What do you reckon this will mean for switching to Linux on Windows PCs?
Posted by crazyyfag@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 15 comments
And what might some of the ulterior motives be? (E.g. locking in OEMs like is currently done with smartphones? - making sure you can’t install Linux or another OS on hardware?)
I think it definitely has to do with them trying to make sure the CrowdStrike thing doesn’t happen again. At the same time, I don’t have enough knowledge to be sure, so I just wanted to share this and see what more experienced Linux users might think.
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FineWolf@reddit
It doesn't change anything for Linux.
This is purely them adding more constraints to kernel-level drivers on Windows.
RoyAwesome@reddit
to an extent this helps linux. Locking developers out of the kernel internals means that when wine updates to emulate the behavior of these new windows apis, the drivers will run fine on linux.
great_whitehope@reddit
Helps gamers if the anti cheats can't use kernal access.
Most multiplayer games seem to be using some third party angry cheat
RoyAwesome@reddit
That is another aspect, but that's not what microsoft is talking about (yet).
This is all fallout from crowdstrike's outage completely fucking over microsoft's stock price. This is a multibillion dollar problem for them but they can't just immediately eject people out of the kernel. So, they're kicking out select groups as they can, dividing the kernel mode software makers into small groups and impacting them slowly over time so they dont all get fighty and make it a problem for microsoft.
Anticheat devs are not currently part of this tranche. Perhaps they will be in the future, but for now it's just drivers.
sogwatchman@reddit
My concern is not drivers... It's the AI you keep trying to force on us. Let us decide to install it IF we want it.
Samiassa@reddit
Ya if they go with the whole “agentic ai” thing I will genuinely only use windows in a vm (I currently dual boot)
CantankerousOrder@reddit
Zero impact on transitions- Drivers are never a reason people move to Linux from Windows.
Nelo999@reddit
For some people it is actually.
Plenty of older computers cannot work on Windows due to the abandoned and nonexistent drivers.
Drivers, generally speaking, tend to be supported for longer on Linux than on Windows.
Therefore, it makes sense for owners of older computers to move over o Linux in many cases.
torchmaipp@reddit
Windows Users don't like passwords to log in. I bet there's always a vocal minority. End of the day people forget passwords and will loose their shit when they can't get back into their user account or use sudo because they created the password 6 months ago and don't have it written down anywhere. Windows will still be popular on that feature alone. Turn it on and go. Not everyone remembers passwords during a setup or writes them down and keeps them accessible to them. Memorizing them even for using the root password at least once a week is still difficult. I've worked the help desk and people do forget passwords they've used everyday for 2 1/2 months after a long weekend. Not everyone is a computer with photographic memory.
jeffrey_f@reddit
Mostly nothing because Microsoft also develops for Linux. Did you
It isn't a Windows PC; it is just a PC sold with Windows preinstalled.
krumpfwylg@reddit
This will mostly annoy many Windows users who have old devices that "workish" on win11 using an old driver that hasn't been updated since ages.
Many vendors will see there the occasion to "invite" users to buy newer devices for win11 support. Maybe like 0.1% of those users will switch to Linux so they don't need to open their wallet to continue using their hardware.
DerekB52@reddit
This just seems like good news for windows users honestly. They plan to increase security of their kernel drivers, and provide support for more peripherals(via more standarized drivers they say), instead of relying on 3rd party drivers for devices.
KnowZeroX@reddit
That would probably benefit linux too, more standardized drivers means you only need to reverse engineer once instead of thousands of different drivers for each model and vendor.
MatchingTurret@reddit
For vendor drivers that are derived from or share sources with Windows, that's a good thing. Otherwise it's a nothing burger as far as Linux is concerned.