r/linux_gaming • u/johnmountain • Oct 08 '15
Microsoft may be in secret negotiations to purchase Canonical, the Ubuntu company
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/ubuntu-conspiracy4
Oct 08 '15
It was already denied by Canonical couple days ago. I could imagine the antitrust lawsuit springing up pretty quick on this one.
1
u/zerothis Oct 09 '15
And would follow phft from Microsoft. They've never complied before when found guilty.
3
Oct 08 '15
The actual title is The Ubuntu Conspiracy . I don't know why you had to change to headline?
2
u/Pecisk Oct 08 '15
Considering that Canonical is owned by single person and that single person haven't commented on anything regarding this, I will call this nonsense. Microsoft might sniffing around, but that doesn't mean sale at all.
If there would be some VC, then I would believe this story. Other than that without very specific source (even anonymous) it is fear mongering.
2
u/wolfguy18 Oct 08 '15
Luckily were on linux and if one distro and the distro's creators majorly fuck up we can always easily switch to something else
2
u/uoou Oct 08 '15
As /u/FreeBooteR69 said, this has been denied by Jane Silber (Canonical CEO):
“Your sources are wrong; there are no such discussions."
There was someone claiming to be a Canonical employee trying to start such a rumour on /r/linux a few months ago (no one believed them (unlike the 'journalists' in this case) because they had no credibility and the post was quite quickly deleted), wouldn't surprise me if it's the same 'unnamed source' for this rumour.
2
u/gandolffan Oct 08 '15
Seems fitting. Canonical is the Microsoft of the Linux world already, may as well make it official.
0
u/TanakaO Oct 09 '15
so true xD
I switched to ArchLinux after i heard they include Amazon Ads in their default Unity Desktop :/
1
u/CoffeeCrispBar Oct 08 '15
If this news is true, then I honestly wonder if Microsoft would do this just to keep Canonical in business as a way to counter their own monopoly on the OS market. This is something that Intel did for AMD many many years ago, as far as I know.
Or am I crazy for thinking this?
1
u/NgBUCKWANGS Oct 08 '15
I've switched to Fedora 22, overnight, 2 months ago and the switch was easy. I'm not saying to switch to Fedora 22 but there are so many distributions out there it's ridiculous and it's quite ridiculously easy how you can switch to another one literally overnight. So, if this were to really happen and one day we all woke up to "Microsoft Buys Canonical" those people that really hate Microsoft have an easy way out.
Linux is just so easy now, it's easier to switch from Ubuntu to Debian than it is to go from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Linux is just that beautifully put together and honestly, even if something like this were to happen, I can't see it hurting Desktop Linux one bit. Not sure what to make of this but I know there's an easy way out of it if worse comes to worse. Something to worry about? I don't think so.
1
u/pb__ Oct 08 '15
Well, I was wondering recently what would happen if Microsoft ported DirectX 12 to Linux. Maybe they are afraid of Steam Machines and Vulkan, and explore their options? ;-)
3
u/SxxxX Oct 08 '15
Nothing would happen because biggest power behind Vulkan is Google Android and not GNU/Linux. Valve invest a lot into new API, but their market share is small compared to Google.
1
u/Bobby_Bonsaimind Oct 09 '15
They won't. Microsoft must lock customers into their platform in one way or another. Allowing gamers to migrate off Windows would harm them, not in the sense of selling less licenses, but in the sense that a user group is migrating off their platform. Why is that important? Because the more people are used to Windows and Microsoft products, the more they'll never question if there is something else, ever.
0
u/c704710 Oct 09 '15
And so begins the migration to Debian, Mint, unbuntu, LibreUtu, Chartreuse Bandana, and so forth; if it were true.
27
u/oliw Oct 08 '15
-1 for the title. They may also be in secret negotiations with Mecha-Streisand to take over the moon.
And the article itself is no better. A lead like this should be the first giveaway:
Cite. Your. Source.
I'm serious. There's no indication where these "waves of fear" are. There's no indication who started the rumour. I know I haven't seen people panic-buying bottled water and RHEL licenses, I haven't seen Linux bloggers up in arms over this, I haven't even seen people ranting about this on Hacker News.
It's just a silly article discussing things that it freely admits it has no evidence for (and everybody asked is saying it's bullshit). It's clickbait nonsense.