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Microsoft The Internet Virtualization Linux

Microsoft Brings 'Windows Subsystem for Linux 2' to Window Server 2022 (theregister.com) 23

Posted by EditorDavid from the at-your-server dept.
With the latest preview patch, Windows Server 2022 now supports WSL2 Linux distros, the Register reports: The move ends an odyssey that began with the arrival of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 on Windows 10 several years ago and with users' calls for Windows Server to get the same treatment. The change is also somewhat of an about-face from Microsoft. In 2021, in response to pleas from users to backport the tech to Windows Server 2019, [Principal program manager for Windows Server Jeff] Woolsey described WSL in early 2021 as "fantastic for dev" and "perfect for Windows client" but warned: "If we put it in Windows Server, people will use it in production scenarios for which it isn't intended." The approved path was to spin up a full Linux VM. Quite a bit heftier than the lighter-weight WSL2.

Signs of Microsoft listening to feedback showed up earlier this year, as Microsoft Program Manager Craig Loewen "clarified" that WSL2 distros would work on Windows Server version 2004 and 20H2, although the LTSC versions found in many data centers remained free of WSL2. Until this week, that is.
TechRadar provides some context: WSL 2, which was originally released in May 2019 (opens in new tab), uses virtualization technology to run an open source Linux kernel inside of a lightweight utility virtual machine (VM). This empowers Windows users to run popular Linux apps such as Docker. Microsoft claims that unlike a traditional VM experience — which it says can be slow to boot up, is isolated, consumes a lot of resources, and requires your time to manage it — WSL 2 does not have these attributes....

The KB5014021 update is currently optional, but will be automatically rolled out to users next month....

Windows Server updates have not been without issues in recent months, however, with Microsoft having to address various problems caused by the January 2021 Patch Tuesday updates. The company issued an emergency out-of-band update to address bugs that forced domain controllers to reboot endlessly, broke Hyper-V, and rendered ReFS volumes inaccessible while showing them as RAW file systems.
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Microsoft Brings 'Windows Subsystem for Linux 2' to Window Server 2022 More

Microsoft Brings 'Windows Subsystem for Linux 2' to Window Server 2022

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  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lsllll ( 830002 )

        VirtualBox, for all its faults, works, and the only issue with it is that Oracle bought Sun.

        That's only a problem is you run the Extension Pack, which you wouldn't for server-related functions. The rest is open source.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • All of which pretty much stems from the fact that most other OSes don't lock things down properly.

          Linux is one of the worst offenders in this regard. As the kernel is fully detached from most user space processes, it's not possible to prohibit for example launching an executable / script. As most of the UI is also from different vendors, there's no easy means to ensure they all comply with the restricted user operations policy. Hell, Linux in particular doesn't support NFS v4 permissions natively. Which me

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by lsllll ( 830002 )

            I disagree re: Linux permissions. Between the three sets of rwx(s), groups, "chmod g+s", and umask, you can pretty much do what you need on a multi-user Linux box. The extended ACLs are nice as well, but I seldom have to use them.

            What I WILL give you is the state of user access across different boxes. It's broken in SMB, SSHFS, and NFS. But what you CAN do is set up centralized user control where your users and groups have only one number and all the servers are slaves to the user list. That makes acce

      • What? We load Ubuntu directly without doing any workarounds at work for docker development (company is pretty huge and global). nginx works, I guess the only workaround that could apply is running kubernetes or something similar, but the charts work flawlessly.
    • Having worked for a large government agency, my experience confirms what you've written of. My work requires me to develop for linux servers, and I'm allowed to use open-source software, but all they give *anyone* is a standard government Windows notebook PC with MS Office. Since developers are considered 'power' users we can have 16GB of RAM.

      Of course once WSL2 was stable, for me as a developer it made all the sense in the world to make a formal request for WSL2 and Ubuntu to be installed on my governmen

  • Windows subsystem on Linux (Score:3)

    by John.Banister ( 1291556 ) * on Saturday May 28, 2022 @11:18AM (#62572734) Homepage
    Still waiting for the opportunity to purchase MSWine, the Windows subsystem on Linux. Granted, as regular Wine continues to improve with age, the value of competing products lessens.

  • "Intended" (Score:3)

    by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Saturday May 28, 2022 @11:59AM (#62572796)

    but warned: "If we put it in Windows Server, people will use it in production scenarios for which it isn't intended."

    I read this and the only way I can translate it is that they would make less money off of Windows Server. Is that unfair?

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • It's better to make less money than no money. As the old saying goes, if you can't beat them, join 'em in the hip. Maybe they'd rather let users use their Linux distribution than IBM/Redhat's.

  • Sure it was a fun project for people involved and was a good research activity, but why ?

    What would be the reason of using WSL instead of Linux Directly ? Running Linux on top of what tends to have a lot of security issues seems only useful to keep windows-only admins employed :)

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Probably just marketing. If you just want a Linux user-space, cygwin already gives you that. If you need performance, WSL is a pretty bad idea. And for security? Forget it. This is a solution looking for a problem.

    • So you can run corporate applications that are tied to windows like teams and outlook and do dev work using containers, docker and such at the same time? I rather run linux containers rather than windows containers, and I can thanks to WSL. Microsoft even recommends using linux based containers.

    • Low watt ( and low pay) windows click and point admins and their managers think this means they can stay in their comfort zone to run Linux apps.

      Can't imagine having Windows under a Linux server, some of the KB updates we've have at work have made blue screens on our windows servers, haven't see those babies for a while. No thanks, I left that windows server shit behind in the late 90s, good riddance.

  • the bug with symlinks not being accessible when browsing \\wsl$ from Windows? It works fine with VirtualBox/Samba.

  • Servers: If you want Windows, use Windows. If you want Linux, use Linux.

    Desktop: If you want Windows, use Windows. If you want Linux, use a Mac. If you want headaches, use Linux.

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