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Comment by cobalt | Hacker News Reader

so microsoft's open source linux kernel is going to cause everyone to stop using linux...?

No, not everyone is going to abandon Linux; I'm going to define Linux in this context as the traditional Linux desktop where people run some sort of X11 or Wayland window manager or desktop environment on top of a Linux kernel running on bare hardware. However, it would be interesting to see what impact the popularity of WSL will have on Linux desktop environments such as KDE, GNOME and its derivatives MATE and Cinnamon, and others such as XFCE. For example, macOS has long been popular with those wanting a polished *nix environment with support for commercial software packages and certain types of drivers, to the point that some high-profile developers such as Miguel de Icaza adopted the Mac. Some may argue that the Linux desktop may have evolved differently had macOS not been an option. Even so, the existence of macOS has not led to the extinction of the Linux desktop. Now, what makes WSL different from macOS is every major PC manufacturer ships their PCs with Windows 10 by default, and WSL can be installed easily on any PC running Windows 10. You can run Linux alongside Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite without having to use WINE. The barrier of entry for using WSL is much lower for a lot of people than the barrier of entry for purchasing a Mac.

This leads to some interesting questions. If a significant segment of Linux users abandon FOSS desktops such as KDE and GNOME for the Windows ecosystem, what will this mean for projects such as Firefox and LibreOffice? What will it mean for KDE, GNOME, and other FOSS desktop environments and window managers?

Now, there will be a contingent of Linux users who won't migrate to WSL for a few reasons. There are some Linux users who won't use Windows, whether it's due to certain features such as telemetry and ads or whether it's due to some other aspect of Windows they don't like. There are some Linux users who need to run Linux directly on their hardware and thus WSL wouldn't fit their needs. There are also Linux users who care about using a stack of software that is fully free and open source and thus wouldn't switch to SWL.

But will there be enough remaining users in order to justify further development of the FOSS Linux desktop in the eyes of major projects like LibreOffice and Firefox? We will see.

What you just said is such a realistic analysis and terrifying....I will keep on running linux on bare metal hardware no matter what. I like to know what is ACTUALLY happening inside an OS,not being told by a company what is SUPPOSEDLY happening.

WSL didn't change much for Linux Desktop landscape and the newer version wont be much different:

Linux Desktop users are there because it offers them a better experience for whatever they are doing. And WSL doesn't change it that much.

If you really need MS Office, you wouldn't be a Linux Desktop user anyways.

I honestly don't see WSL being a game changer for Linux Desktop. But I do see it improving the life of current windows users.

They already did it the moment they started migrating to OS X to develop UNIX based software.

Microsoft just realized that those devs actually don't care about Linux as such, they just want POSIX like features, otherwise they would be helping OEMs that still try to sell Linux based systems.

Maybe on bare metal, but I imagine it will definitely add to the Linux userbase.

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