Microsoft published a guide on how to install Linux.

why not? it's not like there is any competition.
Microsoft is making more money off Linux with Azure than several red hats combined.

Windows: What is my purpose?

User: You are a bootloader to install Linux.

While I see an extensive amount of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" and do agree that this is the typical logic of Microsoft.

It's obvious this is to try and avoid getting hit with similar monopoly accusations that their competitors are receiving.

"Look, Look!! We support other Operating Systems! We have a guide! We're not a monopoly! See, See!!"

I'm reminded of Google's financial support for Firefox, so as to dissuade the idea that they are a monopoly

I love when people on the Internet say "X did Y quietly" to make it more suspenseful. This doesn't look quiet to me...

Microsoft must make 40% of their revenue off of Azure at this point. I would not be surprised if more than 50% of that is on Linux. Windows is probably down to 10% ( around the same as gaming ).

https://www.kamilfranek.com/microsoft-revenue-breakdown/

Sure there are people in the Windows division who want to kill Linux and some dev dev folks will still prefer Windows. At this point though, a huge chunk of Microsoft could not care less about Windows and may actually prefer Linux. Linux is certainly a better place for K8S and OCI stuff. All the GPT and Cognitive Services stuff is likely more Linux than not.

Do people not know that Microsoft has their own Linux distro? I mean an installation guide is not exactly their biggest move in Linux?

So the Embrace-Extend-Extinguish continues....

My perspective is that it's there so it shows up on search results for "installing Linux" and recommends WSL over bare metal. At least that's how I understand the wording.

But who knows.

This is a thing about huge companies. They can only ignore alternatives at their own peril.

The Windows team probably prefers you don't ever install Linux even though they wised up and created WSL (so they don't lose developers to Linux desktop the way they lost creative designers to Mac).

The other teams? VSCode, Office 365, Azure, GitHub, Bing, Skype, etc wisely DGAF what your OS is - just that it's supported so you can use it.

Link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linux/install

Great! Then now you're ready to install Microsoft Edge on your fresh new linux installation: https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge/pool/main/m/microsoft-edge-stable/ 🤡

Embrace, extend, and extinguish

If only they stop overwriting boot loader.

Why wouldn't they? Windows 10+ is a great development machine and Microsoft knows that a lot of developers develop with Linux. WSL is great for all parties - including Linux

The thing is, I don't think a guide is really needed to install Linux. Most of it is pretty straight-forward. (The only tricky bit that comes to mind is making the USB that you've put your distro on bootable. That probably isn't obvious; and it might not be obvious how to get your computer to boot from a USB anyway if you've never done it before.)

Anyway, the way I see it, Microsoft's guide is more about how you can use Linux while still having Windows. If someone is searching for "how do I install Linux?" Microsoft would obviously prefer the answer to involve something that preserves Windows. First preference: WSL, second preference: Virtual Machine, third preference: dual-boot. And after that, you're on your own.

Has hell frozen over already?!

To be fair, WSL2 is actually a pretty decent system if you still need to have Windows installed for one reason or another.

Does this mean that windows updates will no longer bork Linux?

Link to post: https://mastodon.social/@Linux_Is_Best/111202901396633888 Link to Microsoft guide : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linux/install

Another thing they have "slipped" in recently is Linux (only Ubuntu for now) support in Microsoft Intune.

This change will make it possible to run Linux in a Microsoft cloud/azure workplace.

I mean, why not do that, from their perspective. Linux has been around for a long time and Windows still maintains market share. They don't feel threatened at this point, so might as well have the explanation of how to install Linux be a subtle ad for Windows.

Can't wait for this page to become a Rickroll for Linux community giving technical advice.

Let me just check out the window real quick. There may be flying pigs.

but... but i thought linux was communism?!

Even 10 years ago, this would've been unthinkable. Never would I have ever thought Microsoft would oublish a guide on instanjing Linux.

It makes sense. Over half of the Azure VMs are running Linux so there clearly is a demand for it despite the last 30 years of MS actions.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linux/install

OS is really not making them money anymore. One thing that helped apple make a comeback was intel hosts and encouraging dualbooting and software to run your windows on mac.

It wasn't published September 29th, it was updated then.

It was published back in March. All these pages are on github where this can be verified: https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/linux/commits/main/docs/install.md

The performance speed between WSL, virtual machines, and bare metal Linux has become so close that few developers choose this method due to the overhead of needing to restart (reboot) your device any time you want to switch between the operating systems.

And there's the attempt at discouraging you from going bare-metal.

I doubt that "few developers choose this" is true.

not impressed, wanna see how to single boot linux and put windows in virtual machine as a guest

Actually, the guide doesn't mention how to dual boot, it's how to install Linux bare metal as the only os.

Otherwise they wouldn't have removed the possibility to easily boot Linux from the windows boot manager instead of grub

I've heard talks that after each Windows update, you have to restore Grub config.

Not the case with me. Had dual boot for some time and never had to fix it... 🤷

Pretty sure this means Linus won.

Embrace ...

Quietly. Lmao. There headlines.

I think Linux community is holding on hate and toxicity towards Microsoft and their software, you can even see it in comments to this post. Like lemmy is holding on hate towards Reddit (there is even Reddit community to share your anger). So if Microsoft somehow proves that they doesn’t deserve hate they are getting, Linux community will be shaved.

I wonder if this is due to antitrust law reasons. Already low Linux market share + secure boot having made installation even harder does not set a good precedent for Microsoft.

https://dotnet.social/ mastodon guide next

Microsoft should have made a guide on how to install ReactOS instead

Source?

After guys like Bisqwit made dual boot guides demonstrating how shitty windows is, it's their only chance to keep their image up apparently lol

Just make sure you host every thing you develop on azure and we gucci! Oh and get Office 365!

Thread the needle

Big step in the right direction for Microsoft :)