Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's WSL Program Manager Admits WSL Adoption Level Has Been Absurdly Low

Microsoft's fake 'Linux' (actually it is Windows with new clothing) is a laughable failure that cost Microsoft a lot of money and the target audience broadly rejects after nearly half a decade

WSL, WSL2; Number of users: unknown, ~150k



Summary: All those evasive responses from Microsoft employees make more sense now that someone with the insiders' insight spills the beans; the person recently revealed just how appalling adoption had been; Microsoft is unable (or unwilling) to even refute

THE Microsoft folks will need to give some answers. We, together with former Microsoft staff who know Microsoft is hiding an embarrassment, have made inquiries and are patiently waiting; hours later and still no reply (although they very well know the answer, can give it offhand).



Sure, we welcome a belated response (or refutation) but strongly doubt any is actually on the way because it happened several times before. Empty promises that they would divulge some numbers -- promises they keep breaking.

"The Microsoft folks will need to give some answers.""I don't expect a reply," I told a former Microsoft employee, who keeps pressing Microsoft itself to admit that WSL and WSL2 have been utter failure.

A lack of reply too is newsworthy too, of course; they're brag like nobody's business if the numbers were high!

Let's give it a day, I thought...

Well, a day or so has passed and Microsoft's WSL Program Manager is giving a non-denying 'denial'. "Dude seems bitter," one reader told us. "IMO, the tone of his response, deflection, and ad hominem leads me to believe that your information is accurate."

In other words, only about 150 thousand people actually use this thing. It's ridiculously low, not only by Microsoft's standards. They've already thrown millions of dollars into this thing, including fake (astroturfed) media coverage.

We are still waiting for a reply -- if any -- from "Rich Tur-minal-ner-d," the Program Manager (his Twitter profile says "Sr. PM @ Microsoft. Modernizing the Windows Command-Line via Terminal & WSL, and improving the Windows Developer Platform" and he openly defends Microsoft's patent blackmail, so you know how much he "loves" Linux).

"...only about 150 thousand people actually use this thing."WSL has been almost exclusively promoted by Microsoft boosters or 'assets' embedded in the media (no need to name them again; we've known them for over a decade). They've done this for years.

"Sorry," he said, "we don't comment on unsubstantiated rumors nor absurd numbers..."

Those are not rumors. The source is reliable.

When pressed for actual numbers he then responded with: "Let me check."

He said that last year as well. And he never got back to us.

"Check if it's OK to say it's more or less correct?"

That was my reply to him. He's probably checking with Microsoft's executive level how to spin their way out of this one...

And we agree it's an absurd number. Absurdly low. And true...

"And why does Canonical help Microsoft promote this thing? How much has Microsoft paid Canonical to do this?"We think it's safe for GNU/Linux news sites to just ignore WSL 'news'. Scare quotes are fitting because it's just PR, powered by embedded 'stunts'... including misleading headlines. It's the only kind of news that says "Linux" and we won't post in Daily Links. Because it's not about Linux, it is about Vista 10. They hijack the Linux brand to promote their malware, which includes keylogging.

WSL is a dead end; It's a dying niche effort by Microsoft to hijack GNU/Linux the EEE way...

People can easily install, free of charge, proper GNU/Linux or even run it in something like VirtualBox. WSL (and WSL2) is obsolete, mimicking something like Cygwin from 2 decades ago. Who on Earth thought geeks would adopt such trash? Maybe the real goal was just to googlebomb "Linux" with Vista 10 "ads" (media space, or "mindshare" as Microsoft typically calls it). ZDNet and these Microsoft boosters currently googlebomb "Linux" with other Microsoft spam (Azure/Microsoft promotion) and this too we've omitted from Daily Links because it's very clearly a PR stunt designed to distract from actual GNU/Linux news. They even got coverage in mainstream media that never mentions GNU/Linux at all. Microsoft has just got that media to play along. To them, it's like GNU/Linux never exists at all except when Microsoft controls it and tells them to cover it. We've seen several more like this one; about half a dozen in total just yesterday (and it boils down to nothing but Microsoft offering some money... it's only about money, not substance). "Slush funds" from a PR viewpoint.

About WSL, did Microsoft actually expect decent adoption? Who at Microsoft thought this was a good idea? And why does Canonical help Microsoft promote this thing? How much has Microsoft paid Canonical to do this?

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

On Groupthink, Mindless 'Sheep', and Toxic Online Cults
This week, treat yourself to a life free of social control media
BetaNews is Run and Written by Bots That Make Clickbait
At least one author is doing this
 
Same Month Judge Suggests Selling Chrome (Compelling Google to Give It Away) Chrome Surpasses Two-Thirds of "The Market", Based on Surveyor
tackling Google's browser monoculture is still a priority
[Meme] Trying to Terrorise Critics
How Microsofters roll...
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
If you try to suppress our publication, we'll not just bark back but also bite
Why This Site Became "Simple" a Year Ago
Light is good, heavy is bad
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 25, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 25, 2024
Links 26/11/2024: International Microsoft Outages, Microsoft Mass Layoffs Bigger Than Reported Last Friday
Links for the day, Deutsche Welle and CBC focus
Gemini Links 26/11/2024: Not Pagan, Emacs Wiki, and More
Links for the day
Links 25/11/2024: Egypt Harasses Bloggers, The University of Michigan Has Become Like a Corporation
Links for the day
Links 25/11/2024: Climate News, Daniel Pocock Receives a Fake/Fraudulent €17,000 Electricity Bill
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft: Our "Hey Hi" Hype is Going So Well That We Have MASS Layoffs Every Month. Makes Sense?
Contradiction
Latest Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Are Confirmed, Bing and Vista 11 Losing Market Share
They tried to hide this. They misuse NDAs.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 24, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, November 24, 2024
Gemini Links 25/11/2024: Purity and Cory Doctorow's Ulysses Pact, Smolnet Portal and SGI
Links for the day
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part VIII
By Dr. Andy Farnell
GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in Europe (at 6%)
many in Europe chose to explore something else, something freedom-respecting
Patents Against Energy Sources That Reduce Pollution
this EV space (not just charging) is a patent mine field and it has long been that way
DARPA’s Information Innovation Office, Howard Shrobe, Values Compartmentalisation But Loses the Opportunity to Promote GNU/Linux and BSDs
All in all, he misses an opportunity
Wayland is an Alternative to X
the alternative to X (as in Twitter) isn't social control media but something like IRC
BetaNews, Desperate for Clicks, is Pushing Donald Trump Spam Created by LLMs (Slop)
Big clap to Brian Fagioli for stuffing a "tech" site with Trump spam (not the first time he uses LLMs to do this)
[Meme] Social Control Media Bliss
"My tree is bigger than yours"
Links 24/11/2024: More IMF Bailouts and Net Client Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/11/2024: Being a Student and Digital Downsizing
Links for the day
Techrights' Statement on Code of Censorship (CoC) and Kent Overstreet: This Was the Real Purpose of Censorship Agreements All Along
Bombing people is OK (if you sponsor the key organisations), opposing bombings is not (a CoC in a nutshell)
[Meme] The Most Liberal Company
"Insurrection? What insurrection?"
apple.com Traffic Down Over 7%, Says One Spyware Firm; Apple's Liabilities Increased Over 6% to $308,030,000,000
Apple is also about 120 billion dollars in debt
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 23, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 23, 2024
[Meme] GAFAMfox
Mozilla Firefox in a state of extreme distress
Google Can Kill Mozilla Any Time It Wants
That gives Google far too much power over its rival... There are already many sites that refuse to work with Firefox or explicitly say Firefox isn't supported
Free (as in Freedom) Software Helps Tackle the Software Liability Issue, It Lets Users Exercise Greater Control Over Programs
Microsofters have been trying to ban or exclude Free software
In the US, Patent Laws Are Up for Sale
This problem is a lot bigger than just patents
ESET Finds Rootkits, Does Not Explain How They Get Installed, Media Says It Means "Previously Unknown Linux Backdoors" (Useful Distraction From CALEA and CALEA2)
FUD watch
Techdirt Loses Its Objectivity in Pursuit of Money
The more concerning aspects are coverage of GAFAM and Microsoft in particular