So move the desktop over to Linux or BSD. Add a nice Windows GUI to make the change visually less noticable, and have a rosetta-like functionality that makes old apps work seamlessly. First steps: make an Office version for Linux, and make Adobe do the same with CS. Everybody will follow.
In fact it's turning the current situation with the Ubuntu subsystem around. Make Ubuntu the main system, and Windows a VM like service. Maybe that's the whole idea behind this. It would show vision.
I just don't think that will happen in practice, at least not in the next decade. I would think MS COULD port a LOT of support into WINE and make it more transparent and closer to in-the-box in linux. I just don't see it happening.
Even now, I recently upgraded to an X570 based system on Linux. I had to bump the Linux kernel to 5.2 and download binaries to get the wifi working... I then got my rx5700xt video card, had waited for review cycles for non-reference cards. I bumped the kernel, again, and downloaded the blobs... swapped the card. 1080p on a 4k display (42" so too big to deal with)... two hours later futzing with it, no gui load at all, and shut it off.
Will probably give Manjaro (with update) and/or arch a try before reverting to Windows. Why, I'm pretty confident it will all work. Note: this doesn't even scratch the surface on the state of aRGB support from the hardware vendors.
As much as I prefer Linux, there are still headaches with current hardware. Not to mention, I doubt MS would switch to Linux for XBox's underlying OS (though something closer to Android or ChromeOS could be an option, with MS gui).
> Even now, I recently upgraded to an X570 based system on Linux. I had to bump the Linux kernel to 5.2 and download binaries to get the wifi working... I then got my rx5700xt video card
AFAIK, the minimal kernel for RX5700 drivers is 5.3 (I've been running on a 5.3 rc for a few week but now the 5.3 is stable so you don't need to run on an unstable rc anymore). With 5.3 it worked at first try. (But I still agree that needing to update your kernel is a bit annoying, especially when you run on a distro that doesn't support 5.x kernels, and now you need to update your distro then update your kernel…)
I got the kernel update fine, but it only "kind of" worked, I couldn't set the resolution to 4K. I'm not an expert on the underpinnings of the Linux kernel and drivers. In the end, I now have a borked setup (Pop!_OS, updated kernel with ukuu, and downloaded binaries from the git repo for the amdgpu/vega*.bin) ... In any case, about to give Manjaro a try, update and see if it "just works" since Arch is now updated with 5.3, if that doesn't work will try Arch directly.
Been a Debian/Ubuntu user for years (recently giving desktop another try), so will be a bit different for me. But so much of my workflows are containerized, I'm hoping it's less of an issue.
That doesn’t work for Windows. The entire MO of Windows is that it runs old unsupported software forever. True, Apple did that twice, but they eventually drop support for the emulator/compatibility layer.
In fact it's turning the current situation with the Ubuntu subsystem around. Make Ubuntu the main system, and Windows a VM like service. Maybe that's the whole idea behind this. It would show vision.