Look how far we've come. Linux was the alternative OS just ~15 years ago. Now it's one of the mainstream OSes.
TBH, I'd like to see one of the BSDs to become one of the mainstream OSes too. :)
edit: Except macOS ofc. :)
Some old people keep talking about the crazy idea of owning computers and installing OSes.
...on servers. It's still far, far from "mainstream" for desktops.
Still, that's a really big deal. I work for what is firmly a Microsoft shop, and nobody bat's an eyelid now if we use Linux VMs (as long as they're cloud-based).
I think 3 things in particular have driven the rise of Linux as a mainstream server OS:
1. docker/containerisation. Sure, Windows containers exist, but have you ever seen one in the wild?
2. The shift to the cloud, in conjunction with (3)
3. The rise of DevOps, in tandem with (2)
I have. What is done on .NET stays on Windows, for UNIX like OSes we get to use Java.
Yes there is .NET Core, it is the future, not all MS shops are buying into it due to the current limitations, waiting to see how .NET 5 will actually look like.
I'm also very surprised you'd claim that not all Microsoft shops are buying into dotnet core - I've seen the very opposite; every client I've worked with has known dotnet framework has been superceded by core, and has been eager to move. A decent portion of this is driven by certain containerisation, which (realistically) means dotnet on Linux.
The only real limitation with dotnet core has been the lack of managed C++ support - a niche use case, and only relevant on Windows, but even this has been resolved in dotnet core 3.1.
Considering the not insubstantial performance improvements in dotnet core, and of course the benefit of cross-platform code, I'm really interested to hear about the limitations of dotnet core you've found (the switch for me and all the enterprise clients I've worked with has been great)?
Desktops themselves are far from mainstream! The vast majority must be owned by gamers and video editors; both groups use predominantly non-Linux for reasons mostly unrelated to support that is or isn't in the kernel.
IIRC, they recently discontinued the link and related data sharing though.
For userspace what matters is ART, ISO C, ISO C++ and Android NDK APIs.
(and macOS can't really be called a BSD derivative; it is a mostly different OS that has taken some of its code from FreeBSD)
