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.
It would be a signal that MS is throwing in the towel as far as Windows as a separate OS. However, I suspect they already have some kind of Windows compatibility layer of their own that they’ve been working on. It would probably have some sort of limited source availability, as opposed to a full open source FOSS licence. If that is the case, it could actually undermine WINE. If MS could save face somehow and fully embrace Linux, they might do it, but I doubt it will happen. Who knows.
My guess, based on Proprietary Codebases I Have Seen and the apparent general philosophy of Windows development, is that people would react to the now-open-sourced Windows code with either hilarity or horror (or both at once). There would be critical articles in the tech press. Then a small select group would mine it for low-level interoperability, but none of the code itself would be retained. Emulation layers such as WINE would end up being able to reproduce Windows’ quirks more thoroughly, but finding the important bits in a mess of Someone Else’s Code would slow down development as much as having an exemplar would speed it up. This all assumes that the code was released with an acceptable license.
On the Linux side, mostly a wash beyond some small interoperability gains, in other words. What would happen on the Windows side, I wouldn’t venture a guess on.
Open source Windows is an interesting premise, but Windows-focused Linux is already a thing going on. Not only has Microsoft basically adopted Ubuntu, but most of their recent projects have been open source. They are actually one of the most numerous contributors to the Linux kernel and it’s mostly to make Ubuntu run better on Azure hardware and to make Windows Subsystem for Linux more effective.
