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I never trusted those market-share figures that keep claiming that Linux desktop market share is something minuscule. I remember reading an interview several years ago with someone high up at Microsoft—might have been Steve Ballmer—where he admitted that their own figures showed Linux desktop market share at 5-6%.
What clinches the point, within the last month or so, is Microsoft adding its Linux compatibility layer to Windows 10. Some have tried to interpret this as the first stage in the infamous “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” strategy that Microsoft has used to destroy other competitors. But even assuming the worst about Microsoft’s motives and capabilities, it cannot work that way.
Look at what it has meant in the past, when the owner of a platform has added a compatibility layer to allow software from some other platform to run: it has invariably meant that the platform owner has given up on any realistic chance of having a thriving ecosystem of native applications, and is resorting in desperation to trying to co-opt the ecosystem from the emulated platform in its stead. And look at what else it has meant: it gives developers an excuse to abandon native development, which in turn has ultimately meant, after another few years, the extinction of the host platform.
The addition of a Linux layer to Windows means Microsoft has seen the writing on the wall about the future of native Windows apps. There is simply no other rational reason why Microsoft felt the need to do this. In fact, its own corporate pride would never have allowed such a capitulation to the Open Source riff-raff, so to speak, that it has been pooh-poohing for years. It can only be sheer overwhelming customer demand that could have forced its hand.
It has long been clear that Linux completely dominates every segment of the computing world, apart from the desktop. Well, now its domination of the computing world is complete.
What clinches the point, within the last month or so, is Microsoft adding its Linux compatibility layer to Windows 10. Some have tried to interpret this as the first stage in the infamous “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” strategy that Microsoft has used to destroy other competitors. But even assuming the worst about Microsoft’s motives and capabilities, it cannot work that way.
Look at what it has meant in the past, when the owner of a platform has added a compatibility layer to allow software from some other platform to run: it has invariably meant that the platform owner has given up on any realistic chance of having a thriving ecosystem of native applications, and is resorting in desperation to trying to co-opt the ecosystem from the emulated platform in its stead. And look at what else it has meant: it gives developers an excuse to abandon native development, which in turn has ultimately meant, after another few years, the extinction of the host platform.
The addition of a Linux layer to Windows means Microsoft has seen the writing on the wall about the future of native Windows apps. There is simply no other rational reason why Microsoft felt the need to do this. In fact, its own corporate pride would never have allowed such a capitulation to the Open Source riff-raff, so to speak, that it has been pooh-poohing for years. It can only be sheer overwhelming customer demand that could have forced its hand.
It has long been clear that Linux completely dominates every segment of the computing world, apart from the desktop. Well, now its domination of the computing world is complete.
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