I have a theory for some time now, But it’s highly speculative.

Microsoft hasn’t been making a lot of money with Windows for a couple of years now and I think they’re pretty aware of the shit show they released with Windows 11. And they already integrated the WSL. So what what if Windows dumps It’s kernel and switches to Linux? The current windows UI could be switched to either native implementations or running through wine while keeping the familiar look and feel. Microsoft would then also need to push patches to the wine project Including their hidden and undocumented, APIs In order to get all the stuff running, they currently need in windows. This would drive the compatibility of Wine and Proton even further.

The windows API are so old and full of legacy stuff that this might a big opportunity for Microsoft to properly abstract them and be done with it.

Windows would be changed to a package based distribution, making updates much less cumbersome.

The remaining capacities could be put where Microsoft earns most of its money: cloud and business applications.

Win(dows)-Win, right?

This is the final hurdle keeping me on windows, a seamless gaming experience. If SteamOS can hammer everything out, there's zero reason to stay.

Steam is terrified of the Microsoft store. It's part of why they're moving to linux

Imagine gaming with no windos OS…. The future is better!

I’m legitimately curious how many half-baked ad-filled second-to-the-punch products will be too many for Microsoft before they finally capitulate.

I just installed Linux and holy shit it is so much easier and more straight forward than a windows install. Really wish I would have done it sooner.

As a long time Linux enjoyer, this is honestly the easiest way to get it into the mainstream. People have already seen the success of the steam deck which only reinforces that Linux can be used for gaming better than ever before. As long as people stop using Windows I'm here for it.

Microsoft could also be terrified of how shitty Windows 11 is. I have to think back to Millennium Edition to compare to something this disastrous, but Satya doesn't care about Windows, Surface, or XBox. Microsoft's future is M365, Azure, and D365. Big fat high margin Enterprise Agreements since everyone is locked into their proprietary shitty office formats. And they get enterprise problems with audit, identify, access control like few other businesses.

What I don't know understand is why companies refuse to sell off businesses that they know will die off from their neglect. A shame, except for Windows.

As a Mac user I too want SteamOS to succeed, because it will indirectly result in more games that are compatible with macOS via game porting tools and wine.

Honestly windows is just annoying to deal with. I don’t like the ads, and I don’t like my start menu bar being reorganized. I run it in a VM and managing my install keys is a huge pain with their login system.

Linux is awesome, it’s neat watching its developer friendliness result in snowballing market share.

(2025 is “The year of the Windows 11 PC refresh,” allegedly)

Wait. Since when has Microsoft's Windows team been drinking from the same copium jars as us Linux users have for years?

That's hilarious.

Microsoft has been steadily moving away from backwards compatibility and trying to be a one-stop shop for everything. They just want Windows to be focused on data collection and spying at this point. And your gaming data isn’t as valuable as you might think.

If they don’t have one for it already, they’ll just want to make a compatible Xbox app to run on Linux. If Linux can serve the gaming folks, and they get their data with an Xbox sign-in, it’s way less work and cost for them to keep Windows running the games well. I doubt they feel threatened at all.

I'm waiting for a MS vs Steam lawsuit where MS tries to sue over the usage of the Windows api

I hope to see this before the EoL date set for Windows 10 and a bunch of people throw out perfectly good machines to buy something that works with Windows 11.

Personally, I won't use Windows 11 on my home machines. But my concern is that I install a distro this year and want to switch to SteamOS later, but would have to start over with customizations, etc. in the new distro. I wish SteamOS was available now for gaming rigs!

When most/all multiplayer games start working on Linux that's when Linux can really start taking off.

Year of linux desktop, amirite?

Jesus, news outlets love hyperbole, don't they. We are not even at 5% market share.