Microsoft Makes Fedora an Official Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Distribution

BrianFagioli writes: Fedora Linux is now officially available as a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distribution! That's right, folks, following prior testing, you can now run Fedora 42 natively inside Windows using WSL. As someone who considers Fedora to be my favorite Linux distribution, this is a pretty exciting development.

Installing it is simple enough. Just open up a terminal and type wsl --install FedoraLinux-42 to get started. After that, launch it with wsl -d FedoraLinux-42 and set your username. No password is required by default, and you'll automatically be part of the wheel group, meaning you can use sudo right out of the gate.

That's nice

[Bradac_55]

I could do that before manually. What I really want is to get out of the 5.15 kernel WSL has been stuck in or let me update it myself.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

I could do that before manually. What I really want is to get out of the 5.15 kernel WSL has been stuck in or let me update it myself.

Why don't you? WSL kernels can be recompiled easily enough on Windows.

Dave's Garage has a nice video on how you'd do this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

But there are plenty of sites showing how to rebuild the kernel on WSL2.

Microsoft Windows and Office are bloatware.

[Hey_Jude_Jesus]

I upgraded to the real Linux and left it behind.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Have an attaboy award.

Re: Microsoft Windows and Office are bloatware.

[dotslashdot]

Aww Windows fanboy gonna cry cry cry.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

This has nothing to do with running Linux

This is literally about running Linux. Why are you so salty when you're also so wrong? Are you just too cheap to pay for abuse like a responsible adult?

Re:

[Bradac_55]

So your saying you've never even used WSL2 and your an idiot, got it.

WSL2 doesn't give you a full Linux environment it's a subset of bash commands, a 5.15 kernel and the ability to launch graphical UI's from bash.
No one is running a Linux desktop from WSL2. The most handy GUI I run is Remmina which beats the hell out of RDC.

What we do use it for is Bind9 dns commands (dig for starts), network tools, etc because our work does not allow us to run anything but Win11 and getting windows based tools installed i

You know what's even better?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Running Fedora natively without the Microsoft privacy invasion-cum-advertisement platform underneath.

Re: You know what's even better?

[dotslashdot]

Bill Gates, is that you?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Hey folks look another idiot!

*Hey, folks! Look! Another idiot!

Alternately, you could use a comma in place of either of the first two exclamation points.

Hope this helps you escape your idiocy.

Fedora is my fav

[ichthus]

As someone who considers Fedora to be my favorite Linux distribution, this is a pretty exciting development.

And, as someone who considers Fedora to be my favorite Linux distribution, I don't give a rat's ass. Microsoft can suck it.

Re: Microsoft Sucking That IBM Cock!

[leonbev]

I wonder what Canonical did to piss off Microsoft, as they used to be the default OS option?

Install Linux to use Windows...

[Murdoch5]

The hilarious part about the WSL, is that you need to install it, to make Windows 11 a usable platform. This means you need to install Linux to use Windows, and regardless how you feel about Windows or Microsoft, that's just stupid. I know there are people who can't install what they want on their computers, and I know companies don't want to install Linux on the desktop, generally, so the WSL is, for many people, the only workaround to having a usable computer.

The ideal setup would be the other way around, run Linux natively, and host Windows 11 in a VM. That way you get a great native desktop operating system (Linux), and you have the dumpster sitting out back (Windows), for when you need to throw some trash around.

Re: Install Linux to use Windows...

[Futurepower(R)]

Quote: "... run Linux natively, and host Windows 11 in a VM."

What would be the best way to do that? Which version of Linux? What VM?

Re:

[Murdoch5]

Whatever variant of Linux you prefer, I like Fedora, but Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, Arch, whatever, that's up to you. What hypervisor do you want to use? VirtualBox, QEMU, KVM or other? Again, it's really what fits your use case.

Not for me

[Shakes Fist]

"C:\WINDOWS\System32>wsl --update
Installing: Windows Subsystem for Linux
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it."

What Is WSL For?

[SlashbotAgent]

I'm still struggling to understand what WSL is for and who is actually using it.

For those that use it; what are you using it for? Why is WSL preferable to native Linux bare metal or VM?

Re:

[tijgertje]

It is not preferable to native Linux, but it has better performance then a VM.

But some people are not allowed to run native Linux on their work-machines, so WSL is the next best thing.
Using the OS the company requires as base and then use Linux to have useful tools.

Re:

[tijgertje]

WSL is an emulation layer so you can run a Linux distro semi-native on Windows.
With direct access to the lower-kernel parts of the Windows OS so you have near native performance.

Re:

[fluffernutter]

My company forces me to have a laptop with windows and forbids me from installing anything that is not related to that windows install, yet if I have a linux available I am 1000x more productive at my job.

Re:

[SirSlud]

I strongly question the technical aptitude of anyone who asks these sorts of questions.

Re:

[nightflameauto]

I strongly question the technical aptitude of anyone who asks these sorts of questions.

Not being stuck in Windows land, and thus already knowing the answer, is not at all the same as lacking technical aptitude. It indicates someone who hasn't shackled themselves to a job that requires them to do everything in the dumbest manner possible like most of us, so they've never had a reason to explore the WSL subsystem in order to get work done on their corporate mandated Windows machine. Which hardly disqualifies them from having technical aptitude. They just don't have Windows experience.

Re:

[SirSlud]

it tells me here's a person who considers themselves technical, but apparently doesn't know how to evaluate or find answers for something they haven't personally experienced. That's hilarious to me.

I've used a ton of stuff, never used a whole ton of other stuff stuff, I've also used a ton of stuff I hate, I've used a ton of stuff I love - and can still formulate answers on why people might need, or want, to use them, not use, not want, etc.

No, either the OP is being disingenuous with the word "struggle" or

Re:

[nightflameauto]

I'm still struggling to understand what WSL is for and who is actually using it.

For those that use it; what are you using it for? Why is WSL preferable to native Linux bare metal or VM?

Those of us living in corporate hellscape jobs that are forced to run Windows on the hardware for "security purposes" and still need to get actual work done use WSL to do the work, while we get constantly spammed by Teams and Outlook by the rest of the team. Sure, it's more of a struggle than running bare metal or a VM, but it's a corporate APPROVED struggle, as opposed to doing what makes sense, which is never corporate approved, because making sense as antithetical to business sense. Kinda like a ying-yan

Fantastic news for Fedora users

[Plugh]

Fedora my daily driver for ~15 years has been rock solid but reasonably agile at picking up new technologies and packages. And now Microsoft has a vested interest in keeping it maintained. I like this.