Will Microsoft release a linux distribution ?

I recently started a thread on vault9.net that deals with the plausibility of MS releasing a linux distro.

Again, I have to ask the question, will microsoft release their own branded distro?

My guess is unless some major sponsorships be made to guys like Hans Reiser and many others who spend their time working on open source stuff and never getting paid for it, then yes, chances are likely that MS will suck all these guys up to work on a project and release their own branded linux distro. I promise you, everyone has their price.

Now more so after Daniel Robbins, the former chief architect of Gentoo Linux, joined the MS ranks.

According to Robbins, his new role at MS is to educate them on Open Source and community based projects.

ok… so whats he going to do then once thats done?

because thats gonna take up maybe a week of his time, then what ?

my gut feel is that they going to have him working on a project that involves linux.

I forsee that microsoft are going to release a distro of linux that although may have a lot of open source scripts and wot not, its going to contain proprietry software that Micrrosoft will reserve the right to sell.

But who will their targeted audience be ?

Well considering that there are millions and millions of people around the world today that are turning to Linux simply because of peer influence, Microsoft are probably going to zone in on them.

i mean think about it.

How many people that use linux today use it because they had a friend who used linux and so they wanted to try it.

I know from my own personal experience that people I know wanted to try linux and when offering them the option of gentoo, their reply was “oooo no, I want something easier”

Thats the problem right there, people aren’t willing to learn a little and even though they want Linux, they actually want a point and click installation without the learning and thats exactly what microsoft are going to offer people.

I remember installing the 4 cd’s of redhat 9.

It was serously a matter of insert cd1 click next next next next till it asked me for cd 2
reboot straight into a gui. Having spent ages configuring freebsd I couldnt help thinking, wow I am so not impressed that this is so windows like.

So really, the marketing team at microsoft are going to catch all those suckers who want the easy linux simply to be 1337.

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