Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#1

Post by runesoerensen » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 10:31 PM UTC

Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
blogs.windows.com

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#2

Post by newman314 » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 10:48 PM UTC

This is nice and all but I'm much more interested in the inverse use case: managing Windows servers through ssh and bash. For example, it would make loading Let's Encrypt certs much easier.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#3

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 10:50 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#4

Post by sdegutis » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 10:52 PM UTC

ELI5: What does this mean to me, as a developer who's really familiar with (and prefers) Linux, but has to use Windows? What cool possibilities will this "Linux Subsystem For Windows" open up to me? What things will it specifically not open up to me?

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#5

Post by mark-r » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 10:57 PM UTC

So the Windows 10 console finally gets back the escape sequence capability that DOS had with ANSI.SYS? About frickin' time!

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#6

Post by dvlsg » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 10:58 PM UTC

sdegutis wrote: post #4

ELI5: What does this mean to me, as a developer who's really familiar with (and prefers) Linux, but has to use Windows? What cool possibilities will this "Linux Subsystem For Windows" open up to me? What things will it specifically not open up to me?

I think the gist of it / watered down version is that you would be able to compile / run a good amount / most Linux (ubuntu) applications natively-ish in Windows.

For example, I read a blog where someone pulled down the redis source, compiled it, and was running it in wsl. That would be great for me, because it means I can just run redis in my dev environment, instead of turning on a vm to run redis (I know windows ports exist, but I've found it was faster and more reliable to just run the vm).

I also typically add ports of common applications (ls, grep, touch, etc) in my windows environments just to fill the gaps windows has. With this, I probably won't need to do that anymore.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#7

Post by gremlinsinc » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 10:59 PM UTC

I'd rather a linux sub sys for windows -- gamers on linux would flock to it, wine sux. There's some nice windows apps, and niche things built only on windows -- but I've staying on Ubuntu most likely.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#8

Post by mark-r » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 11:00 PM UTC

sdegutis wrote: post #4

ELI5: What does this mean to me, as a developer who's really familiar with (and prefers) Linux, but has to use Windows? What cool possibilities will this "Linux Subsystem For Windows" open up to me? What things will it specifically not open up to me?

What it opens up is the ability to use the commands and environment that are familiar to you, with as little change as possible. It runs the same bash as a Linux system, at a binary compatibility level. There will still be wrinkles to deal with, such as the case insensitivity of the Windows file systems.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#9

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 11:00 PM UTC

sdegutis wrote: post #4

ELI5: What does this mean to me, as a developer who's really familiar with (and prefers) Linux, but has to use Windows? What cool possibilities will this "Linux Subsystem For Windows" open up to me? What things will it specifically not open up to me?

[deleted]

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#10

Post by lucb1e » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 11:03 PM UTC

Sounds like Windows users discovering (and apparently having "fun with") GNU/Linux. None of this is really specific to this subsystem.