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Windows Linux

New Project Lets You Install Arch Linux In the Windows Subsystem For Linux 77

Posted by msmash from the good-things dept.
prisoninmate writes: Softpedia reports that there's a new project on GitHub, called alwsl, which promises to let you install the Arch Linux operating system on Windows 10's new WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) feature, which allows users to run native Linux command-line tools directly on the Windows operating system alongside their modern desktop and apps. For example, Canonical and Microsoft brought Bash on Ubuntu on Windows using the new WSL functionality. For now, the alwsl project, which is developed by a group of German developers that call themselves "Turbo Developers," offers a .bat file that you can use to install Arch Linux on a WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) host, but the software is in developer preview stage. The first stable release, alwsl 1.0 will be able not only to install Arch Linux on the Windows Subsystem for Linux host in Windows 10 editions that support it, but also to create and manage users and snapshots. Also, it looks like it will get rolling upgrades just like a normal Arch Linux installation gets. The final release is expected to launch on December 2016, and you can monitor its development progress on GitHub.
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New Project Lets You Install Arch Linux In the Windows Subsystem For Linux More

New Project Lets You Install Arch Linux In the Windows Subsystem For Linux

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  • Better use Linux directly (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    and put Windows 10 into the trash can. Dual booting is the future, but since Microsoft will intentionally break it with many little "update accidents", you might just as well use Linux directly. It works fine and doesn't pester you with unwanted updates at the wrong time.
    • I have my Windows 10 install in a VM (Linux host), and I'm very pleased with the setup (a multi-monitor setup is helpful but not necessary). Performance is adequate for the basics, although it's a little silly that I need to run a VM just to be able to properly edit a document. Yes, I know there are open alternatives, but for documents with images, formulae, tracked changes, etc., I find it easier to just use Word (obviously I prefer a TeX solution [I highly recommend Overleaf], but it's not always up to me

      • For some reason OS/2 for Windows comes to mind...
        The underlying method may differs, but the marketing approach sounded remarkably similar.

    • No Shit Sherlock.... I retired in 2010 after nearly 20 years of supporting/using MS products. Around 2011, I decided I was done messing with MS products, and deleted the Windows 7 dualboot-ness of all of my systems back to 100% Linux. Since then, I've been sitting back and watching the shitstorm surrounding the "turd_in_the_punchbowl" that is Windows 10, and how desparate MS seems to be in forcing Windows 10 onto every machine they can. Watching from the sidelines, it occurs to me that Windows 10 itself *is

    • Better use Linux directly and put Windows 10 into the trash can...

      I've used Linux since before it hit 1.0 and I'd love to do that. However, at work, I'm forced to use a laptop that boots Win7 for now and I'm told Win10 is coming in the future. So no matter how much I want to use only Linux, I don't have that option at work (at home I use Linux). Therefore, something like this has appeal to me. Historically, I used Cygwin, but if I could have something that feels more native, that would be a good thing.

      Perhaps one day we can convince the IT department that Linux is a via

    • Mod parent up. If you're running it from inside Windows, then you're still running Windows. This is the annexation of Linux that I've been watching happening with Microsoft: one way or another they want to be the only OS that anyone uses, and this is an example of that; I'll say it again: If you're running Linux from within Windows, you're still running Windows and not Linux. It's just a shell at that point. Eschew Windows entirely and install Linux if you want Linux, among other things it'll have 100% less

    • Well you all shouted the year of the Linux Desktop right?

      Well you got it. Insert Tada (windows 3.1) wav file sound

      Unfortunately not exactly as we meant ðY'

  • The kind of irony that Alanis Morisette loves (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @11:41AM (#53017967)

    The only thing you're not installing is actually the "Linux" part of it -- the Kernel. It's still Windows 10 underneath.

    So, you're just installing the "GNU/" part of the "GNU/Linux" stack. Congratulations on a comprehensive mis-marketing, "Turbo Developers".

    • Nit-picking about why Ubuntu isn't "Linux" won't make you many friends.

    • So, you're just installing the "GNU/" part of the "GNU/Linux" stack.

      What is GNU? Is the common answer no one knows? I think it's no one cares. When people talk about an OS they don't talk about details, version numbers, kernels, user stacks. The marketable name for what people know as Ubuntu, Debian, etc is Linux. That's not mis-marketing. The mis-marketing was done when Linux started becoming popular. Now it's just using the common described name. This begs the question, are you RMS?

    • At that point, why not just use Cygwin?

  • ... it opens up another surface for attacks.

    I will probably install something like this at some point, but please don't put this on a non-isolated system without understanding the risks.

  • So...this is Cygwin? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Just saying.

  • If Windows isn't bizarre & convoluted enough for you, now you can layer systemd on top of it?

  • It's written on the Bible!
  • Now, you too can construct a Faberge Egg inside a shitbox with no brakes.

    • Now, you too can construct a Faberge Egg inside a shitbox with no brakes.

      LOL. I came to say pretty much that - my first thought was "you're running a high-speed Maglev train at 300 MPH over a rotting wooden bridge".

  • By the way, does that mean that Windows can phone home and send to MS all of your Linux data? Isn't that pretty!

  • Those who cannot remember the past (Score:3)

    by geekprime ( 969454 ) on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @01:24PM (#53018737)

    'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

    Apparently the devs are too young to remember proven to be real internal Microsoft policy of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    From that article...
    >The variation, "embrace, extend and extinguish", was first introduced in the United States v. Microsoft antitrust trial when a vice president of Intel, Steven
    >McGeady, testified[8] that Microsoft vice president Paul Maritz used the phrase in a 1995 meeting with Intel to describe Microsoft's strategy toward
    >Netscape, Java, and the Internet.[9][10]

    • Apparently the devs are too young to remember proven to be real internal Microsoft policy of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish

      You are describing an era of Microsoft that was heavily driven by strategy and domination. That Microsoft is long gone. What is left is accountants systematically euthanizing the only cash cows they have left and struggling to stay relevant in any and every market they think will net them $1.

      Don't give Nadella so much credit, he's not even remotely smart enough to pull off Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. He's just looking to drive it down and sell off the assets like he has done with his past endeavours.

  • Why not MS Nano on MS Windows Server on Slack on Cygwin on Win 95 on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows ? I mean - all these CPU cycles and all that unused RAM has to go somewhere, right ? Why not Rocco Sifredi on Kim Kardashin on Sylvester Stallone on Meryl Streep on Chuck Norris ? What say you ?

    • Like playing DOS games on Windows 95 and 98 at full speed and features?
      Believe it or not, sometimes the software "engineers" come up with things that actually work.

  • This could be a Msys2 comperitor. Both will have the Arch feel but WSL allows unmodified binaries and no porting needed.
  • This is the third [slashdot.org] slashdot article [slashdot.org] on ArchLinux in the past year. I don't see this much publicity being devoted the hundreds of other Linux distros out there. Why is Slashdot giving so much play to ArchLinux? Is there anything special about it or do they just have a good PR team?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rat7307 ( 218353 )

      Because Arch is awesome.

      (Yes, I'm part of the Arch master race)

    • I really hope this is a Poe's Law situation and you're being sarcastic.

      I guarantee you in the last year /. has done at least 3 articles each on Ubuntu, Mint, Red Hat, and Gentoo (and OpenBSD and FreeBSD), and at least 1 on various others. I see 2 or 3 Mint articles just since the beginning of September.

      • I guarantee you in the last year /. has done at least 3 articles each on Ubuntu, Mint, Red Hat, and Gentoo (and OpenBSD and FreeBSD), and at least 1 on various others.

        Ubuntu, Red Hat, FreeBSD, and Gentoo have been popular for long enough to deserve the attention. But both Arch (and Mint too) seem like upstarts. Before broadcasting every release, I think we should see more articles explaining their benefits.

        • Gentoo
          Developer Gentoo Foundation
          OS family Unix-like
          Working state Current
          Source model Open source
          Initial release 31 March 2002; 14 years ago

          Ubuntu
          Developer Canonical Ltd, Ubuntu community
          OS family Linux
          Working state Current
          Source model Open source (with exceptions)[1]
          Initial release 20 October 2004; 11 years ago

          Linux Mint
          Developer Clement Lefebvre, Jamie Boo Birse, Kendall Weaver, and community[1]
          OS family Unix-like
          Working state Current
          Source model Open source
          Initial release 27 August 2006; 10 years ago

          Arch Linux
          Developer Aaron Griffin and others[a]
          OS family Unix-like
          Working state Current
          Source model Open source
          Initial release March 11, 2002; 14 years ago

          Apparently Arch has actually been around 2 years longer than Ubuntu, and about 20 days than Gentoo.
          And Mint is only 2 years out of 12 younger.

  • I guess you're speaking about a Linux Subsystem on Windows.

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