Cringley’s “Free Windows” idea

Robert X. Cringly makes the point that Microsoft could give away it’s OS for free if threatened in his most recent article. Looking aside from “Windows Live”, I thnk it’s pretty obvious that giving away it’s OS would be disasterous for Microsoft, and a boon for OSS vendors.

Computer virtualization is commonplace nowadays, what with VMware releasing free software to virtualize an operating system, along with other similar OSS projects, having “Free Windows” would mean that geeks could load MS’s free offering over Linux or Mac OS X (intel version), and for no cost run all of the Windows only software out there.

Imagine a linux distro that layers Windows over a secure “linux shim”, providing high end firewall and other features, such as rapid lab reimaging of all windows environments. Got a problem with your windows? Wipe it and reinstall in a matter of minutes.

John Gruber points out that OSS’s percieved value is it’s monetary cost which could be nulled by “Free Windows”. While this may seem logical on paper, in reality the biggest win you get is flexibility and the freedom to tinker, and share those bits with others. Also, Linux and the BSD’s tend to fit into the server/workstation market, not the low end market – if “Free Windows” does get released, it’s most likely going to be closer to the Windows XP Starter Edition, not their high end server platforms.