Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
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Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#2Looks like worthwhile additions. WSL is pretty nice, although I've started moving away from Windows, and generally do all my WinNix stuff on MSYS2 and Cygwin now anyway, for a variety of reasons. That and Eshell in NTEmacs is so nice.
Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#3Shouldn't it be called Windows Subsystem for GNU? There's a boatload of GNU-tools in there, but does it include a Linux kernel too?
Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#4Shouldn't it be called Windows Subsystem for GNU? There's a boatload of GNU-tools in there, but does it include a Linux kernel too?
> Shouldn't it be called Windows Subsystem for GNU?
No, that's a separate module that requires the Windows Subsystem for Pedants.
Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#5Shouldn't it be called Windows Subsystem for GNU? There's a boatload of GNU-tools in there, but does it include a Linux kernel too?
Or GNU/Linux Subsystem for Windows? It's called "Linux Subsystem on Windows" in the HTML:
Install the Linux Subsystem on Windows 10 | Microsoft Docs [1]
Microsoft has a tendency to create confusion around names when they relate in some way to Free software.
Another example: Office Open XML.
[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#6Shouldn't it be called Windows Subsystem for GNU? There's a boatload of GNU-tools in there, but does it include a Linux kernel too?
The GNU userland is copied verbatim from your GNU/Linux distribution. Microsoft doesn't need to maintain these utilities. What Microsoft is developing is really a compatibility layer for running ELF binaries and handling all the system calls expected by Linux programs. So it's accurate to say Windows Subsystem for Linux. I haven't tried but I bet a GNU-free Linux system like Busybox will run just fine.
Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#7Shouldn't it be called Windows Subsystem for GNU? There's a boatload of GNU-tools in there, but does it include a Linux kernel too?
It emulates a Linux kernel, by handling Linux syscalls - it doesn't care much about what's in the userspace. The GNU tools are not required, they are just present since the Linux distros available use them. You can, of course, run busybox if you please. It might be buggy in some fashion but it will almost certainly work.
Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#8I advice people to not use WSL. It seems to me that this is the first step of their well-known embrace, extend, extinguish microsoft's strategy.
They are now embracing the gnu/linux way of working like the packaging tools, the command line with the shells, the easy of having a compiler and developer tools, etc etc.
At the same time they don't let you create from WSL standard Windows application that you can redistribute, I guess this is part of their strategy.
In addition Windows 10 is such a messy, bloated system and the updates are very heavy and have often problems and they reset without asking many of the configurations you carefully made on your system.
I advice people that want to use Windows to use MSYS2 instead. It is very well done, works flawlessly and you can build full featured windows application that you can redistribute. You have also the pleasure to use a shell inside a decent terminal and install very easily packages using pacman.
In addition they support MinGW packages that does not need a special compatibility library, the msys2 dll, so that your application is 100% Windows native and can be a single executable if you want.
Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#9Shouldn't it be called Windows Subsystem for GNU? There's a boatload of GNU-tools in there, but does it include a Linux kernel too?
Or GNU/Linux Subsystem for Windows? It's called "Linux Subsystem on Windows" in the HTML: Install the Linux Subsystem on Windows 10 | Microsoft Docs [1] Microsoft has a tendency to create confusion around names when they relate in some way to Free software. Another example: Office Open XML. [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
I was actually trying to guess whether it’s an April joke indeed because of the naming.
Re: Command Line and Windows Subsystem for Linux – The Windows 10 April Update
#10Shouldn't it be called Windows Subsystem for GNU? There's a boatload of GNU-tools in there, but does it include a Linux kernel too?
Too put it more simply ladies and gents', it's the doppelgänger of WINE.