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A comment on Windows 7 outgains Windows 8 in market share again, Windows XP still above 27%. Parent comment

Re:Windows 7 outgains Windows 8 in market share again, Windo... by mikestew on Tuesday April 01, 2014 @06:21PM (#7512158)
You mean something like the Windows Runtime that used to come with some apps that I've since forgotten? I'd find you a link to what I'm talking about but...no, not that Windows Runtime, Google, the other one from the late 80s or early 90s.

Of course now it would be a specialized, stripped down VM, which Microsoft would never sell you because licenses. So if you're willing to pay for it, it's called (your VM software of choice) + a Windows license. Not optimal, I know, and way overweight but that's what we get right now.

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Re:Windows 7 outgains Windows 8 in market share again, Windo... by derekp7 on Tuesday April 01, 2014 @06:37PM (#7512256)
I remember that -- it was shipped back in the Windows 2.x days. This is when most people ran Dos, and Windows was an app that ran on top of Dos. I remember it coming with Pagemaker for one thing -- it installed very similar to regular windows, but you didn't get any type of shell or other desktop apps -- just a command to launch the target app under it.

This is one thing I would like to see developed again, but in reverse -- a Linux runtime for Windows. There was already a Linux kernel that would run as a user process under Windows (colinux, I think it was); combine this with an X frontend, and file system sharing, and you would be able to package up any Linux app for Windows.

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