Could, or Should, Microsoft make a CLI-only/optional-DE edition of Windows? - Remember rebooting Windows 95 to DOS in order to play NASCAR Racing?

[Betonhaus]

it would be equivalent to running linux without a desktop environment installed. It would give some efficiencies to a headless server, but would work great for a test bed for Microsoft to determine what is the bare minimum needed to make a full OS and build from there - instead of trying to pare back decades of legacy code. Alternatively, if it could simply reboot into a CLI-only mode without having the desktop environment running.

It may even allow for wacky shenanigans like letting you install a linux DE through WSL or make a very basic single-app interface, or run a webpage or game directly with near zero overhead (like how Windows 95 could reboot to run NASCAR directly on DOS)

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

There already is, it's called Server Core.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/server-core/what-is-server-core

 

[Geddy Lee's Fee and See]

No. Most versions of Linux come with a DE installed for a reason: unless you absolutely have to or are starved for resources, there's no need to use the bare TTY screen. You shouldn't use it when any terminal editor does the same thing.

That being said, Microsoft should have a CLI option for troubleshooting Windows, like they did with Microsoft 95 and 98. It just helps to have a backup system work in case something goes wrong with the main one. Also, the fact that theming Windows has essentially gone away is a fucking travesty. There were some classic XP, Vista and 7 themes that can't be updated to modern Windows. In terms of Windows' source code, it's probaly a giant 25 year old mess of dependancies and what not. They tried to clean it up with XP, but ever since they've just done what they aimed to mitigate and its gotten worse since as well.

 

[Betonhaus]

There already is, it's called Server Core.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/server-core/what-is-server-core

Can you run KDE through WSL on Server Core?

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

Can you run KDE through WSL on Server Core?

I don't know. I doubt it.

 

[Monopoly Supporter]

No. Most versions of Linux come with a DE installed for a reason: unless you absolutely have to or are starved for resources, there's no need to use the bare TTY screen. You shouldn't use it when any terminal editor does the same thing.

That being said, Microsoft should have a CLI option for troubleshooting Windows, like they did with Microsoft 95 and 98. It just helps to have a backup system work in case something goes wrong with the main one. Also, the fact that theming Windows has essentially gone away is a fucking travesty. There were some classic XP, Vista and 7 themes that can't be updated to modern Windows. In terms of Windows' source code, it's probaly a giant 25 year old mess of dependancies and what not. They tried to clean it up with XP, but ever since they've just done what they aimed to mitigate and its gotten worse since as well.

Windows is not a GUI slapped on top of a 1970s timesharing command line OS. That being said, NativeShell exists. It's just not very useful and can only run Native subsystem applications (which I believe is just autochk [chkdsk] at this point). It uses the Native subsystem which is raw NT kernel API calls (e.g. NtDisplayString for output, NtReadFile for input). The CONSOLE subsystem is implemented in userspace under csrss and as of Windows 7, conhost. Windows's recovery environment, Windows PE, does have a command prompt option which is probably what you are looking for.

Older versions of BlueCon also were native mode:

Some other recovery software used native mode as well.

 

[Betonhaus]

If there was a way to basically shut off the desktop environment to dedicate more resources to playing a game, would it be worth it at this stage?

 

[Monopoly Supporter]

If there was a way to basically shut off the desktop environment to dedicate more resources to playing a game, would it be worth it at this stage?

DWM isn't being rendered when you are running at full screen.

 

[Betonhaus]

DWM isn't being rendered when you are running at full screen.

It's still loaded in memory and has active processes.

 

[Monopoly Supporter]

It's still loaded in memory and has active processes.

Like 30 MB of commit...

 

[std::string]

Like 30 MB of commit...

It's more than that (at least with my experience running SQL Server on shitboxes) but it's still surprisingly small.

For all of their faults MS did a good job making the OS get the fuck out of the way of whatever application is consuming resources at the time.

 

[jeff7989]

Pajeets can't into CLI., it can't do the needful into java container.

 

[TheDataHorder]

I don't know. I doubt it.

server core from my knowledge doesn't even have the ability to do complex graphics such as that. i wouldn't be surprised if the display driver has everything but basic text rendering stripped out for as minimal usage as possible.
considers it's meant to run services in high enough depand that running a gui would be a determent to the service's performance (i.e an AD controller of a massive organization with thousands or more of users logging in daily)

 

[Monopoly Supporter]

server core from my knowledge doesn't even have the ability to do complex graphics such as that. i wouldn't be surprised if the display driver has everything but basic text rendering stripped out for as minimal usage as possible.
considers it's meant to run services in high enough depand that running a gui would be a determent to the service's performance (i.e an AD controller of a massive organization with thousands or more of users logging in daily)

Windows Server Core has DWM disabled so there are no fancy effects. Rendering is similar to the Basic theme in Windows Vista/7 (applications are responsible for painting), which is roughly the same as how XP and earlier did rendering. The shell is changed from Explorer.EXE to some console program. Having a Basic UI doesn't cost that much. Most Linux distros' console aren't text mode. They use unaccelerated VESA video modes because textmode is limited to 80x25 8x8 font on most systems. You could definitely get WSL 1 or 2 to work though.

 

[Firefox]

Microsoft sees Windows Server as their version of being as close to a CLI version without allowing further low level access to the operating system. Microsoft wants to make money and hates giving users any complex access to their device using their operating system. Should they do it? It would be nice but I don't see it happening soon.

 

[Monopoly Supporter]

Microsoft sees Windows Server as their version of being as close to a CLI version without allowing further low level access to the operating system. Microsoft wants to make money and hates giving users any complex access to their device using their operating system. Should they do it? It would be nice but I don't see it happening soon.

It's because Windows is a graphical operating system, not a text based one. UNIX is a text based timesharing minicomputer operating system from the 70s. NT is a graphical workgroup microcomputer operating system from the 90s. This makes it good at workgroup related things (ACLs, file sharing, group policy, etc.) but abysmal at things like Internet services and embedded (this is because Microsoft primarily offered Windows CE RTOS to customers wanting embedded solutions. CE can run in like 4 megs of RAM from ROM with a GUI.). You can get low level documentation on how Windows works. It does not hurt Microsoft's bottom line to tell people how their operating system works.