
Ask HN: Should Microsoft rebuild Windows as a *nix based OS? - xky
Is it a good idea?
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alrs
The whole point of NT was to provide Win32, POSIX(UNIX), and OS/2 all atop the
same kernel. No need to rebuild it, NT was built like that.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1#Architecture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1#Architecture)

Nothing stops Microsoft from putting an entire GNU or BSD userspace atop their
NT kernel. They probably built the proof-of-concept 15 years ago.

EDIT: Considering that they used the BSD network code to put TCP/IP in NT 3.1,
it's likely that they had at least a minimal BSD userspace running atop the NT
kernel circa 1991/1992\. That could have meant x86, Alpha, or MIPS:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution)

