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

Microsoft's Linux Kernel

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 532 posts

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#101

Post by beart »

marsrover wrote: post #91
filmgirlcw wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclosure: I work at Microsoft but not on Windows (and my work machine is a MacBook Pro FWIW) WSL 2 is a lot like that -- it's a VM in the sense that it uses Hyper-V, but it's super lightweight. And in fact, when WSL 2 is enabled, both Windows AND Linux are running in the same type of VM (separate, obviously), so it's near-native performance in a lot of ways. There are still some I/O issues that the team is actively…

> it uses Hyper-V does this mean there will be issues using VirtualBox if WSL 2 is enabled?

Unless virtual box utilizes hyper v, you'll have to reboot to switch between

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#102

Post by briffle »

rolph wrote: post #27
jdoliner wrote: post #6

My brain threw an exception when I read this title. Awesome that this is a reality though. Now that we have a Linux kernels running and accessible on both Windows and Chromebooks I feel like we can finally say: 2019 actually is the year of Linux on the desktop. It's not a meme anymore, it's finally just a true statement. Edit: To those questioning if this really counts as Linux on the Desktop. Yes, I understand what…

problem is the kernel is sitting on top of a binary blob, and that manipulates the access to the real machine. we shouldnt be so worried about the kernel, we should be concerned about what the binary between the kernel and the hardware is doing/notdoing , and what degree of control do we have over that layer.

The same problem exists in VMware, or really any cloud provider...

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#103

Post by chrismorgan »

SteveNuts wrote: post #17
mullingitover wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is still with Linux running in a VM though, right? I'd like a lightweight VM for legacy Windows and Linux running on metal. Given Microsoft's zeal for legacy support I'd say there's a snowball's chance in hell for this, but a man can dream.

WSL version 2 uses the Hyper-V Virtualization API but is not a VM. The first version of WSL is just another process in task manager, with all the syscalls and filesystems emulated.

Well, each WSL1 process is a Windows process. If you’re running vim in bash, for example, you’ll see “vim” and “bash” as separate processes in Task Manager. WSL is all about ELF binaries natively, just as Win32 runs PE executables natively.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#104

Post by signal11 »

bshacklett wrote: post #72
antirez wrote: post #52

Microsoft: put a good POSIX layer into Windows. The times are mature now, and this allows your platform to benefit from a lot of open source system software easily, without portings and compatibility layers. At the same time, now that developers start to be annoyed big time by Apple nonsensical Mac handling, this gives a lot of devs, not developing primarily for the Win arch, the ability to evaluate Windows as a deve…

The pure geek in me really wishes they'd bring back SFU. Windows has a really impressive mechanism for implementing subsystems (I can't remember for sure, but I believe win32 is actually implemented on top of this layer). I'm sure there's far more complexity involved than I could imagine, but I've always loved the idea of having a bunch of different subsystems running without the need for virtualization.

V1 of WSL (which isn’t going to go away IIRC) was essentially an iteration/improvement of the subsystem model, but with new things like picoprocesses.

This article[1] has a good overview of the design goals, which mainly was to let unmodified binaries run.

[1] https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2016/04/22/windows-subs...

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#105

Post by Const-me »

frequentnapper wrote: post #76

As an aside, which laptop do people here prefer for windows dev? I am split between Surface laptop and Lenovo X1 Carbon.

Thick ones, able to house active cooling, and therefore fast CPUs. Where you can upgrade RAM and SSD with a screwdriver, without a heat gun. A brand doesn’t matter.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#106

Post by basq »

gorio wrote: post #85
jdoliner wrote: post #6

My brain threw an exception when I read this title. Awesome that this is a reality though. Now that we have a Linux kernels running and accessible on both Windows and Chromebooks I feel like we can finally say: 2019 actually is the year of Linux on the desktop. It's not a meme anymore, it's finally just a true statement. Edit: To those questioning if this really counts as Linux on the Desktop. Yes, I understand what…

Despite the wording I don't think that is the original definition? The idea is to make Linux viable as a desktop operating system, and whatever comes with that. Not running Linux as an application on another desktop. Which is almost the opposite as in leveraging capabilities outside of Linux. Maybe more importantly redefining the goal isn't helping Linux much. I remember everyone raving about Android, but now look at…

You pinpointed exactly the rub I was experiencing. Reminds me of "Rules as Written" vs "Rules as Intended" dichotomy I see mentioned on the Dungeons and Dragons stack exchange.

If this really is the year of the linux desktop, it's not what I had imagined.

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#108

Post by Operyl »

marsrover wrote: post #91
filmgirlcw wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclosure: I work at Microsoft but not on Windows (and my work machine is a MacBook Pro FWIW) WSL 2 is a lot like that -- it's a VM in the sense that it uses Hyper-V, but it's super lightweight. And in fact, when WSL 2 is enabled, both Windows AND Linux are running in the same type of VM (separate, obviously), so it's near-native performance in a lot of ways. There are still some I/O issues that the team is actively…

> it uses Hyper-V does this mean there will be issues using VirtualBox if WSL 2 is enabled?

As of VirtualBox 6.0, they should be able to coexist (because VirtualBox piggies onto Hyper-V when it’s enabled effectively).

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#109

Post by filmgirlcw »

fooker wrote: post #100
filmgirlcw wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclosure: I work at Microsoft but not on Windows (and my work machine is a MacBook Pro FWIW) WSL 2 is a lot like that -- it's a VM in the sense that it uses Hyper-V, but it's super lightweight. And in fact, when WSL 2 is enabled, both Windows AND Linux are running in the same type of VM (separate, obviously), so it's near-native performance in a lot of ways. There are still some I/O issues that the team is actively…

>both Windows AND Linux are running in the same type of VM Is there a way to suspend windows? From what you say, there is nothing technical preventing this.

It’s happening at the hypervisor level, and in this case it’s Type 1, so I guess you could but I don’t know how. My ops colleagues are hanging their heads at me right now.

You can learn more about the architecture of WSL2 in this video from Build https://youtu.be/lwhMThePdIo

Re: Microsoft's Linux Kernel

#110

Post by filmgirlcw »

marsrover wrote: post #91
filmgirlcw wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclosure: I work at Microsoft but not on Windows (and my work machine is a MacBook Pro FWIW) WSL 2 is a lot like that -- it's a VM in the sense that it uses Hyper-V, but it's super lightweight. And in fact, when WSL 2 is enabled, both Windows AND Linux are running in the same type of VM (separate, obviously), so it's near-native performance in a lot of ways. There are still some I/O issues that the team is actively…

> it uses Hyper-V does this mean there will be issues using VirtualBox if WSL 2 is enabled?

The team has said its working with VMware and VirtualBox on solutions but I have no idea what those will be.
Post reply on HN