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Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

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Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#101

Post by ultramancool »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #77
owaislone wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, but a LOT of developers today write code that eventually runs on Linux in the cloud. With WSL, such developers using Windows will not leave for OS X/Linux

Hmm, perhaps it's really a move against OS X. If you actually run Linux you're probably committed.

I don't think that's necessarily true, I use Synergy on my desktop - 2 machines, a windows box for gaming and windows dev and a Linux box for most general uses including most dev work, ops work on servers, etc.

Something like WSL attempts to reduce the desire for this setup. Having things like real openssh work properly without cygwin is a major plus in my book.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#102

Post by chme »

Longhanks wrote: post #7
kozikow wrote: post #6

I am currently dual booting between Arch Linux and Windows 10. Moving to something like this one day makes me conflicted. On one hand I feel like I would betray open source, on the other hand I wouldn't have to restart my machine to play games...

If your hardware supports it, you may be able to pull a 180 and run a Windows VM on the bare metal using hardware passthrough. There's a great community here: https://www.reddit.com/r/vfio

That is the right way to do this.

I would really love if Qubes OS would support that, but it's not quite there yet.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#103

Post by zamalek »

jcrites wrote: post #50
_qbjt wrote: post #43

Maybe I'm in the minority but I prefer keeping my GNU/Linux and Windows installations separate, with each OS on its own drive. My Linux setup is secure, free of proprietary software and under my full control. When I run tcpdump, I'm met with a clean log where every packet is one I recognize. I get to use my favorite window manager (awesomewm) and I don't have to worry about forced updates. My Windows install is quite…

It would be nice to be able to develop "native" Linux software right from within Windows where I'm doing other things. I can see the appeal. That's why Microsoft built the Linux subsystem, I suppose.

I tried dual booting Linux back in high school, never got anywhere because I never selected it at boot. Virtual Machines changed that - I was able to play around with Linux without having to worry about a power cycle.

Now I can play around Tensor flow (in theory) and not have to worry about the crummy GPU support in nearly all hypervisors.

I've reached the point where I'd love to have Linux on my work machine, no Windows at all. That's only because for the first time Linux isn't this cool kids playground that I'm not invited to.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#104

Post by noinsight »

flukus wrote: post #83
voltagex_ wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSL is definitely not a Virtual Machine, unless you're saying that WINE is also a VM, in which case you have a very broad definition of VM that's different from most other people. The way WSL is implemented is actually really interesting. Linux syscalls are translated by an NT kernel driver and some other shims handle the NTFS->POSIX transition on the filesystem side.

> WSL is definitely not a Virtual Machine, unless you're saying that WINE is also a VM, in which case you have a very broad definition of VM that's different from most other people. Wine runs on the host OS, WSL runs apps from linux image. This image is self contained, just like a VM. Aside from that, I said it's practically a VM. There might be some different technical stuff going on underneath, but for a user there…

> Wine runs on the host OS, WSL runs apps from linux image. This image is self contained, just like a VM.

Actually (it's been a long time since I last used Wine though, so I might remember incorrectly), Wine is "self contained" as well and there's a "C: drive" directory structure with notepad.exe etc. too, just like the WSL system.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#105

Post by sjellis »

apatters wrote: post #93
simula67 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is precisely the strategy of 'Embrace, Extend, Extinguish'. Step 1: Embrace new technology ( like Ruby, Python, Java etc ) that run on other ecosystems Step 2: Add extensions to the technology that only works in Microsoft ecosystem. For example, add new functionality to Ruby for Windows that only work on Windows Step 3: As more and more people develop software that uses these features, more people will have to s…

So what do you call it when Google adds great UX, advanced sorting and searching etc. to email, and then slowly starts making it harder to send email to Gmail accounts from non-Gmail accounts? (All in the name of eliminating spam, of course.) Or when Facebook Messenger supports XMPP up until the point where their user base is big enough and they don't have to care about interop anymore? Welcome to Software Business 1…

Microsoft are still doing it. The company that I work for didn't just pay for Office subscriptions because we wanted Office for Mac (and I didn't want to get it on subscription either, but the pricing strategy is designed to penalize you if you don't). We actually have access to three different Office-like products already (iWork, LibreOffice, Google Apps). None of them can yet 100% support Microsoft's "standard" file formats.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#106

Post by flukus »

noinsight wrote: post #104
flukus wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> WSL is definitely not a Virtual Machine, unless you're saying that WINE is also a VM, in which case you have a very broad definition of VM that's different from most other people. Wine runs on the host OS, WSL runs apps from linux image. This image is self contained, just like a VM. Aside from that, I said it's practically a VM. There might be some different technical stuff going on underneath, but for a user there…

> Wine runs on the host OS, WSL runs apps from linux image. This image is self contained, just like a VM. Actually (it's been a long time since I last used Wine though, so I might remember incorrectly), Wine is "self contained" as well and there's a "C: drive" directory structure with notepad.exe etc. too, just like the WSL system.

I think your right, now that you've jogged my memory.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#107

Post by colemickens »

ackalker wrote: post #17
Longhanks wrote: post #3

This pulls something from https://cdn.turbo.run/alwsl/alwsl.sfs - what's this URL? How can anyone tell this is related to Arch Linux? Why do the readmes link to 404s? All of this seems rather unfinished. Could have polished at least the github presence a little. Also, what are the advantages compared to solution like https://github.com/RoliSoft/WSL-Distribution-Switcher , which allows selecting different distribution…

> ...which allows selecting different distributions, including Arch Linux? Sorry to rain on your parade, but there is _no_ official Arch Linux image on Docker[1], as you can easily verify[2]. Use at your own risk whatever Arch Linux image you happen to find on Docker Hub, such as this one[3]. It might work or it might break, but it ain't official. [1]: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=214973 [2]: https://hu…

The attitude here is hard to understand. [3] is very clear about how it's built, no guess work involved.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#108

Post by krylon »

_qbjt wrote: post #43

Maybe I'm in the minority but I prefer keeping my GNU/Linux and Windows installations separate, with each OS on its own drive. My Linux setup is secure, free of proprietary software and under my full control. When I run tcpdump, I'm met with a clean log where every packet is one I recognize. I get to use my favorite window manager (awesomewm) and I don't have to worry about forced updates. My Windows install is quite…

This is pretty OT, but I feel like it is worth pointing out:

> Boot times are very short with SSDs so restarting is not a problem.

Personally - this is a question of individual preference, though - I do not mind the OS boot time itself very much (to a degree). Whether the system takes ten seconds or two minutes from reset/power-on to the login screen does not make much of a difference, to me, psychologically. But once I log in, I need to open all of these programs, make sure the windows are in the right place, SSH connections to certain machines are open, etc. I admit I am kind of obsessive-compulsive about this, but this is a far greater (psychological) barrier to rebooting than the OS boot time itself.

I do not use Windows at home, and my work laptop runs Windows 7 (I intend to keep it that way, too), so I have not been able to play with the Linux subsystem on Windows. But if you consider it as an alternative to Cygwin (which I do use), it sound kind of nice. Now if only Windows had a native, builtin X server... ;-)

EDIT: With Cygwin or the Linux subsystem, driver issues are not an issue, of course, because hardware is still managed by the Windows kernel and Windows drivers.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#109

Post by freekh »

kozikow wrote: post #6

I am currently dual booting between Arch Linux and Windows 10. Moving to something like this one day makes me conflicted. On one hand I feel like I would betray open source, on the other hand I wouldn't have to restart my machine to play games...

Exactly the same for me! Got bash for Windows up and running with i3 on vcsrt. Ff is running in i3 and it is relatively smooth (I have a beefy specs). Almost all my settings have been ported. However, emacs is struggling because of some weird issue not going fullscreen and there's lots of issues with other execs (GUI in particular) because of dbus (I think)... There's also a super annoying issue with the windows button which I normally use as meta key for i3....

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#110

Post by AnonymousPlanet »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #77
owaislone wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, but a LOT of developers today write code that eventually runs on Linux in the cloud. With WSL, such developers using Windows will not leave for OS X/Linux

Hmm, perhaps it's really a move against OS X. If you actually run Linux you're probably committed.

Bingo. I thought this was obvious from the start.
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