Somewhere, General Akbar is shouting "It's a trap!"
The MS instinct has never been beneficial but one more closely related to Tron's "Master Control Program," or the Borg. If MS could not beat a competitor, they bought it.
Anyone remember this?
A Look at the Microsoft-funded SCO Lawsuit in Light of Newer Anti-Linux Microsoft Lawsuits
Posted in Courtroom, GNU/Linux, IBM, Law, Microsoft, Novell, SCO, TomTom, UNIX at 10:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“…Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux.”
–Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO
SCO had little existence other than as a vehicle to bring a lawsuit to users of Linux, claiming that it held the intellectual property rights and thus was owed, lots and lots and lots of money from those freeloading Linux users. It didn't seem to pass the smell test but the litigation dragged on and on until ending in a whimper.
Meanwhile MS has acquired SKYPE and LINKEDIN and just about anything that showed any promise on the internet.
I would be very, very wary of MS.
That being said, in my humble opinion, Linux will remain relegated to use by coders and developers, who love tinkering with Terminal Codes and compiling code, and remain out of the hands of the general computer-using population.
Why?
MOST people don't want to have to be a mechanic and know how to tear down a transmission in order to drive a car. MOST people take their driver's ed course, get their license and USE their car to drive from Point A to Point B.
I would extend that analogy to computer use.
Linux users cling to the Command Terminal like the Samurai did, well after the introduction of repeating rifles.
Moms, kids, grandpas want to be able to get on a computer and USE it, to read the news, play games, watch videos, send and receive e-mails.
Businesses want their IT to be secure, but also be readily understandable with a basic learning curve for the rank and file employee, so Minion-Employees can start being productive and generating TCP reports as soon as possible.
Neither General Public use nor Business use is served by having a new, esoteric operating system which is largely controlled by Terminal commands (something MS largely abandoned after Windows 95).
Please keep in mind that I am here because I have despised the politics and market practices of MS for a long time and want LINUX very much to win broad acceptance. But I have used the last two months to good advantage in striving mightily to learn LINUX. I've installed and uninstalled Zorin, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, LXLE, Linux Lite, Mint and Q4OS/XPQ4.
IMHO, coming in from the prospective of a long-time Windows user, wanting very much to avoid Windows 8/10, there are some things that at least ONE distro of LINUX will have to offer before it can gain broad general acceptance.
1) It needs to be easy to install and use, right out of the box.
Some distros are getting there. LXLE, Linux Lite and Q4OS are fairly easy to install. (I have just installed MINT and it looks promising). As to being easy to use, the program and application names should suggest their use, and in many cases, the icons and app/program names do not suggest their intended use.
2) Engineer at least one distro or version of a distro, that uses Graphic User Interface, and avoids reliance upon the Terminal.
Does anyone remember what MS was using before Windows?
By memory, first, there was the Heathkit (make it yourself) ALTAIR. Then there was Radio Shack / Tandy TRS-80. There were dozens of early computers, some using big floppy disks while others used cassette tape memory. Apple Mac shook things up with the Graphic User Interface and the "Mouse."
MS was still using the DOS command line, but suddenly came up with "Windows" it's own version of a GUI, driving complaints from Apple of MS stealing its 'Look and Feel.' Look and Feel was too ambiguous to earn legal intellectual property protection, and so Windows took off. Bill Gates became a very wealthy man, and the personal computer, using a GUI and not a command line, was broadly adopted by the general public.
3) There needs to be a place where new users can get quick and friendly 'how to' advice and problem solving.
This is probably the greatest hindrance to broad acceptance for Linux.
Naturally, there are exceptions, but getting friendly, clear and helpful assistance from other users is as rare as hen's teeth.
Any distro that can take the quick and secure Linux code, and put a user-friendly front end on it, and have a ready source of helpful answers to seemingly stupid questions will have earned the Brass Ring of mass public acceptance and steal the march from fortress Redmond.