Linux and Microsoft

[Fluff]

Why do Microsoft not release a Linux version of Microsoft office maybe bundled with a free Microsoft version of linux. For corporate desktiops?

Seeing as it already runs on a Mac which is based on Linux.

I think this may be a posiblility if there is a large take up on Openoffice.

[Sasq]

You know, if you say that about OSX again, I'm going to have to hurt you.

[Fluff]

Walks away.

[Sasq]

just to clear that up, OSX's core is BSD Unix not Linux

[Fluff]

Ah didn't realise.

[Marshmallowman]

And the kernel source for these 3 things are completly unrelated ?

[albatorsk]

BSD and Linux? Yes. They can run the same type of software with little or no modifications, all that's needed is a recompile (in the case of Linux... BSD has a Linux emulation layer). But then again, WindowsNT is posix compatible, so a lot of software written for Linux/Unix compiles just fine on Windows too, and you probably wouldn't call that kernel similar to Linux, right?

[spadnos]

Originally posted by Marshmallowman
And the kernel source for these 3 things are completly unrelated ?

Mostly, but that's not the problem.

Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux use totally different methods of user interaction. The bulk of a word processor isn't how to save a file, or what algorithm to use for kerning, it's how the user interacts with the program.

Windows GDI, MacOS Cocoa (or whatever was standard with OSX), and X are nearly 100% different in this regard.

- Steve

[Marshmallowman]

I was thinking BSD , linux OSX, but it was more tongue in cheek tahn anyhting.

How about, they are all a bunch of unix clones, that should not offend anyone

I think office for linux would be a good thing for MS to do, it would attack open office/startoffices stongest points(cross platform), But I think MS is doing/not doing everything possible to avoid legitimising linux (in their usual fud context)

[leech]

Meh, just run it under Crossover Office.

Leech

[Kooldino]

Originally posted by albatorsk
BSD and Linux? Yes. They can run the same type of software with little or no modifications, all that's needed is a recompile (in the case of Linux... BSD has a Linux emulation layer). But then again, WindowsNT is posix compatible, so a lot of software written for Linux/Unix compiles just fine on Windows too, and you probably wouldn't call that kernel similar to Linux, right?

Based off posix, eh? Where'd you find that out?

[albatorsk]

Never said it was based on POSIX, only that it is POSIX compatible.

POSIX support in XP is really neutered (only supported in NTFS). On Windows NT and 2000, however, it's supposedly pretty well supported.

Oh, and if you don't want it; here's how to disable it.

[spadnos]

Sadly, POSIX only has to do with interprocess communications, file operations, threading and the like. There's no POSIX user interface. The UI is where the problems arise (almost all the time - even on embedded devices).

- Steve

[Kooldino]

Ahh, so posix is more of an organizational system to base things off of?

[spadnos]

Originally posted by Kooldino
Ahh, so posix is more of an organizational system to base things off of?

(not an expert, but here goes)

POSIX is a base set of tools to allow programs to communicate with each other and access system resources - memory, files, network, etc. It deals with file locking, thread communications and the like. Any POSIX program that only needs the type of stuff that POSIX deals with can be compiled (and should operate the same) on any POSIX system. So, if I want to write a multithreaded database, or a network service application, I can do it using POSIX standards, and I know that it will work on any POSIX system.

That only works until I hit the boundary of things specified by POSIX. That happens once you throw in mouse clicks, graphics, sound, etc. POSIX says nothing about those.

So (getting back to the original thread topic ), although it would be pretty trivial for Microsoft to save and load files, and to have things like a background spell checker communicate with a foreground user interface application, it would be much more work to make the windowing system work with X windows (and KDE / Gnome).

- Steve