Appreciate this is a minor point but the name Windows Subsystem for Linux confuses me. Am I missing how to read it properly? It seems more like a Linux subsystem for Windows to me :-)
It's a Subsystem of Windows for Linux execution.
Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
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Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#52I grew up through some of the more interesting business practices Microsoft employed, and it's several attempts to harm the Linux ecosystem. I would love to see this move by Microsoft in a positive light, but can't help but be suspicious ? For now the possibilities it opens are great, however I wish I understood Microsoft's strategic view of this and how it might evolve over time for Linux.
The strategic view is not hard to understand. They got their clock cleaned on the server side. They are irrelevant in the IoT. Machine learning, docker, apache spark run best on linux. The direct-x gaming advantage will erode as Vulkan opens up the industry. They failed spectacularly in mobile as the vast majority of connected devices run Android and iOS. ChromeOS is about to run native Android apps which marks the end of charging for windows desktop, which is why they're so desperate for win10 upgrades to monetize user tracking. Some see their embracing of open-source as the new MS but they have no alternative.
Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#53How stable is it? I've been playing around with the idea installing it on my only (dev)machine. I dont expect the ubuntu subsystem to work perfectly but my old workflow to be stable.
Edit: I am regularly suprised that nano filename does not open quick edit in my machine. And then I remeber I am working in my local machine.
Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#54ELI5: 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've been primarily a Linux user since 1995, and have been using Windows 10+WSL for the past week or so, since getting a new laptop. The only thing I can think of that it'll open up for you is if you want to develop for Windows, while still having Linux available to you. Whether that's for developing games (most of the good game development tools run only on Windows, even if they can deploy to Linux/Mac/Android), or…
>The modern Linux desktop is every bit as good as Windows
Like resizing Windows in Xubuntu? They give you a 1 px border to grab. Bug reported years ago. No fix; happens in all built-in themes. This kind of lack of polish is everywhere.
It's good, it's functional, usable, I'd take it over Windows XP or something, but let's not say it's every bit as good.
Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#55I found that blog post to be very disappointing. It didn't really demonstrate a meaningful use case for WSL (i.e. programming in C by compiling with gcc). I think that blog post is mostly made for tech journalists who aren't actually very techy. For example, the author used nano to copy and paste in a Python script. There's a two things wrong with that: 1) he used nano for "programming" (regardless of which text editor you use, I think we can all agree that nano definitely shouldn't be used for programming) and 2) Python already has native support on Windows.
Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#56ELI5: 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?
If I can figure out if W10 can turn off its spyware, it'll allow me to ditch VMware for most use cases. Since you can run a Windows X server, I can use graphical emacs. If perf is good enough, I'll run a whole WM like XMonad and use Firefox and stuff inside it.
Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#57How stable is it? I've been playing around with the idea installing it on my only (dev)machine. I dont expect the ubuntu subsystem to work perfectly but my old workflow to be stable. Edit: I am regularly suprised that nano filename does not open quick edit in my machine. And then I remeber I am working in my local machine.
It's pretty stable. But also pretty useless. Fun to play around and use a bit of byobu. I had a repo that wouldn't check out in windows because of some file names. But bash on Ubuntu on Windows worked like a champ.
But as I said, the utility is limited. If you really need the Linux kernel, this is useless. If you don't, then everything is already available on Windows natively.
Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#58I just got a new laptop, and as it doesn't have an optical drive and I couldn't find a USB flash drive in order to install Linux, I've kinda been stuck on Windows for a few days. I installed WSL a few days ago. Installation is a ridiculous process, and takes about 24 hours for the service to finally appear after you follow the steps to make it happen, which is not well-documented and just feels idiotic to a Linux use…
> Installation is a ridiculous process, and takes about 24 hours for the service to finally appear after you follow the steps to make it happen
Weird. It worked instantly for me. It did need a reboot though.
Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#59I found that blog post to be very disappointing. It didn't really demonstrate a meaningful use case for WSL (i.e. programming in C by compiling with gcc). I think that blog post is mostly made for tech journalists who aren't actually very techy. For example, the author used nano to copy and paste in a Python script. There's a two things wrong with that: 1) he used nano for "programming" (regardless of which text edit…
You need to re-read the post
"It’s not about replacing other Windows-native tools such as Python, PowerShell, C# and more. It’s about removing friction when you just need to get stuff done quickly and efficiently in a modern development workflow."
Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux
#60That name bothers me. I understand that people don't want to use the name GNU/Linux because it's stupid and overcomplicated, but in this case there is no Linux at all. This is quite literally GNU running on top of the NT kernel, so why use the Linux name at all?
On a side note, the irony of GNU/NT must be killing Stallman.