בזכות האפשרות לבנות sub-systems תחת NT (ובמערכות שהחליפו אותה - 2000 ו-XP), כמעט כמו במערכות מבוססות מיקרו-קרנל, ובזכות העובדה שקוד המקור של לינוקס זמין, הרצת לינוקס כ-sub-system של חלונות היא הרבה יותר טבעית מהאפשרות ההפוכה; מי שמבין את ה-internals של ארכיטרטורת אינטל ושל הקרנלים יוכל להעיד שהרצת חלונות תחת לינוקס היא כמו גירוד האוזן ביד הנגדית: מאולצת, וכרוכה באינספור אתגרים.

ב-1998, כשחשבתי על הרעיון, לינוקס עדיין נתקלה בקשיים עצומים במאמציה לפרוץ מבעד לטבעת המצומצמת מאוד של משתמשים שהיו לה אז, ולכן יישום הרעיון בתקופה ההיא היה יכול לזרז את קצב החדירה של לינוקס. עקב כך, עשיתי ככל יכולתי כדי לקדם את הפרוייקט, אך למרבה הצער נתקלתי בחומות אטומות.

כעבור שנתיים, כאשר הנושא עלה שוב, כתבתי לחבר סיכום של מה שהתרחש ב-1998; אני מקווה שהציטוט יעלה יפה:

From: Eli Marmor <marmor@elmar.co.il
Organization: El-Mar Software Ltd.
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.08 [Hebrew Support by elmar.co.il (X11; I; Linux 2.0.36 i586
To: Aron Batashvily <aron@nospam.co.il>Subject: Windows Port of Linux

Hi Aron,
I couldn't find Alan's response to my message, but I remember that it
was VERY mocking and insulting, on behalf of Microsoft and the quality
of its operating systems. He was so shocked about the idea to run Linux
UNDER Windows NT, and couldn't understand, why the hell, anybody would
want to run ANY operating system UNDER Windows.
Anyway, my original message (from Nov. 1998) to him is following:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 23:39:59 +0200
From: Eli Marmor <marmor@elmar.co.il>
Organization: El-Mar Software Ltd.
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.06 [Hebrew Support by elmar.co.il (X11; I; SunOS 5.5 i86pc)
To: Alan.Cox@linux.org
Subject: Linux as a Subsystem of NT

Hello,
I know that you are very busy (after all, we are all waiting for the
final 2.0.36 and final 2.1.127...),
[more blah-blah was removed...]

Once, a long time ago, I saw a message of you in one of the mailing
lists, referring to a project of porting Linux to NT. I think that
in that time it was too early to do it, because the infrastructure
NT subsystem gave for Linux was too limited. But now, with the wired
ports of Linux to PalmPilot, 8086 (isn't it your project?), and other
funny machines, I believe that NT is much more powerful to be a
"platform" for a new port of Linux.

Now, why I think that such a port has so much importance:
I had a Linux booth in a computer's exhibition in Israel. Among other
things we did there, we asked people who decided not to adopt Linux,
for a reason. All of them gave us the following answers:

1. Dependency o­n legacy applications for Windows (e.g. Word, Outlook, etc.).
2. Hardware compatibility issues, special cards and hardware, problematic drivers, etc.
3. Fears from unfamiliar installation, disk format/re-partitioning ,
etc.

The ability to run Linux under NT solves all of these problems (well,
most of the people still have Windows 9X and not NT, but everybody
predicts this situation to change quickly, so let's assume that most
of the people have NT), so I believe that MANY (1/3 - 1/4) of the
Windows users will install such a port, like it was another word
processor or electronic spreadsheet:

1. You can continue run your legacy application under the native NT.
2. You bypass the hardware compatibily issues, because you have to
face them only during the installation of the *NT*, which will
support almost everything in a short term. In addition, vendors of
hardware bundle NT drivers with their products.
3. No re-partitioning, hard installation, etc. You just install it
under your NT, just like it was another web browser.

Why other solutions don't answer the need:

1. SoftW

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