There is only one reason why Microsoft Windows is the dominating OS on PC | Hacker News Reader

There is only one reason why Microsoft Windows is the dominating OS on PC

unixdigest.com

> Another reason, and this is something that most people born after about the year 2000 and later don't know, is that Microsoft worked really hard and with a very hostile attitude against the distribution of Linux.

Moreover, if you inform them about this, they treat you like a crazy old man shaking his fist at the clouds. Like, don't you know Microsoft contributes to the kernel and runs Github for the benefit of personkind?

The author is delusional.

Linux kernel hardware support was garbage in the 90s. Linux UX was garbage in the 90s (not much has changed).

Yeah, I remember how TUIs were the “friendly” way to install distros. Or configuring X11 for my specific CRT and video card…

Sure, Microsoft did illegal things to keep competing OSes off of OEM desktops, but Linux was never a contender in the 90s.

Note how the author blames the user for any and all faults with Linux. That’s poor form.

Plus he forgot IBM OS/2 and how Microsoft stabbed them in the back. Look up the DOJ investigation of Microsoft to see the violations. Microsoft used to bundle Windows with Office for OEMs and force Internet Explorer to be the default web browser. Microsoft stopped offering free Office OEM licenses and now installs a trial of Office and the user has to pay for a key to Office or a Microsoft 365 subscription. You didn't get that nonsense in IBM OS/2 or GNU/Linux.

They sabotaged Linux, not because it was already an alternative, but because it had a strong potential to drive them out of the market.

Expand on that thought, in terms of Linux for the contemporary desktop of the era.

90s was a long decade. In 1990, Linux didn't exist.

Between around 1993 and 1999, there were huge improvements on all fronts.

You can't really generalize about 90s Linux.

I'm speaking from 1997-1999. TUI was still the way to install Slack/RH. X11 manual conf editing was still the way to configure X.

HW support was still garbage.

All sorts of hardware worked. Video cards, storage controllers, hard drives, CD-ROM drives, network cards, sound cards, keyboards, mice, ...

People had good experiences,l running Linux. What's true is that you could not just shop for hardware, especially new model hardware without first checking that it would work.

All the HW support was done by reverse-engineering volunteer coders.

Garbage is not really a word that fits.

> What's true is that you could not just shop for hardware, especially new model hardware without first checking that it would work.

And yes, while video cards certainly did work, often they were restricted to non-accelerated modes. Hence, "hardware support was garbage".

If we're gate keeping because the drivers were developed by volunteers, please keep me out of the gate.

You speak as if I have zero experience of Linux back in the dark ages. Please don't do that. I was there. I configured these things. It was not "easy" relative to other contemporary operating systems. And I enjoyed it!

Truth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#Microsoft_com...

MS was brutal.

I moved over to Linux completely in 2015-2016. Happy as can be. Microsoft contributes only because they benefit because of WSL. I'm pro Linux. Pro linux desktop, and hope the next generations of people get to love and enjoy Linux as much as I've learned to love it and tinkering with things.

Linux is 33 years old. It's just now becoming acceptable and distros are making deals with hardware vendors to mainstream their Linux products out there, so if you're moving over or are older and never kind of got in on it, no fuss, no worries. Drivers are becoming more supported for Linux by default now, and 'compiling things' to make things work while are still there, aren't as much of a pain/common as you'd think.

Having complete control over your system, while many may not care or know why it is that it matters, trust me; it does, and as you become more of a power user with computers you'll learn to see that. No lock ins, no licenses, no app stores, no cloud sign ins.

It'll get better.

Hell there's only really one BSD Desktop out there as far as I can see: https://ghostbsd.org/

It's ok, Linux desktop will prevail. Absolutely confident in that assessment.

Hollow Domination these days. A parasite eating the host.

A large chunk of the profits from American Corporate Wonderland are not due to their offerings on Security, Quality, Service or Product, but through playing market capture/cross border financial engineering games.

Learning takes time.

And most people take time learning how to build things they need themselves. After which they realize they don't need to pay Microsoft rent. This is what any half decent hacker learns with time too. And now we see it happening in China, India etc.

As we see them getting less dependent and offering the same services back to the West at much cheaper prices, what happens at Microsoft is obvious, because this story has played out many times in American Corporate Wonderland -

https://www.geekwire.com/2024/microsoft-lays-off-employees-i...

> Last year, companies laid off more than 260,000 employees

Just brought Tactical Breach Wizards.

Ohh boy, as an offline Unity game that's Steam Deck Certified it should just run on my EndeavorOS install.

Gosh it doesn't!

Well, at least Linux works on my laptop. Just have to upgrade to Linux RC to stop constant crashing.

Normal people will never widely adopt Linux. I'm optimistic within a few months the kernel will be updated and Linux stable will work correctly, but I respect other people have different priorities.

I make music and need a giant SSD. Since I don't want to pay 3k for a 4TB MacBook, Windows it is. The software I use for music (Maschine) only supports Windows and OSX.

Dual boot is the way to go for most advanced users.

When I want to actually get stuff done, Linux is vastly superior. When I want to play games, or piano, it's Windows

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