Submitted 9 hours ago by MCasq_qsaCJ_234@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.world
Today we’re very excited to announce the open-source release of the Windows Subsystem for Linux. This is the result of a multiyear effort to prepare for this, and a great closure to the first ever issue raised on the Microsoft/WSL repo:
I am legit excited to install WINE Subsystem for Linux
Or how about KDE on ReactOS on WSL?
The possibilities are endless
ReactOS has SUCH potential. I really wanna see it thrive.
Unfortunately building it was a disaster a few years ago, I should give it another go.
I still will never understand why it’s not called Linux Subsystem for Windows.
I think it is because Windows has many subsystems, it’s just that you don’t hear about most of them aside from WSL.
So it is referring to the particular Windows Subsystem (of which there are many) that can run or emulate Linux.
There’s a trademark for Linux so Microsoft can’t name a product starting with Linux.
So they can use Linux in the name, just not at the beginning? We’re so stupid. Can they do Windows Subsystem for Coke? Or Windows Subsystem for McDonald’s? Or Windows Subsystem for MacOs?
Good gravy.
Not in the spirit of free software, if you ask me.
I got hung up on this before too but it’s apparently “Windows Subsystem (for using) Linux”
Maybe they just named it like the previous attempt: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Services_for_UNIX
Don’t you think this is another Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish strategy from Microsoft?
That’s exactly what it is. Any time now you’ll see “the best way to run Linux: on windows” or similar.
Does Lemmy even know what EEE means anymore or are we regurgitating words we heard from some article now?
What’s it going to embrace and extend? WSL has existed for ages and is just a way to run Linux in a convenient container on top of Windows. That’s it. It’s not an attempt to “extenguish” Linux, literally just make the development experience on Windows less painful so people don’t switch to another OS. This has nothing to do with EEE.
Open sourcing it with a permissive license can only be a good thing, and again they’re doing it to be more appealing to devs and maybe get free bug fixes from the open source community. It isn’t some grand conspiracy. But of course this community will react to news of “proprietary blob is now open source” with pessimism.
I think it’s an attempt to keep people on their platform who need easy access to a unix-like shell. Linux has it and so does mac os. Windows didn’t until they introduced wsl.
Well windows had cygwin and mingw
I think it’s more embrace. They have to compete against so many more entities now.
This is my thought, they’ve all but lost the battle for cloud servers and they’d rather the developers computers were Windows. WSL allows that.
I think you’re probably right. Microsoft seems less invested in winning an operating system battle at this point. They’re positioning services and abstractions that care less about the end device’s operating system, more so that they’re at least on that device.
I wouldn’t be surprised we see Microsoft “embrace” Proton and Wine in the next 5 to 10 years as it’s far easier to let “the community” predominantly handle supporting legacy Windows versions that have to handle it themselves.
They can’t suddenly lose that entire OS revenue machine however and would need to transition. But I doubt that Redmond are naive to the disruption Wine and Proton are having and how technical users are starting to jump ship.
I don’t think that, as Microsoft hasn’t done a lot (any?) of that stuff in recent years.
It’s because they have pivoted to subscriptions on office, ads on windows and general data harvesting.
That was 30 years ago, you’re going to have to move on one day.
Normally I would say yes, but WSL is so incredibly necessary for a developer that it might be legit.
Personally I never use it except for docker desktop. I just use powershell
Docker doesn’t exist in a usable state on Windows, so its an attempt to allow management of servers using Windows.
Docker works with windows containers
I wish people would let the EEE meme die. It’s not the 90’s anymore grandpa. Parroting the same pointless meme without applying critical thinking gets old.
Are you suggesting an alternative motive for Microsoft that does beyond profit?
It could be another Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish strategy from Microsoft, because if the increase in Linux user share leads to an increase in malware, most of those users aren’t experts.
So there will be an increase in antivirus software for Linux, but that will also lead to DRM in Linux, and Linux may become what I swore to destroy. While BSD distributions, Redox OS, and other systems take over to become the new Linux as it was in its beginnings.
Anyone who’s running WSL is probably closer to an “expert” than the average windows user
That’s their playbook. But honestly I think anyone who plays with WSL will either get a taste and begin learning/transitioning to Linux or device to stick with their “safe” windows machine
WSL is just a way to actually get some shit done when there’s a terrible business reason for requiring a native Windows install.
My Microsoft Surface became vastly more useable once I installed Linux on it.
WSL allows me to develop in a Linux environment while still enjoying my very custom Windows setup and programs that I am used to. So no, WSL did not make me choose a side, but instead allows me to get the best of both worlds at once.
Maybe. But Microsoft owns the workplace, so when you get a job they’ll demand you can only use Windows, or if you’re lucky enough to be allowed to use Linux, the Microsoft management software will suck so much you’ll want to use Windows. Microsoft is silently implementing their EEE strategy, and this is only a small part of that. Before long they’ll release their AI-focused cloud-connected Linux distro with Windows Desktop compatibility.
No real reason to extinguish here, Microsoft is a services company and can offer those services on Windows and Linux.
I’d wager you’re more likely to see an official compatibility layer on Linux supported by Microsoft before you see them move to extinguish.
So besides the brownie points, im curious what having it open sourced will benefit. Not like you can fork it to run on a different OS. You can make some extensions but to do what? You can’t really tie it further in to the host OS unless you know of some undocumented Win32 APIs.
Maybe im just not thinking creatively enough.
They released their code as MIT which is far more permissive than I was expecting. I was expecting some sort of proprietary license.
But they need to keep doing stuff like this. Devcontainers for VS Code is still proprietary and keeps me from running codium.
Not like you can fork it to run on a different OS.
For WSL1? yep that’s effectively impossible.
WSL2 is effectively just a wrapper around the kernel virtualization support and a bundling format, as long as whatever image you run talks to the host properly (like any other virtualised OS would) it’d run.
What kind of axe do you need?
one of those pointy glass hammers should do it
for breaking windows
Fair play to Microsoft here. Hopefully we see some pull requests from non-ms employees and a better wsl experience for us all
Thanks for nothing Microsoft
Ah, the Linux Subsystem for Windows (MSFT has never been great at naming things) is finally open source, hooray…
Now do it with rest of the operating system, and I may, possibly have a reason to care.
Windows, you mean? Please no, thanks, I don’t need to see anything of that garbage
can some one ELI5… is this a way for me to run windows stuff using linux? OR is this for linux stuff to run in windows?
I really want an easier way to run windows stuff in linux, my hatred grows with every notification, update, attempt to advertise to me, and interference in my workspace. but trialing mint is great but the ultimate test is failing with a few programs not really playing nice with linux.
It’s to run Linux stuff on Windows.
It should be called ENIW.
This is for running Linux programs on Windows. ELI5: some programs are made to run on windows, and some programs are made to run on Linux. Microsoft made a thing for windows that makes it able to run programs that were supposed to run on Linux. That thing is called Windows Subsystem for Linux.
What windows programs do you have that are not working well on Linux? There are various tools to run windows programs on Linux, and some work better than others for specific programs. I have had good luck with bottles recently, you might try that if you have not already. Other options I’ve used with great success in the past: ploy on Linux, Lutris, and wine directly. They all us wine at some level, but have tried and tested configuration for various programs to run well, and help with the installation and management of different wine versions. Depending on your windows programs, one option might be to run windows in a VM on Linux, to run those few programs. Another benefit of this way is that your Linux system is somewhat isolated from your windows programs. This can help with privacy and security.
What programs you struggling with on Linux?
I’d say any of the multitude of programs that don’t work on linux.
I don’t understand this.
Does this mean Windows programs and exe files will now run natively on linux?
Yes, as long as your Linux distro is Windows.
In my view it’s a Linux subsystem for Windows.
Why the name is the other way around, I’ll never understand.
The original WSL doesn’t use the Linux kernel at all, it’s a Windows Subsystem for compatibility with Linux. WSL2 actually visualizes a complete Linux kernel, but the name stuck.
Windows subsystem for (running) linux?
I guess the logic is that it’s a subsystem of Windows for the purpose of running Linux apps.
Agree though that it’s a confusing name. I remember thinking the same thing about Windows Subsystem for Android (the compatibility layer to run Android apps in Windows)
It’s a windows subsystem, and it runs linux.
Yeah the naming is absurdly stupid. Its a linux subsystem that is part of windows nowadays. Its so people on windows can get access to a proper terminal interface.
[Windows subsystem] for [executable environment] is the naming scheme. The default is Win32, there’s one for POSIX (practically never used), and Linux runs in another.
Windows has a terminal interface already!
I still think it’s funny that the best way to run Linux on the desktop is via installing it through the Windows App Store
Oh you poor fool, if only you knew how good things could be…
Best?
not in the slightest.
Most convenient…maybe?
How was it not open source before? Isn’t linux gpl?
Gumus@lemmy.world 58 minutes ago
I know there’s a lot of hate for Microsoft on Lemmy, but WSL is one of the best parts of Windows. It’s really powerful and well integrated to Windows. Since I still can’t leave for pure Linux install, I’m glad for WSL.
Perish@lemm.ee 36 minutes ago
Funny that the Linux is best part of Windows lmao