Rumor: Microsoft supports “Windows Mode” in Linux

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From Born’s Tech and Windows World. One can wish, right?

https://borncity.com/win/2022/04/01/microsoft-verpasst-linux-den-windows-mode/#more-23913

 

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

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OscarCP

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Günther Born wrote: ” Linus Torvalds and Satya Nadella met for the first time last autumn in Redmond to find out how Linux could be set up in such a way that Win32 applications could be run on this platform without Wine and other such hassle.”

This would be spectacularly good news, if it came to pass.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Cybertooth

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This would be great…but check the date on the article.

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It was posted on March 1st, 2022, a month ago. It says so in the byline. The meeting of Linus and Nadella was last Autumn in Redmont. According to the article, in Born’s site, someone  has informed Born that they reached an agreement on “a future plan.” Presumably the only questions about the article could be the credibility of Born’s source and, if this information is correct, then when this agreement might be implemented.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Well, Oscar, it appears that the article was posted on April 1st, at least as of just a minute or two ago when I went to read it. The line under the article’s headline reads

Posted on 2022-04-01 by guenni

There’s also a single comment under the end of the article where the poster of the comment says that they were getting excited about the concept of a Windows/Linux ecosystem until they remembered the date of the article’s posting of April 1st.

If the post is indeed an April Fools prank, it’s a good one, maybe even too well done!

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Which is why my original post included the last sentence and the “wink” emoji……   (I actually started reading the post myself as if it were ‘heaven-sent’ news and then it dawned: “Wait. A. Minute.” )

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

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And you may have a point … I miscounted the month.

If it was an April Fools’ Day joke, then the more fool I.

And this being no more than a joke would be also a real let down.

My excuse would be that, where I come from April 1st is just a day like any other.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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And yet …

From a not special day, nearly one and a half years ago:

https://borncity.com/win/2020/09/29/windows-bald-nur-noch-eine-emulationsschicht-auf-einem-linux-kernel/

“What could a Microsoft corporate strategist look like who is focused on maximizing profits? In view of the factors [Windows no longer MS’ main business and the expected larger use of LINUX] described above, a fascinating prospect remains: Microsoft Windows will become a proton-like emulation layer running on a Linux kernel. This emulation layer should become thinner over time as more support is integrated into the Linux kernel. This would allow Microsoft to shed an increasing portion of its development costs and transfer that to the Linux community. There will be less to do internally.

If this is dismissed as fantasy, the Microsoft Edge port for Linux should be mentioned. Raymond thinks that this only makes sense at all if you consider it a test run to free the rest of the Windows utility suite from the dependence on any emulation layer. The scenario Raymond designs: The final state is reached when the new Windows consists mainly of a Linux kernel over which an Old-Windows emulation is put. But Edge and the rest of the Windows utilities for users do not use this emulation, but run natively on Linux. The emulation layer is there for games and other legacy software from third parties. These approaches can already be seen in some tools.”

Now, back to April 1st 2022:

https://borncity.com/win/2022/04/01/microsoft-verpasst-linux-den-windows-mode/#more-23913

“In short: Since 2010 or 2012, Microsoft has been experimenting with a minimal subsystem of the Win32 API. The goal is to find out how small a MinWin can become so that over 90 % of Win32 applications run. This MinWin kernel, which is about 500 megabytes in size, then runs as a pico process under Windows and enables Win32 applications to run. Instead of having to virtualise an entire operating system, lean MinWin pico-processes are used to run the applications. To my knowledge, the technique is used in Windows Server for various purposes (to isolate processes for security reasons in VMs).”

“From the remarks of my sources, however, I gather that Microsoft has no plans (yet) to take this weighty step [a full version of Windows 32 running Linux]. Rather, it seems that the integration of a MinWin as an execution layer for Win32 applications in the Linux kernel could be a test for Microsoft. If the MinWin approach under Linux is a success and people use it more intensively, Microsoft could change its internal strategy in the long term and go for a Linux kernel with a Windows GUI running on this kernel. But that’s still pure theory yet. ”

The above might or might not be directly relevant to Windows’ applications running in LINUX, but indicates the interest at MS in LINUX, and who knows if it may not go as far as the April 1st story implied?

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Steve S.

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Thanks for the link, OscarCP.  Hopefully some day this may come to pass – whether by the efforts of MS or by the Linux community making better emulation layers themselves. I’d be happy either way.

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

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I’m more interested in GPU makers getting on Linux some from of GPGPU compute API standard as OpenCL just never was  supported by all on Linux. So Take Blender 3D 2.9/Earlier editions  and on AMD’s Radeon GPUs and that support never shipped with the Kernel/ISO and and necessitated the end user to go over to AMD’s Linux Pro  Graphics driver website to try and and get that OpenCL component installed(hard to get working). Now With Blender 3.0/Later editions dropping support for the OpenCL Compute API  that leaves AMD’s ROCm/HIP layer that will not be supported until Blender 3.2(Delayed from it’s original Blender 3.1 arrival) and that ROCm/HIP support for Blender Cycles-X is only for RDNA2 based GPUs, and maybe RDNA1(?).  Intel will Have it’s OneAPI for Blender’s Cycles-X GPU support and Nvidia’s got it’s Optix/CUDA that’s always been first with any Blender 3D support.

I wish that Intel and AMD would have instead supported some Vulkan GPU compute standard rather than each maker going their own way as far as GPU compute APIs are concerned but that’s not the case currently and AMD’s Hopefully going to be Supporting ROCm/HIP for discrete mobile Vega and Polaris GPUs or there will be millions of Laptop’s with Polaris discrete graphics that will be out of the loop for any Blender Cycles-X support on Blender 3.0 and later editions.  There are less Vega Discrete mobile laptops because AMD only offered Vega Discrete Mobile GPUs with HBM2 and those only saw usage with Apple’s Macbooks and thus millions of more non Apple laptops came with Polaris discrete mobile GPUs some that where introduced as late as end of Q1 2019. AMD’s got 5 generations of Ryzen APUs using Vega Integrated graphics so maybe that will force AMD’s had there for ROCm/HIP support for Vega integrated graphics but Polaris GPUs may be out of the loop there. And Laptop end users do not have the option of  just swapping out the GPU as that usually comes BGA soldered to the Laptop’s Motherboard.

 

Windows was always better with making sure that any OpenCL driver and API support was the out of the box for AMD’s Radeon GPUs on the Blender 2.9/Eariler editions that still utilize OpenCL as the GPU compute API and Linux has always had good OpenGL/Vulkan out of the ISO/Box support there from the MESA maintainers but OpenCL just never received the attention on Linux and thus the many Open Source Linux GUI based applications than needed OpenCL supported always had the end users needing to get that support installed themselves to varying degrees of success.

 

On Linux maybe Intel’s ARC/Alchemist and OneAPI will be the true alternative to Nvidia’s dominant OptiX/Cuda proprietary software stack but as much as the Linux community dislikes Nvidia’s  proprietary leanings  Nvidia sure made sure that Open Source Linux GUI based applications had that GPGPU compute working with Nvidia’s GPU offerings on Linux PCs/Laptops. AMD’s Radeon Linux GUI based application Driver support for OpenCL just never was that ubiquitous or an AMD priority there compared to AMD’s non GUI based GPU compute stack. So I do hope that Intel’s Arc/Alchemist will bring more competition for Linux Laptop users and Blender 3D users and any other GUI based  open source software that need GPU compute acceleration supported.

 

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