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This is one of the more sane comments on this thread. There is a lot of paranoia about MS wanting to somehow "corrupt" Linux because some web developers are having IE6 flashbacks. Sure if it was still 1999 I'd be scared of that, but now Microsoft's biggest growth business is Azure, so this move is largely about supporting Azure usage, not about creating a weird Linux Windows hybrid to lock developers out of proper Linux distros. The rest all comes from MS being developer friendly, which has always been a part of their culture on the tools side

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That's a poor portrayal of EEE. Of course this move is largely about supporting Azure usage, it just supports Azure usage by locking developers out of proper Linux distros.

When you use the proprietary DirectX extension in WSL, you're not developing for Linux anymore, you're developing for WSL, a proprietary package. And now that you're reliant on DirectX/WSL/Windows, what cloud provider are you going to pick? You see, the Azure Advantage (TM) is that only Microsoft knows how to run DirectX on Linux effectively, because only Microsoft can inspect and modify the code. The Azure Advantage (TM) is that only Microsoft has the proprietary rights for Windows, so Microsoft can charge their competitors anything they want while offering it on Azure at a (relatively) affordable price.

If you buy the theory that Microsoft now loves opensource and Linux, I want to ask you why they don't provide full support for things like 'Wine'. May be even develop something like that themselves, that will allow people run Windows programs flawlessly on Linux. (I mean, if they only mostly care about Azure)

Also, they have acquired Github, and they are slowly pushing towards the entire development/discussion to be moved to Github (In the guise of making it easier for people to contribute to Linux), from the current method of using the Emails for discussions and submitting patches.

When you consider everything, and don't just go by localized observations, you might get a better picture of the old EEE in the new bottle.

Supporting Wine would cost Microsoft money and not make them much/any money, why would they do that?

On the other hand, supporting VS Code, Terminal, WSL2 makes them money by helping boost their cloud services, so it makes sense to spend money in those areas.

That doesn't feel nefarious to me, just business.

Not to mention the uptake of proper linux desk top distro's is a rounding error in the big scheme of things. They need to worry more about Apple and Google. And Apple has done more to EEE Linux than Microsoft is going to do.

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