windows?

Wait... isn't SMP what SCO is freaking about?! Now I get it! You're in the wrong thread! This is a Microsoft astroturfing thread, not an SCO astroturfing thread. Wait a few minutes, and you'll have an SCO thread to work with, okay?

Re:Ms

[revividus]

Maybe someday we can all work together and learn from each other

Can't we all just... get along?

Re:Not new

[sgtrock]

Embrace and extend.

It has come to mean good things (not trying to reinvent the wheel, but building a car around it), and bad things (trying to force down the use of the de facto microsoft-owned standards incompatible with de jure ones), but it's the key idea in Microsoft's business decisions.

You forgot to complete the original phrase:

"Embrace, extend, and extinguish" :)

Re:Just an organizational change?

[rowanxmas]

I would say that "/" is the middle name of GNU/Linux.

Uh oh....

[beefneck9]

I wonder if SCO will now claim that the open source movement aspect of Linux is their IP, keeping M$ from from using its development model. License fees for all! Down with free thinking and the common good!

Re:Ms

[rsax]

... more power to Microsoft.

Bill Gates: Thanks but I have all the power I can currently handle. Nice offer though.

linux?

[negacao]

People still use Linux?

That's soooo 2000's...

In the future, we use GNU/SCO Unixware.

Re:What MS really needs to study: Free Markets

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's some more for you:

Linuxland uber alles!

All power to the people!

The only thing you have to lose is your intellectual property chians!

Copyright is the opiate of the masses!

Re:More Power To Them

[myrdred]

But isn't FreeBSD dead? By inference then, FreeBSD->Apple so Apple must be dead also, nothing new here. Further inference shows Apple->Windows and Apple->Linux. This concludes that Windows and Linux are also dead. Blame FreeBSD.

Well it's good to see the open source...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

...community giving back after it has learned by copying software (Office clones, desktops and window managers, file explorers et.c. et.c.) from Microsoft and Apple.

Re:What MS really needs to study: Free Markets

[Anonymous Coward]

If only Microsoft had you in charge, instead of the worlds richest man. Where did it all go wrong for them?

Re:This really is not news

[Snebjorn]

Or the new Unix guru Saddam...

How MS bugs are born...

[DroopyStonx]

"Studying" Linux, hehe.

Developer 1: "Ah.. so this is how they do it in this section..." *copies and pastes code and gives it a quick test* "That should do it. Next section!"

Re:This really is not news

[e2d2]

Bill Gates has a 'haircut'? Looks more like a flowbee session gone awry.

"YEAH IT CERTAINLY DOES SUCK BOB!"

Re:Ooo Ooo Ooo! I have an idea!

[Afrosheen]

You speak of this boss in the past tense, which begs the question....

Just how many stuffed frogs did you collect?

Re:now wait...

[NickFitz]

At the VERY least, it would be interesting if they open sourced all legacy OS's, like Win3.1 - Win98

They can't, they're still using that code :-)

Re:More Power To Them

[JDWTopGuy]

How the F do you "steal" open source code?

By paying for it?

MS doublespeak

[UnknowingFool]

By closely controlling the OS core, Microsoft will be able to better ensure that Longhorn will arrive on time and meet its quality and security objectives, Enderle said.

So, are you saying that MS is not doing that currently? Aha! Finally, they admit it.

[sarcasm]
Reeeeeeeally? So when is Longhorn due?
2003 you say.
Now you say 2004.
2005?
2006?!
So how's that Trustworthy Computing thing working?
Never mind.
[/sarcasm]