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Comment by lightbyte | Hacker News Reader

>My theory is that the next version of Windows is going to use the Linux kernel.

Windows 10 is the last version of Windows that Microsoft is making. It will be continuously updated instead of new versions being released.

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There is an ancient story about an old ship with all its parts replaced and the question was when does it stop being the old ship and become a new ship? If Windows has a Linux kernel, is it still Windows? I guess Windows is whatever Microsoft calls Windows?

Windows started on the DOS kernel, so switching to a new kernel wouldn't dismantle the whole product.

Although I don't see a reason why NT should be inferior to Linux from Microsoft's perspective.

Windows NT is a completely different kernel, so was 9x. So Microsoft actually changed kernels at least twice.

DOS had no kernel - it was just a bunch of code that ran on top of a bunch of PC-compatible hardware. There was no separation between kernel-space and user-space.

You are applying an overly restrictive definition to something that is just the nut analogy, which is a vague analogy that does not imply "spaces".

MS/PC-DOS, and DR-DOS, were not just "a bunch of code" and had a definite structure when it came to operating system design. They comprised the basic disc operating system, the basic input/output system (incorporating built-in and loadable device drivers), the command processor, and the housekeeping utilities.

* https://superuser.com/a/329479

The kernel of (386 Enhanced Mode) DOS+Windows analogous to the Windows NT kernel being discussed here is the VMM and the VxDs, with krnl386.exe as a distinguished Extended DOS program running in the distinguished system VM.

* http://jdebp.eu./FGA/dos-windows-boot-process.html

I find it very hard to believe that 10 the last version of windows.

You don't have to believe it, that doesn't change the fact that Microsoft has been saying it for two years though:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/7/8568473/windows-10-last-ver...

Apple was on OS X for awhile.

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