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The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

blogs.windows.com

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Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#21

Post by signal11 »

elif wrote: post #7

Every time I praise WSL on hn I pay the karma tax but I will die on this hill. WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously. It's as powerful as Linux with some janky custom local docker wrappers for device support, local storage mapping, and network mapping. Except it's not janky at all. It's an absolute delight to use, out of the box, on a desktop…

qemu on Linux solves a bunch of these problems as well. But yeah, UX-wise WSL is pretty good at solving the problem of “provide Windows devs a POSIX environment”.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#22

Post by righthand »

elif wrote: post #7

Every time I praise WSL on hn I pay the karma tax but I will die on this hill. WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously. It's as powerful as Linux with some janky custom local docker wrappers for device support, local storage mapping, and network mapping. Except it's not janky at all. It's an absolute delight to use, out of the box, on a desktop…

> WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously.

This is why you pay karma tax. This statement is so clearly representative of a falsity.

My linux can run multiple linuxes as well without VM overhead. Something Windows can’t do. Furthermore WINE allows me to forgo running any vm to run windows applications.

I developed on WSL for 3 years and consistently the biggest issue was the lack of ability to use tooling across the shared OSes.

Your karma depleting statements are biased, unfounded, and it shows as you do not really provide counter evidence. That’s why you lose karma.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#23

Post by tgma »

pjmlp wrote: post #2

Given the layoffs round from last week, in a record earnings year, I wonder if this is a side effect of those layoffs.

How would a 3% layoff in a big company affect anything unless they want to specifically axe some project? It’s just lubrication for the machine. 3% is less than nothing compared to the bloat in any bigco and let me tell you Microsoft’s reputation is not the leanest of the bunch.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#24

Post by xPaw »

wkat4242 wrote: post #12
elif wrote: post #7

Every time I praise WSL on hn I pay the karma tax but I will die on this hill. WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously. It's as powerful as Linux with some janky custom local docker wrappers for device support, local storage mapping, and network mapping. Except it's not janky at all. It's an absolute delight to use, out of the box, on a desktop…

Well, WSL is Linux. It's really just a VM of it (since WSL2, WSL1 was actually running on the windows kernel which was pretty cool). The big drawback to WSL to me is the slow filesystem access because NTFS sucks. And having to deal with Windows in the first place. Ps I wouldn't worry about your karma. It's just a number :P

Slow IO is why I still use wsl1.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#26

Post by cokeandpepsi »

behnamoh wrote: post #17
gjvc wrote: post #3

microsoft open sourcing a lot of things lately

I wonder if companies open-source stuff mainly as part of a bigger strategy which primarily benefits them. could it be a way to access to a pool of free, contributing talent?

I mean yeah, the money and growth these days is pulling people into choose their cloud/services platforms

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#27

Post by candiddevmike »

coconut08 wrote: post #20
candiddevmike wrote: post #6

Can I use a vanilla kernel with it yet?

What does the native wsl kernel not offer that you need?

A version that tracks the underlying distro better, or even closer to mainline. Current WSL2 kernel is 6.6, kernel is 6.12 or 6.15. Debian Trixie will be 6.12.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#28

Post by malux85 »

hobs wrote: post #9
elif wrote: post #7

Every time I praise WSL on hn I pay the karma tax but I will die on this hill. WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously. It's as powerful as Linux with some janky custom local docker wrappers for device support, local storage mapping, and network mapping. Except it's not janky at all. It's an absolute delight to use, out of the box, on a desktop…

And yet when I reboot my computer windows has shown me an entirely new place I can see ads - this week it was my lock screen. So I left - I am willing to do more work to be spied on less, to be used as a product less, and to fight with my computer about who owns it less.

> and to fight with my computer about who owns it less.

This is a great way of saying it and expresses the uneasy feeling windows has given me recently. I use Linux machines but I have 1 windows machine in my home as a media PC; and for the last several years windows has made me feel like I don’t own that computer but I’m just lucky to be along for the ride. Ramming ads on the task bar and start menu, forcing updates on me, forcing me to make a Microsoft account before I can login (or just having a dark UI pattern so I can’t figure out how to avoid it, for the pedantic).

With Linux I feel like the machine is a turing complete wonderbox of assistance and possibility, with windows it feels like Microsoft have forced their way into my home and are obnoxiously telling me they know best, while condescendingly telling me I’m lucky to be here at all. It’s a very different feeling.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#30

Post by tgma »

behnamoh wrote: post #8

meanwhile Apple won't even make it easy to boot Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon.

Apple has gone out of their way to build first party virtualization APIs in their OS to boot a Linux VM directly by specifying kernel and initrd on disk. That would be a direct point of comparison to WSL, not Asahi. What are you talking about?

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/vzl...

P.S. They also specifically built Rosetta for Linux to compile x64 Linux binaries into aarch64 to run inside Linux VMs on their machines.

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