this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

You could keep the kernel tho while changing the gui

[–] MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The windows kernel isn't all that great, particularly in the realm of memory security or scheduling.

You know, to each their own. Question is really whether windows maintaining a closed source kernel even makes sense from a maintenance burden perspective when it really doesn't give them much money in return. (Most of their money in 2025 comes from cloud services, not operating systems)

[–] ubergeek@lemmy.today 1 points 55 minutes ago

Rumors (Yes, just rumors, I know) have it that MS is working on a shim to be able to just use the Linux kernel under the hood. That's what spawned WSL. It is a side effect of the work to get the shim between the Win64 userland and Linux kernel. The shim will probably be a temporary thing, until all the ABIs are done.