Microsoft Releasing their own Version of Linux?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Everyone's favourite company from Redmond is releasing their own custom Linux kernel. It was made to power its Azure Sphere solution for securing connected devices from basic kitchen appliances, to toys, to industrial tools. Essentially targeting the ever growing internet of things craze. They have designs for microprocessors which will be running this new Linux based OS, Azure Sphere OS. These designs are to be made available to chip manufacturers for free. 

Quote

Third, the chip/OS combo will be integrated with an Azure Sphere cloud security service, which will keep the devices up to date with security patches for 10 years or longer.

Original Article: http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-azure-sphere-is-powered-by-linux-2018-4

 

More info on Azure Sphere: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2018/04/16/using-intelligence-to-advance-security-from-the-edge-to-the-cloud/

 

For me, this is a rather unexpected move me. I knew Microsoft was very interested in Linux, but I didn't expect them making their own distribution from the ground up. Will be interesting to see how the industry reacts to this. Microsoft hasn't been a poster child for privacy and security for the past few years (if it ever was). How many people for example will ever trust a Microsoft powered baby monitor as these are the sort of products this whole Azure Sphere project is targeting. I certainly wouldn't feel at ease. 

[Nowak]

Not really surprising, Windows NT isn't good for the IoT. Also, fix your formatting, OP  

 

[Sniperfox47]

Just now, NowakVulpix said:

Not really surprising, Windows NT isn't good for the IoT. Also, fix your formatting, OP  

 

Idk. This surprised me. Knowing Microsoft I honestly expected them to hammer OneCore and Windows 10 IoT to death a little more.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

4 minutes ago, NowakVulpix said:

Not really surprising, Windows NT isn't good for the IoT. Also, fix your formatting, OP  

-Fixed- 

When automatic font colour fails you. 

[Starelementpoke]

Now for Linux to activate their trap card

[captain_to_fire]

Yay to more invasive telemetry on your smart thermostat, smart weighing scale and cortana speakers. 

Edited April 17, 2018 by captain_to_fire

[Razor Blade]

Cortana watches you sleep....

 

Spoiler

 

[NTDaws]

I expected them to redevelop a Kernel for Windows 10 to make it run on the Pi3 properly.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

1 hour ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

For me, this is a rather unexpected move me. I knew Microsoft was very interested in Linux, but I didn't expect them making their own distribution from the ground up.

Of course they are

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace%2C_extend%2C_and_extinguish

[LAwLz]

2 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

For me, this is a rather unexpected move me. I knew Microsoft was very interested in Linux, but I didn't expect them making their own distribution from the ground up.

Microsoft has a strategy they call "Embrace, extend and extinguish" which they have routinely used to attack their competitors. This is not crazy conspiracy theory stuff either, it was found in internal Microsoft documents when the Department of Justice was investigating Microsoft for using anti-competitive practices during the "browser wars".

 

Here is how it works:

1) Embrace - Create products that follow standards or are compatible with products from your competitor.

2) Extend - Create proprietary extensions. For example in the Kerberos protocol Microsoft added their own definitions of how password changes should work and be handled. That meant that software that used standard Kerberos could not change passwords for things that used Microsoft's implementation. They had to use the non-standard, proprietary method if they wanted to keep using Kerberos against Microsoft products.

3) Extinguish - Once the extensions has become the de facto standards, cut off support for competing products. For example with the Kerberos changes, Microsoft started pushing a very aggressive NDAs to people who wanted to implement Microsoft's extensions. That NDA put up a lot of restrictions such as not allowing the specifications to be used by third party developers without Microsoft's approval (which they of course did not give to open source implementations). What that meant was that if you wanted to use Microsoft's version of Kerberos, which was the most common one, you had to get Microsoft's blessing, which their competitors obviously didn't get.

Luckily for us, Slashdot exposed what slimy douchebags Microsoft were, despite Microsoft threatening them with legal actions.

 

 

 

Not sure if this is what Microsoft is planning on doing with GNU/Linux, but I wouldn't put it past them.

[Arika]

we dont need anymore smart devices. i dont need a CPU in my toaster or nerf guns...

 

Also OP your links link back to this thread, the text and actual link are mismatched.

 

Not sure if "their own version is Linux" is the right wording, makes it sound like they are releasing a distro instead of just devices powered by a linux kernal

[Bananasplit_00]

30 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

f this is what Microsoft is planning on doing with GNU/Linux, but I wouldn't put it past them.

I don't think I'd use a Microsoft developed Linux version tbh. Personally my main draw to Linux is that it's NOT them

[jagdtigger]

3 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

Yay to more invasive telemetry on your smart thermostat, smart weighing scale and cortana speakers. 

You shouldnt buy that junk in the first place ....

[Master Disaster]

Creating a customised Kernel =/= Releasing a new distro

 

The 2 things are very different.

[Master Disaster]

8 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

You shouldnt buy that junk in the first place ....

Here in the UK every house in the country will have to have a smart electricity & gas meter fitted by 2020 and there's very similar rules coming in about smart thermostats too, they're not going to force everyone to have one fitted but they are forcing anyone who has a new boiler fitted to also have a smart thermostat fitted too.

[jagdtigger]

10 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Here in the UK every house in the country will have to have a smart electricity & gas meter fitted by 2020 and there's very similar rules coming in about smart thermostats too, they're not going to force everyone to have one fitted but they are forcing anyone who has a new boiler fitted to also have a smart thermostat fitted too.

Thats BS, those things are only an extra and dangerous attack vector, top it off they dont offer anything useful over good old dumb thermostats.... (only gimmicks)

[Tech Enthusiast]

4 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Microsoft hasn't been a poster child for privacy and security for the past few years (if it ever was). 

There is rumors of people that love to hate on Microsoft, and then there is facts.

 

A few links on security holes:

2016: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/01/which-software-had-the-most-vulnerabilities-in-2016/

Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Linux Kernel and Mac OSX all higher up then Windows 10. The Linux stuff almost has twice the security holes.

 

2014: https://www.csoonline.com/article/2887240/microsoft-subnet/apple-linux-not-windows-most-vulnerable-operating-systems-in-2014-ie-wins-worst-app.html

Apple WAY ahead in critical holes, by a factor of like 4-5x. Also Linux a good deal worse then windows.

 

Currently, including everything that is considered a security hole (so higher numbers for all)

https://www.cvedetails.com/top-50-products.php

You will find Windows 10 at position 29 with 554 holes. Linux Kernel and MacOS top the charts with 2065 and 1980.

The worst Windows Version is Windows 7 with 916 (a version people love to use due to being "saver" then 10.

 

The most widely used Linux (Ubuntu) has about 902 holes and ranks in at number 14. Almost 200 more then even Windows XP.

 

So again: There is stuff people claim because it is cool to hate, and there is facts checked by experts. As far as Windows goes it is in fact the most secure OS you can currently get.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Rattenmann said:

There is rumors of people that love to hate on Microsoft, and then there is facts.

 

A few links on security holes:

2016: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/01/which-software-had-the-most-vulnerabilities-in-2016/

Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Linux Kernel and Mac OSX all higher up then Windows 10. The Linux stuff almost has twice the security holes.

 

2014: https://www.csoonline.com/article/2887240/microsoft-subnet/apple-linux-not-windows-most-vulnerable-operating-systems-in-2014-ie-wins-worst-app.html

Apple WAY ahead in critical holes, by a factor of like 4-5x. Also Linux a good deal worse then windows.

 

Currently, including everything that is considered a security hole (so higher numbers for all)

https://www.cvedetails.com/top-50-products.php

You will find Windows 10 at position 29 with 554 holes. Linux Kernel and MacOS top the charts with 2065 and 1980.

The worst Windows Version is Windows 7 with 916 (a version people love to use due to being "saver" then 10.

 

The most widely used Linux (Ubuntu) has about 902 holes and ranks in at number 14. Almost 200 more then even Windows XP.

 

So again: There is stuff people claim because it is cool to hate, and there is facts checked by experts. As far as Windows goes it is in fact the most secure OS you can currently get.

These numbers are fine but they don't fully explain the situation.

 

Having 500 security holes and 98% market penetration is far worse than having 1,000 holes and less than 1%.

 

Windows might not be the least secure OS but it really does put MANY MANY MANY more people at risk than every other OS combined.

[Nena Trinity]

If they make a Linux with Dx9 to Dx12 support I will be interested. :3 (hell they can even give me the Windows Store)

[jagdtigger]

17 minutes ago, Rattenmann said:

There is rumors of people that love to hate on Microsoft, and then there is facts.

 

A few links on security holes:

2016: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/01/which-software-had-the-most-vulnerabilities-in-2016/

Debian Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Linux Kernel and Mac OSX all higher up then Windows 10. The Linux stuff almost has twice the security holes.

 

2014: https://www.csoonline.com/article/2887240/microsoft-subnet/apple-linux-not-windows-most-vulnerable-operating-systems-in-2014-ie-wins-worst-app.html

Apple WAY ahead in critical holes, by a factor of like 4-5x. Also Linux a good deal worse then windows.

 

Currently, including everything that is considered a security hole (so higher numbers for all)

https://www.cvedetails.com/top-50-products.php

You will find Windows 10 at position 29 with 554 holes. Linux Kernel and MacOS top the charts with 2065 and 1980.

The worst Windows Version is Windows 7 with 916 (a version people love to use due to being "saver" then 10.

 

The most widely used Linux (Ubuntu) has about 902 holes and ranks in at number 14. Almost 200 more then even Windows XP.

 

So again: There is stuff people claim because it is cool to hate, and there is facts checked by experts. As far as Windows goes it is in fact the most secure OS you can currently get.

I love when someone cherry pick stuff but forgets about pieces that do not fit into their opinion :

 

MS got rekt basically.... (Even debian is better which is a full blown server/client OS.)

[LAwLz]

48 minutes ago, Rattenmann said:

There is rumors of people that love to hate on Microsoft, and then there is facts.

 

A few links on security holes:

-snip-

 

So again: There is stuff people claim because it is cool to hate, and there is facts checked by experts. As far as Windows goes it is in fact the most secure OS you can currently get.

I don't think you understand what the statistics you're quoting actually says.

 

You're posting how many CVEs things had. CVEs are publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in a specific vulnerability database. They are far from the only vulnerabilities that exists or even gets used. Microsoft fixes a lot of security holes without publishing them as CVEs. However, because of the open source nature of GNU/Linux, Android and to some extent Apple's products (webkit, MacOS, etc) they are far more likely to get a CVE number. Open source = more open discussion about security issues = more public reports.

 

Those numbers also do not factor in the severity of the issues found, nor if they were fixed or not.

The number of CVEs should under no circumstance be used as an indicator of how secure a product is or isn't.

 

Also, the way CVEs are categorized are a bit wonky from time to time. For example if an issue is discovered in a Mali GPU driver then that will be filed under Android issues, despite all Qualcomm users being unaffected. That's because the Mali drivers gets added as a module to some Android devices. However, an issue with an Nvidia driver might not get categorized as a Windows issue, since that is not shipped with Windows itself.

 

There are also other areas where it is wonky, for example it splits up Windows 7, 8 and 10 as three separate categories, however all versions of Linux is under the same category. Same for Android. So this Linux vulnerability from 1997 still counts as a "Linux vulnerability", but only vulnerabilities specifically found for Windows 10 will fall into the Windows 10 category.

[Sauron]

5 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

How many people for example will ever trust a Microsoft powered baby monitor as these are the sort of products this whole Azure Sphere project is targeting. I certainly wouldn't feel at ease. 

You can't distribute a linux based product without publishing the whole source code under the gpl2 license, so it should be possible to know exactly what ms receives.

[jagdtigger]

12 minutes ago, Sauron said:

You can't distribute a linux based product without publishing the whole source code under the gpl2 license, so it should be possible to know exactly what ms receives.

Only the parts that was gpl2 to begin with and they modified them. But if they have a linux core to run their proprietary closed source code they can do that without releasing it.

Edited April 17, 2018 by jagdtigger

[Sauron]

Just now, jagdtigger said:

Only the parts that was gpl2 to begin with and they modified them. But if they have a linux core to run their proprietary closed source code they can do that without releasing it.

I'm pretty sure they can't, which is why linux distributions can't distribute stuff like mp3 codecs with the installer and must ask the user if they want to install them separately. Can you think of a single linux distribution that comes with proprietary, closed source software or even stuff like zfs that uses the bsd license?

[Master Disaster]

15 minutes ago, Sauron said:

You can't distribute a linux based product without publishing the whole source code under the gpl2 license, so it should be possible to know exactly what ms receives.

They're only developing a Kernel, it clearly says so in the article. OP doesn't seem to understand the difference between a Kernel and a Distro.