'Windows Subsystem for Linux 2' Will Include a Microsoft-Written Linux Kernel (zdnet.com) 168
ZDNet reports that there'll be some changes in Microsoft's second version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux, WSL2:
Microsoft has decided to remove the Linux kernel from the Windows OS image with WSL2. Instead, the company will deliver it to users' machines using Windows Update. Users will be able to manually check for new kernel updates by clicking the "Check for Updates" button or by waiting for Windows to do this automatically. "Our end goal is for this change to be seamless, where your Linux kernel is kept up to date without you needing to think about it. By default this will be handled entirely by Windows, just like regular updates on your machine," said Microsoft Program Manager Craig Loewen in a blog post today outlining the coming change...
When Microsoft first introduced WSL in Windows 10 in 2016 WSL was more of an Linux interface at that point designed in partnership with Canonical. But Microsoft has been busy rearchitecting WSL with WSL 2 so that it actually will provide a Microsoft-written Linux kernel running in a lightweight virtual machine that's based on the subset of Hyper V. Users can put basically any Linux distribution of their choice on that kernel.
Engadget reports that the new version "should load and run faster, with reduced memory consumption to free up your RAM for other tasks." And they also speculate about Microsoft's motivations.
"Now that Microsoft is less dependent on Windows sales and more on services like Azure, it benefits when it treats Linux like a first-class citizen."
When Microsoft first introduced WSL in Windows 10 in 2016 WSL was more of an Linux interface at that point designed in partnership with Canonical. But Microsoft has been busy rearchitecting WSL with WSL 2 so that it actually will provide a Microsoft-written Linux kernel running in a lightweight virtual machine that's based on the subset of Hyper V. Users can put basically any Linux distribution of their choice on that kernel.
Engadget reports that the new version "should load and run faster, with reduced memory consumption to free up your RAM for other tasks." And they also speculate about Microsoft's motivations.
"Now that Microsoft is less dependent on Windows sales and more on services like Azure, it benefits when it treats Linux like a first-class citizen."
Microsoft-Written Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Embrace- check
Extend- check
Extinguish- ?
I am feeling a lot of deja vu right now. Maybe THIS time will be different?
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I'm getting EA vibes... Absorb a studio, fire their people upon acquisition and replace with your own, then finish up contracts and final patch cycles, then shut down the studio moving on to the next one. It doesn't compare exactly at the moment, but it feels like Microsoft wants to be like EA so it seems like large company can pump millions into a project which seems great when in reality it's like shaking hands with someone while you don't notice their other hand has a knife to your back.
Hehe
No need to fire them. (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember Bullfrog being bought, and every single person quitting, to form a new company. Which was bought too. And again half of them quit on the spot.
That is how evil EA is.
I only wonder how anyone can just ... buy ... your company. I mean can't you just tell them to fuck off?
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Well being that that they had been working on current EA property. I bet that EA would could find some IP law that they are breaking.
While I haven't been hit with such legal actions myself. When I code a project where I am given a degree of latitude on what I can do, the code style will go to my personal coding methodologies, which gives the product that the company owns some competitive advantages, and perhaps some weaknesses. However it puts the product into a niche that solves the right problem for th
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I only wonder how anyone can just ... buy ... your company. I mean can't you just tell them to fuck off?
If you're a private company, you sure can.
If you're a public company, well it's too late. You already sold to the investors. They can sell to whoever they want. The buyer just needs to buy 50% plus one share and they can appoint their own board, officers, and that's that.
I wonder why no one took a page from media companies and licensed their company instead. Or maybe that's what Google did.
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What does this even mean? They absorb... Linux? Somehow buy it from Linus and all the thousands of developers who share copyright over different bits? Or just some core parts of it. And then "fire" them from an open source project and shut their version down, which somehow prevents the inevitable instant fork from working too?
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They advertise it heavily, get a lot of people hooked on it, then change it just enough that what those people are doing no longer works on plain Linux because it depends on nonstandard changes Microsoft made.
Re:Microsoft-Written Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it sort of amusing that so many people here are so blinded by distrust of MS that they're failing to see this as the victory for Linux that it is. That is, Microsoft is basically admitting that Linux is here to stay, and is a serious factor in the server space. Moreover, because Linux is used in Azure, they're now making lots of money with Linux, and so have a reason to improve tooling for Linux development / testing.
You don't need to look for nefarious, mustache-twirling motives about secretly killing off Linux. Would Microsoft prefer that Linux wasn't a thing? Of course, but I think their failure in the smartphone market has taught them that they can't necessarily have their own way all the time, like they've just assumed is their birthright on the desktop. And on accepting that reality, they are now ensuring Windows stays as relevant as possible as a development platform, since that's key for their cloud business as well.
Re:Microsoft-Written Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
> they're failing to see this as the victory for Linux that it is. That is, Microsoft is basically admitting that Linux is here to stay,
Microsoft doesn't decide this. Whether they admit it or not, that bar was surpassed decades ago.
It's not more a victory than MS declaring the sky blue. Pat MS on the head, but wash your hands after.
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I find it sort of amusing that so many people here are so blinded by distrust of MS that they're failing to see this as the victory for Linux that it is.
Actually, what I see is Microsoft possibly not learning the lessons from its own past. When they decided (I believe with Vista) they wanted to remove the BSD-licensed networking stack they'd had in Windows for many years, they wrote their own - and then, over the next couple of years, basically had to re-patch numerous security flaws which had been found and solved by the BSD folks one or two decades prior.
I fully expect to see the same thing here, if Microsoft is really writing its own "Linux" kernel. Howe
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A Microsoft-written Linux kernel?
Thanks, guys, but I'll take my chances without your help.
WINE...works fine for me.
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Without a Linux Kernel would this make it Winux Subsystem?
Truth be told, I would have been happier with with the GNU tools ported over to windows native. Kinda like Cygwin but a bit more integrated.
Instead of powershell or command prompt. I can just call up bash. I have the full set of Unixy commands at hand.
Linux subsystem and even Cygwin seem to distance itself from the running OS. Which has its advantages, but also is creats overhead. And these system just allow us to Tinker with Linux vs actually use to
Re: Microsoft-Written Linux (Score:2)
Then try cygwin, or WSL 1. You might have to put aside what they "seem like", because they are what you're asking for, depending on your definition of "overhead". Filesystem access is pretty slow in WSL1 for example.
I mean what kind of integration are you looking for, "cat [enter]", and a windows file open dialogue pops up?
For GUI software I'm with you, like GIMP. For console stuff Cygwin is a windows port... well, a compatibility layer, I don't know what more you'd want, and WSL1 is unmodified Linux bin
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WSL is way better than Cygwin. It's a proper Linux environment, you can install stuff using your favourite package manager, all the filesystem and other issues go away.
It's great when you need to use tools designed for Linux where there is no Windows port or the port is 2nd class. It's great for building software that won't build right on Windows (DieHarder I'm looking at you). I'm sure it's great for loads of other stuff I haven't tried too.
Re: Microsoft-Written Linux (Score:2)
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Re: Microsoft-Written Linux (Score:2)
Its going to be the only linux-ish distro that requires a fucking reboot after every trivial update. Aside from the kernel, and for some distros not even then, the only time you need to reboot is after a kernel update. And that is only IF you have a compelling reason to switch to that kernel. I have built phone systems for companies and come back later to give them a hand with something to see 700 or even 1000 days of uptime. Individual packages get updated, running services get restarted, but uptime always
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Proving once again that MS does not really understand Linux. When you get a stable, known-good kernel in place, you DON'T MESS WITH IT unless you need feature updates for your hardware, or security fixes.
Keep your flaming dumpster fire Win Update far away from my Linux setup, you clueless BOFHs. It's a total shitshow.
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Embrace- check
Extend- check
Extinguish- ?
I am feeling a lot of deja vu right now. Maybe THIS time will be different?
Yeah it will be different. People who think everything follows the EEE strategy somehow seem to forget that EEE requires very specific market conditions to exist (which don't for Microsoft in this case) and very specific strategy from the part of the monopoly abuser (and let's face it I think MS's current leadership could be replaced by actual monkeys rather than someone who looked like one).
Embrace - happens everywhere all the time.
Extend - nothing has been extended. The Linux kernel runs on Windows and is
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Extend - nothing has been extended. The Linux kernel runs on Windows and is being delivered by windows update. Big whoop. How is that different to Ubuntu's kernel, or Red Hats?
If you want to nitpick, the kernel has been slightly extended, in that it has the necessary extensions for it to be able to work within the "Hyper-V lite" virtualisation that WSL2 needs on windows.
But yes, nitpicking even further: it's not proper Extend as per EEE, because these extensions are opensourced too there is nothing new in WSL2 that isn't available in the upstream Linux kernel from kernel.org - it's not the equivalent of some "L#" or whatever.
Maybe MS's big goal is to eliminate Cygwin for ... reasons...
My theory is that MS' big goal is to remove one reason
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What they're attempting to extinguish here is desktop Linux. They've pretty much conceded that they've lost the server market - or at least the part of the server market that hadn't already bought into Windows lock-in. Now they need to prevent developers from simply switching to Linux machines as their primary development workstations. WSL is their solution for that. Keep using Windows, and do your linux server dev work there. But god forbid you should use a linux desktop - does WSL even support that?
L
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That could explain the horrible state of GUI graphics. They seem to have gotten harder to use and less capable with each passing iteration. (Well, I've got to admit that if you invest enough time and effort you can still do nearly anything, but the amount required for anything much beyond "This is a button that says 'Hello, World!." has increased remarkably. You can use the screen builder tools, but they really limit what you can do.)
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The strategy is now market capture by Embrace -> Extend -> Envelop.
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Yeah, I was saying this at least a year ago when this first started showing up, and everyone said I was paranoid.
I didn't say you were paranoid. I said you were wrong. You still are. If you want to claim this is a move to EEE then develop your theory better. What is being extended? In what way have they extended capability of a competitor? Identify that competitor. Who are they using this strategy against. What are they using it for. What competing product are they hoping to extinguish, and to what end will that improve the MS bottom line.
Common. A good conspiracy theory needs some meat. So far you're just coming up w
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Microsoft clearly and objectively and admittedly wants to be the only operating system on the planet, and they don't give a shit what they have to do to accomplish that, legal, ethical, or not, they don't care as long as they get away with it. If that means infiltrating and subverting Linux and the Linux community of developers, then that's what they'll do, and that's
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This is to extinguish VMWare. They're embracing and extending one thing to extinguish another. With WSL, VMWare still works. With WSL2 using Hyper-V, that prevent VMWare from being installed and running on the same machine. You'll be stuck with only Microsoft Linux on your Microsoft Windows machine, rather than using VMWare which can run VMs with OSes from any vendor or home creation.
Re: Microsoft-Written Linux (Score:3)
Because it has been true for the past 30 years!
Willful ignorance does not make it go away, you know?
If you want it to stop, stop Microsoft!
Or are you trying to fix a headache due to the closed door you keep running into with pain killers too?
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If you jabbed a hot poker through your eye, you'd not be bothered by your hatred of MS.
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You have a very different perspective than I do. I admit that the companies that you listed are retarding Open Source (which I only care about as a superset of Free Software), but to me it appears that Microsoft is not only worse, but has been more consistently worse.
Why? (Score:2)
Why is anyone still using Windows?
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Why is anyone still using Windows?
Games.
And until major publishers start releasing native Linux/BSD games, gamers running Linux are dependent on Wine etc which is, mildly put, imperfect, hence, need to run Windows.
Meanwhile at work i can use GNU utilities natively under Windows, which i consider a good move from Microsoft. WSL is in most cases superior to running a VM. I do share the concerns about triple-E, but the pragmatist in me is happy with WSL and can tolerate Windows on most days of the week even if my heart is somewhere else.
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Games indeed. It's why I switched from Macs mid 90s. They both did everything else -- surfing, Office, etc.
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That said I also switched back in the early 2000s and now have a gaming Windows desktop as a glorified games console, and my Mac does everything else.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is anyone still using Windows?
Games.
And until major publishers start releasing native Linux/BSD games, gamers running Linux are dependent on Wine etc which is, mildly put, imperfect, hence, need to run Windows.
Linux is around 2% of the global desktop market share. macOS has an order of magnitude more than Linux (and then some), and the major publishers routinely ignore it too. Sure, more people would consider switching to Linux if there were more native support, but targeting such a small user base isn't super profitable. It's a cycle that has been going on for decades.
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Linux is around 2% of the global desktop market share.
On Steam Windows has 96% marketshare, Mac 3% and Linux <1%. Most of that 1% probably either have a Windows machine or dual boot and may have various hang-ups about paid software or non-indie games too, so realistially it's a rounding error. There was a short while Valve was beating the Linux drum when they felt threatened by the Windows store but after they smoked the peace pipe Linux gaming is as fringe as ever.
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Games.
And until major publishers start releasing native Linux/BSD games
You can buy BSD systems that have plenty of native games released for them at your local enormo-mart, Sony makes them and calls them PlayStation 4's.
You don't "need" Windows for games.
gamers running Linux are dependent on Wine etc which is, mildly put, imperfect
Steam with Proton works better than the distro's Wine releases. Before mucking around with Wine, try the steam version first.
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Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
Because it works?
I have tried Linux on occasion over the past twenty years and more. I always ALWAYS run into some odd problem that Windows just doesn't suffer from and I go back to Windows, because it just works. I could give you examples of Linux failing on me but that would simply mean me being inundated with "Have you tried another distro?" and similar platitudes so I won't.
Just the opposite experience (Score:2)
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The Windows machine I'm typing this on (Win 8.1) was last rebooted a couple of weeks ago after I applied some patches. Previous to that it went a few months between reboots. I hibernate it at night, wake it up in the morning and it's ready to go (I used to sleep it but I changed video cards from AMD to nVidia and the nVidia drivers don't permit sleep mode for some reason).
About a year ago I tried to put Linux on an older netbook. Cinnamon Netbook Remix ran fine from the USB stick but when I told it to go ah
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Well, there's something wrong with your laptop then.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
There were a few sweet spots: NT 4, XP SP3 and Windows 7, where I could legitimately say Windows was a fairly rock solid product. But Windows 10 is really flaky; the UI exhibits instability, printing subsystem is broken. In my organization we are moving away from Exchange, and the value of using Windows is dropping.
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The UI being flakey is a genuine concern, but for the most part something being flakey is quite different from something not working outright. Windows is full of bugs, and let's face it Windows Update is a bucket of shit, but providing you stick to releases that are 6months+ old there's nothing really that is preventing people from working.
As to printing subsystem being broken, please explain. I've had a lot of problems with Windows, but I have to say printing could be the only thing which I've not had a pr
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
That's really strange. For me it's the other way around. I run Linux on servers, and on my workstation and laptops at home. It just works. Never a problem. Installing software is so easy it's not even funny - everything from graphics packages to video editors to office suites are a key click away. No need to even open a browser or go to a site, it's just there. And they're all kept up to date with minimal effort, again, just a click. And when I want to update, not when the OS decides to.
Windows, on the other hand, is on my work computer and a few VM's I manage. And it's nothing but trouble. Constant issues with patching, and running even basic stuff. Lots of software which is hard to find, and even harder to keep up to date. Configuration which is not in files I can simply pop in git, but spread out all over the system in graphical interfaces, making documentation a nightmare.
I simply can't understand how people stand using Windows.
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You can use a package manager on Windows too you know. It's as easy as the Linux ones. Try Chocolatey, others exist too.
I'm with the OP. I tried several distros and couldn't get the mouse wheel to work properly. The fucking mouse wheel. It was incredibly slow, and the settings app didn't work. It make a few apps faster but many others ignored it.
The other big area that Windows excels in where Linux typically isn't as good is corporate management. On Windows you can manage all the machines in your org centra
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It just works.
Does it? I mean every systemd story we get we hear about how people are never sure if their computer will boot up at all. Myself I have no problem with it, but last time I rebooted my server some auto provisioning system designed for the cloud changed the order of my network interfaces and suddenly my server was doing its best to serve everything over the management interface. Late last year for some still unknown reason KVM decided to zombie all the virtual servers and I was unable to stop or restart them
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because it works?
I have tried Linux on occasion over the past twenty years and more. I always ALWAYS run into some odd problem that Windows just doesn't suffer from and I go back to Windows, because it just works. I could give you examples of Linux failing on me but that would simply mean me being inundated with "Have you tried another distro?" and similar platitudes so I won't.
Windows doesn't "just work", you're just used to its failings.
I haven't used Windows myself for many years (Mac OS at work at present due to one required internal app not being available for Linux at the time I had to choose, Linux on all computers at home, including for kids and wife, and Android on a tablet), but family often have problems with Windows, such as "My printer stopped working", where Windows Update has been the culprit (installing a "Windows-optimised driver" which doesn't work at all). Yet, this doesn't happen on my linux machines (with the same printer model), where all hardware works out-the-box.
So, please, give at least one example that isn't due to "the hardware I have doesn't have a linux driver because the vendor couldn't be bothered, nor do they provide sufficient information to allow developers/contributors to write a driver" (the only common problem these days, but avoidable by choosing better hardware).
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I did give an example to another commentator -- I tried Cinnamon Netbook Remix that worked OK off the USB stick but it failed to install properly to the HDD -- the screen driver worked fine in "try before you buy" mode but it went bonk! during the install because (I think) I had upgraded the RAM in the netbook from stock 1GB to 2GB and the netbook graphics system shares RAM with the processor. Win7 Starter installed without a problem.
Another example which didn't seem to be a problem with drivers -- I have a
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With Windows 7 (since SP1) I would more or less agree with you, but Windows 10 has been a stroll down memory lane back to where Linux was around 2000 to 2005. Disappearing desktop, suddenly unreadable partitions, hanging system services, crashing applications...and every other patch gets pulled because it causes issues.
Right now I am typing this on my desktop. Under Linux. Running from the SSD I pulled from my laptop. I have so far spent two weeks on first debugging a suddenly crashing Windows 10, then tryi
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I could give you examples of Linux failing on me but that would simply mean me being inundated with "Have you tried another distro?" and similar platitudes so I won't.
No, you won't, no one cares if you want to keep using windows, you should keep using it.
Linux isn't for people unwilling to put any effort into being free. Linux has saved me thousands of dollars and earned me a lot more. I think you should stay away from Linux because maintainers are ruining the desktop experience with the compromises that Linux distros are making to attract people who don't deserve the freedom that Linux offers. Microsoft even copied work spaces badly from Gnome/KDE which were dumbed d
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FWIW (Score:2)
I can relate. There is an awful lot of awful hardware out there. But what I've noticed is that Windows is/was unstable on cheap hardware, where as with Linux, if it would run at all, it usually ran rather well.
About 10 years ago, I switched from building my own systems with the cheapest hardware available to buying prebuilt systems from a reputable manufacturer. Instead of buying the latest and greatest, I would buy last year's model of a relatively highly-rated manufacturer/model. Since then, I've no
Hmm, nope? Give me a break. (Score:2)
Windows works sometimes. Other times it doesn't. Same with Linux. Computers are awesome, and can be maddening too.
Example from the Windows side this week. My son would occasionally use his Xbox One controller to play games on his PC using a usb cable. After three of them quit working (including the official xbox one cable, and yes, I tested them) I decided to just buy the xbox one wireless adapter for the PC. Works with all versions of Windows.
Yeah.. no. He still has Win7, and it doesn't work. It can'
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The truth is, if it isn't open source, you're at the mercy of some third party.
I'm at the mercy of some third party with an open-source ROM pre-installed on an Android phone I was given. It's flakey, the OTG feature of the phone doesn't work. It probably worked when the out-the-box Samsung ROM was on it, the people who wrote this ROM are long-gone (CyanogenMOD). The closed-source original Android would still work, probably.
I CAN code but I don't do it for a living any more (the last time I coded for pay was
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I switched to Desktop Linux rather than Windows 10 (Score:2)
I do my product (Cortex M4) development on Eclipse so when Windows 7 support finished I moved everything onto Ubuntu rather than Windows 10. I have found Windows 10 to be very flaky when it comes to the development/hardware programming tools that I use and while the other driver issues (Bluetooth and USB HID) I had when Windows 10 was first released have been resolved, I"m not happy with the security issues of Windows 10.
To be fair, I'm not a gamer so I don't have many of the reasons justifying moving to W
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i enjoy a tranquil life, 5% of share means all sorts of critters will concentrate on the other 95% :-)
also, i just like it better. :) and "desktop linux" is a funny concept. turns out that a command prompt is all you need to run any computer in the most efficient way, if you wan to to get fancy "i3" [i3wm.org] is basically a glorified screen switcher and "dmenu" [suckless.org] is a tiny little utility to launch programs, but those are actually just user programs. 99% of windows' user interface is unnecessary bloat for me, why should
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Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)
IBM was trying to get a foothold in the Personal Computer Market. They Contracted with Microsoft for its Operating system, The licence didn't exclude Microsoft from selling to other companies.
Unlike other personal computer companies IBM was about Business vs the others which were mostly video game consoles with keyboards. So businesses started buying them, and perhaps having some employees take them home to do work from home. While at home people used these for more than work, and they played with them as well as their kids.
Then other companies like Compaq had built a compatible clone of the IBM Bios. This allowing MS DOS to run on it. And due to no restrictions for Microsoft to limit to only IBM, They sold their OS to all the IBM Compatible markets.
In the eyes of software developers You either can write a program and make different ports to 2 or 3 other systems Commodore, Apple, Atari or you can write it once for IBM and have it work for a dozen different PC Makers. So the IBM port came first then they may split their second port for some of the other systems.
This created an ecosystem where IBM Software had a huge software collection.
For anyone choosing what system to buy you just need to look at the software section of the store you are at and plainly see that going with IBM or Compatible would be the best option.
As time went on MS DOS software was nearly standard. When people wanted to switch over a Graphical User Environment Windows 3.1 which ran on top of DOS and could run DOS Programs was a good option.
Then by the time of Windows 95. Linux was in its infancy, it was gaining a lot of ground, however way too complex for the standard computer user at the time. OS/2 Warp was a solid product however it was very expensive and it had really bad marketing, as most of the commercials just had people looking at a Computer screen and being amazed. Not showing off its real benefits (Including how well it ran DOS and Windows 3.1 Apps). So Windows 95 was the safe bet and became popular with Microsoft Marketing Blitz.
With Windows 95 came the popularity of 32bit Windows Applications, and hardware vendors started to port more advanced drivers to work on newer equipment High End 3d Video Cards, New Sound Cars, Ethernet.... Software was no longer reliant on custom supporting a bunch of hardware, but they were more relient to Windows OS.
25 years later Most software development is for Windows. While the rise of cloud computing and Web Based Applications make it so Windows isn't as necessary as it once was, it is still the safest bet, in terms of finding a vendor supported product for business, and still what you use for work you will use at home.
Apple had a bit of a growth period in the mid 2000's with its Macintosh product line with OSX. But that was mostly due the iPod Halo effect, and the fact that Windows Longhorn was over ambitious product that kept XP lagging, and Visa lackluster. However after Windows 7 hit the market and the 2008 recession, Expensive Apple Laptops were not as much demand and PC's especially the relatively cheap Ultrabooks became popular.
Linux was able compete against Microsoft in its server range, and also with Android in the mobile range. But for the Desktop Windows is king. Because for general purpose computing Windows is the safest bet. Not better then any product in any one area. However it doesn't have as many critical failings the other OS's have as well.
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I bring up these examples every single time. Engineering work. There are no Linux builds for things like SolidWorks, PRO/E, Altium, etc etc. They don't even come close to running under Wine either. Wine is only good for the most basic of programs or something a decade old.
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Well, still waiting for the "Year of the Linux Desktop".
Re: Why? (Score:2)
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What's even the point of this? (Score:2)
An OS inside another OS ... providing only slow-down and nothing else...
Are they shooting for Windows becoming a ... browser? :D
Also, the main reason for installing Linux, as a pro, is that you can configure, customize and optimize your own kernel and system, so it performs better than Windows for your usage scenario. So they are clearly not targeting professionals. But who else would even know that WSL exists?
I can only assume it's an internal thing. For the growing number of Linux natives on their company
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Re:What's even the point of this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, the main reason for installing Linux, as a pro, is that you can configure, customize and optimize your own kernel and system, so it performs better than Windows for your usage scenario. So they are clearly not targeting professionals.
It's important that Linux allows you to do this, but not everyone wants to fiddle with things so deeply. WSL is for anyone who needs to work with Linux but wants a "just works" experience.
My preferred dev environment is Windows, but my Linux users are very important to me. So I still need to write code that works there, often using APIs that only exist in Linux. WSL enables me to do this super easily -- without me needing to run an OS setup, without installing VirtualBox and configuring a VM, without dual booting, without needing to find out why my wifi won't work, etc.
Taking things a step further, with VS Code I can open up a project that lives inside of WSL, apt-get any libraries I need, use and open up Linux-specific OS-level header files, and compile, run, and debug the app. All seamlessly from a Windows instance of VS Code. It's really wonderful.
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An OS inside another OS
Yo dawg!
Microsoft Written Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Wouldn't a Microsoft-written Linux be like letting the team that made the Ford Pinto loose on creating a supersonic jet?
Terrible analogy (Score:3)
I can't believe that it's modded "Insightful".
You're comparing using a set of automotive engineers to develop an aircraft to a using set of operating system developers to develop ... an operating system?
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LoB
You just changed my opinion of Microsoft (Score:2)
They have "marketing people" that developed Windows?
Wow - seriously, I'm not being facetious, that's really impressive.
The rest of the world uses coders.
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They had their own Unix at one point (Xenix) so why not a Linux too.
Microsoft-built, not written (Score:5, Informative)
The source seems to be on GitHub already (they still have to comply to GPLv2): https://github.com/microsoft/W... [github.com]
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Wow, Linux with custom drivers. Sooooo innovative.
Re:Microsoft-built, not written (Score:4, Insightful)
It isn't that the Linux kernel MS offers has been patched, it is that MS did the patching. No way, no how, not ever...
Microsoft will do full kernel integration soon (Score:3)
Re: Microsoft will do full kernel integration soon (Score:2)
This literally makes no sense. WSL2 is running Linux in a VM. It has absolutely nothing to do with Microsoft adding parts of Linux to their kernel, which is impossible both technically and from a licensing perspective.
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Under Satya Nadella Microsoft has become more and more of a services company and as part of this their desktop apps like Office have moved more and more towards platform agnostic web apps. When you're a SaaS company it doesn't really matter that they're running the service you're selling them under your own OS as the lio
finally... (Score:2)
...2020 it will be the year of the Linux Desktop!
Cygwin users (Score:2)
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Cygwin has a slight edge if you need some kind of franken-built applications that has unported *posixy stuff that makes you reliant on Cygwin to build something that in the end has a win gui (but those cases are quite rare luckily).
Over time i think even those cases will be easier to handle with a cross mingw build from your linux dist for a dll that then links with regular windows code.
Winux Kernel (Score:2)
Microsoft is trying to remain relevant because no one cares about the desktop anymore. So many users are already Linux users and they just don't know it is on their phone or their tablet or it's BSD underneath a MAC. Microsoft missed all of these revolutions in computing whilst data centers filled up with Linux boxes. Now the only way left for them is to strive for some Linux compatibility so that their vendor's investment into dotnet can be run on virtualized WSL boxes before Windows as we know it is g
WSL - Just run Linux (Score:2)
Lot of comments missing the point (Score:3)
I have a Windows-based game server I run that I've been waiting for WSL2 on so I can set up an SSH server on it to manage it remotely. I could do RDP or Powershell remoting or something, but I only really need a command line interface and I'm much more familiar with bash than Powershell.
Re: Lot of comments missing the point (Score:2)
You don't have to wait. It has always been possible to SSH into a Windows machine without WSL. In fact, using WSL in the way you are describing doesn't make sense if you want to manage the Windows side.
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I have a Windows-based game server I run that I've been waiting for WSL2 on so I can set up an SSH server on it to manage it remotely.
Windows has a native SSH server built in, has had since ... Windows 8 I think, or maybe the first release of Windows 10 a few years back.
No it won't (Score:2)
There's nothing in that article about Microsoft re-writing the Linux kernel. All they are doing is packaging it in such a way that it is delivered to your machine via Windows Update vs being part of the OS image.
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