In today's open source roundup: Microsoft's embrace of Linux comes across as self-serving and disingenuous. Plus: Ubuntu's Unity 8 will remove Amazon search, and what happens when Linux users run Windows? Until recently Microsoft has never been a big fan of Linux. The company has long had a well earned reputation as an enemy of Linux, and open source software in general. But recent comments from Microsoft executives seem to indicate a change of heart regarding Linux. ZDNet examines the reasons why Microsoft suddenly has love in its heart for Linux. According to ZDNet: Microsoft, of course, also makes money directly from Linux. Its Android patents, questionable as they may be, still provide a billion dollars more in profits than does Windows Phone. You see, it’s not so much Linux and open source per se that Microsoft has a crush on. It’s that, in 2014, the world is leaving the old desktop/application computing paradigm for a device/cloud services approach. Microsoft ruled the former; however, to continue to be a contender in the later, it’s realized that it needs to work and play well with others. Yes, even Linux. More at ZDNet Tech Rights As the article notes: Follow the money. To me that is clearly the reason why Microsoft has recently tried to embrace Linux. It simply has no other choice if it wants to remain relevant, particularly in the cloud. The company has lost a lot of the leverage it used to have with Windows. I can understand Microsoft’s need to protect its profits and revenue streams, but I must say that I’m unimpressed by this sudden change of heart. There are no principles involved, no larger awareness of the virtues of open source and Linux, and no sense of obligation or responsibility to the open source community. It’s simply a strategic move to position Microsoft to profit from Linux and other open source software. Frankly, it comes across to me as self-serving and somewhat disingenuous. Does anyone doubt that Microsoft would still destroy Linux and open source if it had the power to do so? Despite the change in CEO, I have no doubt that – if it thought it could get away with it – the company would smash Linux into a thousand pieces. There is just too much history of such behavior for me to ever believe otherwise about Microsoft. I guess we should be thankful that the world has changed, and that Microsoft will never have such power again. Their fangs have been mostly removed, and their bark is much worse than their bite these days. But you’ll have to excuse me if I remain unimpressed by their sudden love of Linux. Frankly, it leaves me rather cold. Ubuntu’s Unity 8 will remove Amazon search PCWorld reports that the controversial Amazon search feature will be removed in Unity 8. According to PCWorld: Unity 8’s dash, or search feature, has been redesigned to be more configurable, with scopes becoming more plug-in-like. When you perform a search in Unity 8’s Dash, it searches only locally. The “scopes” that search online sources, like Amazon or the Ubuntu Software Center, are still available, with additional scopes available via a Scopes Store. However, when you search you have to specifically enable a scope like the Amazon one to search online. More at PCWorld PC World While I think this is a good move on Canonical’s part, I also feel that the controversy over the Amazon search was a bit overblown. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me once users could disable it if they wanted to do so. And now they will simply have to enable it for it to work. I’m sure there are some folks out there who will definitely be pleased by this change though, and it’s probably the right thing for Canonical to do to help protect people’s privacy while still maintaining the option for them to search Amazon. What happens when Linux users run Windows? Softpedia has an amusing article about things Linux users do when running Windows. According to Softpedia: Not everyone can move completely from one operating system to another. It would be nice to stop relying on the OS made by Microsoft, but some tools and situations really require this particular system. I found out that some of the features in the Linux systems I use, mostly Ubuntu or Linux Mint, are taken for granted. We don’t appreciate them enough and they are sorely missed on Microsoft’s platform. It happened to me more than once to try to do something, only to realize that it’s not supported by Windows. It seemed logical and I couldn’t understand, for a fraction of a second, why it didn’t work. I soon realized my mistake, so this list could be something to actually look for in Windows 10, although I seriously doubt that it will happen. More at Softpedia Fortunately for me, I haven’t run Windows in many years. So none of this is a problem for me. But those of you who do run Windows have my sympathetic regards. I can’t imagine having to deal with that operating system on a regular basis. It makes me shudder just to think of booting into it, but your mileage may vary. What’s your take on all this? Tell me in the comments below. Open Source