Article: Micro$oft on top of linux

Now I’ve started taking that idea more seriously — with a twist. Microsoft could replace Windows’ innards, the NT kernel, with a Linux kernel. It would still look like Windows. For most users, it would still work like Windows. But the engine running it all would be Linux.

… from this article in Computerworld.

I’ve been saying this for about 5 years.  The model already works;  almost 20 years ago Apple replaced their homegrown OS with a unix-like (BSD) variant called Darwin.  Now it actually works, and they put the pretty, friendly Apple interface on it.

Windows could do the same over linux;  just skin it with windows aesthetics and design language.  If they want to be really nostalgic they can make it bluescreen randomly or reboot after every minor update.  j/k.  kinda.

Seriously, though, using an open source base like Linux allows a company stop wasting time maintaining their own craptastic underlying code.