Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 97 posts

Re: Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

#51

Post by arglwarg »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #19
loudmax wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, we could be entering a phase where an open source developer might say "Why bother porting to Windows? Just target Arch/Ubuntu/SUSE."

tl/dr: Simply put, the cross platform distribution problem is solved (in way more ways than one), but I think the combination electron/nw.js + cross-platform-from-the-get-go languages will win, instead of other options like QT. I think it might be a waste of time to target a distribution and hope it gets ported reasonably to Windows, clouding your codebase in the process. While possibly a highly unpopular opinion, th…

> While possibly a highly unpopular opinion, this is where I think solutions like Electron/Node Webkit fit perfectly.

Well ...: https://twitter.com/jacobrossi/status/851992646151278592

Re: Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

#53

Post by beart »

douche wrote: post #27

The installation process for the WSL still blows - and I say that as somebody who really likes this feature. I tried doing it today on my laptop: 1.) Open up the Programs and Features control panel. 2.) Go to Turn Windows Features on or off 3.) Select the Windows Subsystem for Linux option and hit OK. Installs, prompts for reboot. 4.) Try to launch C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe. Console window flashes momentarily and…

Following the actual installation instructions, I found the process to be extremely simple.

1) Enable developer mode

2) Install using Windows Features

3) Reboot

Re: Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

#54

Post by mih »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #47
notalaser wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I recoil at the possibility that some developer 5 years from now might ask me "Why bother installing your own linux distribution? You can just get Windows Go 15 and run Arch/Ubuntu/SUSE from inside there. Don't forget to disable the ads and tracking that come standard". "I mean, the privacy is shit, but you can sort of deal with it. But at least you don't have to dance the Ritual Dance of PulseAudio if you need to…

Could you expand on some ways that linux desktops are getting worse/less portable? I run Arch and I definitely run into a few things from time to time where I need to go on a google hunt to figure out what's wrong (if it's not already obvious), but the distro is pretty user friendly (despite the 'hard core' reputation it has which honestly drew me to it). Ubuntu just about works right out of the box 99% of the time t…

A fellow Arch user here. Although I would not classify it as a portability problem, I have mixed feelings about Desktop on Linux. I use KDE Plasma myself and there is not shortage of messages and bug reports on the headaches GTK poses due to theming. Ever so often, you run into a GTK app that simply turns out to be unusable because the UI elements aren't visible. Same thing with GUI apps written in Java , which look ugly and exhibit strange quirks.

Now KDE does provide compatible themes for GTK, but the fragmentation in GTK (2 vs 3) does not help. The solutions are at best a stopgap measure till the next major version breaks what you managed to get right. It's a never ending game of whack-a-mole. It does not help some of the most popular apps are written in GTK. As I speak due to reasons I haven't investigated yet, I am unable to paste text contents in GTK apps. Windows has other points I take issue with, but at least the UI just works as expected and doesn't seem to hang by a thread.

Re: Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

#55

Post by microtonal »

Drakim wrote: post #7
notum wrote: post #3

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) isn't virtualized, as the article states. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2016/04/22/windows-subs... It's aim is to run Linux binaries natively. The degree of it's usefulness, issues and filesystem interoperability was discussed before so won't get into that.

So it's sorta like a reverse WINE?

Only sort of. WINE has a much larger scope, because it has to reimplement the complete Win32 API, because it is proprietary and cannot be redistributed. Windows Subsystem for Linux, on the other hand, 'only' needs to support the ELF loader and Linux system calls and can then use glibc, and other core libraries.

Another difference is that WINE runs completely in user land, while the WSL Linux syscall handling runs in kernel land (lxcore, lxss).

Probably another good comparison is Linux compat in the BSDs, which implement Linux system calls, signal handling, etc. but can use glibc and other core libraries from a Linux distribution.

Re: Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

#56

Post by youdontknowtho »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #4

While I can see this is an excellent strategy for the Windows platform, and will probably make developers on Windows more productive, I for one will never give up natively installed linux distributions for development. It may be childish, but I resent Windows for every anti-privacy, anti-competitive move they make, despite how much it is within their rights and fitting with their corporate goals. Trying to put linux…

>It may be childish

I don't think its childish, but I do think it's more emotional than logical. They aren't trying to pretend that they have been on the side of FOSS developers the whole time. Most MS'ers that I've talked to are very clear about what MS did wrong in the beginning of the Open Source era. Lot's of them went to work there just to work on open source.

I'm not trying to get down on you or anything, I just think that maybe you are letting your feelings about the past color your reaction. Also, no one is saying that you should give up anything. This is for people that want to use it to help with their development tasks.

You know, I watched a SQL presentation from their Build conference today about SQL Server and containers...the entire thing was on Linux. Completely. They didn't use Windows Server even once.

Re: Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

#57

Post by [deleted] »

notalaser wrote: post #35
hardwaresofton wrote: post #4

While I can see this is an excellent strategy for the Windows platform, and will probably make developers on Windows more productive, I for one will never give up natively installed linux distributions for development. It may be childish, but I resent Windows for every anti-privacy, anti-competitive move they make, despite how much it is within their rights and fitting with their corporate goals. Trying to put linux…

> I recoil at the possibility that some developer 5 years from now might ask me "Why bother installing your own linux distribution? You can just get Windows Go 15 and run Arch/Ubuntu/SUSE from inside there. Don't forget to disable the ads and tracking that come standard". "I mean, the privacy is shit, but you can sort of deal with it. But at least you don't have to dance the Ritual Dance of PulseAudio if you need to…

[deleted]

Re: Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

#58

Post by hardwaresofton »

mih wrote: post #54
hardwaresofton wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you expand on some ways that linux desktops are getting worse/less portable? I run Arch and I definitely run into a few things from time to time where I need to go on a google hunt to figure out what's wrong (if it's not already obvious), but the distro is pretty user friendly (despite the 'hard core' reputation it has which honestly drew me to it). Ubuntu just about works right out of the box 99% of the time t…

A fellow Arch user here. Although I would not classify it as a portability problem, I have mixed feelings about Desktop on Linux. I use KDE Plasma myself and there is not shortage of messages and bug reports on the headaches GTK poses due to theming. Ever so often, you run into a GTK app that simply turns out to be unusable because the UI elements aren't visible. Same thing with GUI apps written in Java , which look…

Hey there! -- I absolutely hear you on KDE Plasma... If you feel like putting a few hours (worst case a day or weekend into it) you could take a look at:

- XFCE

- BSPWM (very minimal, lots of set up, and not great documentation, but I manage windows for the most part without leaving my homerow now, so I love it. once you're past). If you're not one for keyboard shortcuts and muscle memory, it may not be interesting, but I run bspwm and love it.

Point taken on the GTK pain, it was so painful that I stopped using it (I used to run linux mint, and cinnamon/mate, Gnome, were also thorns in my side), and wince every time something I want to install has dependencies on GTK (just because it pulls in 10098123 other packages every time).

Re: Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora Are All Coming to the Windows Store

#59

Post by [deleted] »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #29
Shorel wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't resent Windows, in fact I am doing updates now in the Windows OS. But just for performance and workload capacity, I can't give up Ubuntu, when installed in the very same hardware. There's something in Windows that just removes control from the user, and I say this in a very technical way.

Absolutely agreed -- I saw a different HN thread about running Windows 10 on ARM and: - thought to myself "why on earth would anyone want that" - looked at the comments, noted people who were working with legacy software that turned out to be dependent on windows, decided to keep my disparaging commentary to myself - felt sympathy with smidgen of condescension (I'm of the opinion that someone should just rewrite thos…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN