Comment by PaulDavisThe1st
3 months ago
Windows NT is younger than Unix. I'd say the smart money is on the Unix-derived line of operating systems outliving Windows NT by a considerable amount.
However ... the domain of operating systems is subject to weird constraints, and so it's not really appropriate to make some of the observations one might make in other domains. Nevertheless, I thought the point was that we want things to improve via replacement (a "bazaar" model), rather than stand for all time. We don't actually want technology "cathedrals" at all, even if we do appreciate architectural ones.
> "I'd say the smart money is on the Unix-derived line of operating systems outliving Windows NT by a considerable amount."
Are you referring to the *BSDs? Linux isn't Unix derived. It's a re-implementation with no code traceable back to the original Unix or any of its descendants.
Aside from that, Windows has a revenue stream behind it that looks to continue indefinitely paying for its development and Linux has...? The half-digested carcass of Red Hat within IBM? Canonical?
There are descendants of the Unix source code, and there are descendants of the Unix design. Linux is in the latter group.
Linux is the root OS of Android, which has a lot more revenue behind it than Red Hat or Canonical.
Android is shaped by Google solely for Google's own monetary gain, just as Windows is by Microsoft. A Google branded dog collar around our necks doesn't seem much better than a Microsoft branded one.
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