Is Polaris the next desktop Windows and in part open source?

martyfelker · 21 Jan 2019

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-employee-leaks-windows-core-open-source-components,38476.html

jimbo45 · 22 Jan 2019

Hi there
Ms seems to be moving towards supplying services (cloud, I.T services, azure sort of things etc) as it realizes that there's not much more profit that can be squeezed out of supplying and developing a desktop OS like Windows.

You only have to look at big companies like Red Hat which ports its Red Hat Enterprise Server Linux OS (RHEL) to CENTOS as open source and essentially 100% compatible. RHEL is also freely available too (but you have to pay for service unless you use the community) - RHEL is better for commercial servers while CENTOS (Community Enterprise OS) makes an excellent and unbelievably cheap (0 EUR!!) stable DESKTOP OS. (And it's good too for smaller businesses / home networks to use a server OS).

It would be very simple for Ms to adopt a lot of the internal core / kernel parts of Linux and keep the Windows GUI looking very similar to what it is now so users would perhaps notice no change (apart from probably streets better performance and certainly reliability !!!)..

Of course the main problem in Open Source is you definitely need to keep some handle on it in a business environment or that's where it gets tricky for maintenance. By having fixed "Repos" - repositories for software Ms could control this quite easily and sign up service contracts with businesses for long term support.

Interesting to see how this all pans out.

Cheers
jimbo

RMFein · 22 Jan 2019

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting.

We'll see how MSFT's pivot to OSS will turn out in the future. I'm pretty excited so far, to be honest.

jimbo45 · 22 Jan 2019

Hi there.

Open Source has certainly worked extremely well in the Linux area and even big companies use it.
It does though come with "a Health warning" - unless it's reasonably controlled you can have development forks, zillions of distros (just look how many different Linux distros there are --fortunately though unless you are a reall Geek only about 5 or 6 at most are serious contenders).

One needs also to really have absolutely robust testing if you are trying to enable "Long Term support" type of releases - the way Ms has been rolling out updates and different versions of Windows recently would make me think that Ms would need to seriously learn about this type of environment before willy nilly diving into it.

I'm quite excited about this potential development - interesting if Ms can carry it off and what response (if any) Apple make.

Cheers
jimbo

bro67 · 22 Jan 2019

Microsoft has been using GPL and Opensource for quite some time. The movement away from the NT code to going after the model that Apple did with Darwin, is how MS is moving. MS has just been late to the game, because of government end-users that were still using elder versions of their software. When Windows XP was out, United Airlines was still using NT4sp6.

bro67 · 22 Jan 2019

Hell freezes over as Windows Core OS to include Open Source components - MSPoweruser

Even Gates saw the movement away from the Windows Mobile platform, before it was killed off, by adopting Android OS.

Explore Microsoft open source projects, releases and information - opensource.microsoft.com

Windows Core is for Industry, not the end user as in a whole new desktop/server OS at this time.

To understand how Microsoft's vision of Windows will work, it is essential to understand some of the OS architecture. Here's a list of key elements:

Windows OneCore – Microsoft successfully unified its kernel and OS core system across devices in 2015.
The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) – Microsoft unified its app platform, which runs on Win32 systems (x86, x64), ARM, and Xbox.
Windows Core OS – As reported by our Senior Writer Zac Bowden, Microsoft is making Windows 10 modular. Once finished, Windows 10 will look the same, but components like Win32 and telephony support for cellular calls can be added or removed easily by Microsoft. Windows Core OS will also pave the way for a true UWP-version of Windows 10 without any native Win32 support that will eventually supplant Windows 10 S.
Windows CShell – With the same kernel, a flexible core, and unified app platform, the last piece is the shell – or UI – that itself adapts to the screen. Taking the idea of Continuum to the OS level, CShell lets devices adjust their UIs for different tasks and experiences. A foldable mobile device would be able to scale between a phone-based UI and a tablet-based UI, and even extend into a desktop mode via Continuum, for example. Or, a Windows 10 PC could take on the Xbox UI when in gaming mode.

The idea here is simple: Windows will share the same kernel (OneCore) and now the same OS-level components (Windows Core OS), but the shell is variable and configurable based on the hardware being created.