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

Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 163 posts

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#41

Post by morganvachon »

briansteffens wrote: post #10
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...

Or you could just only play Linux games. I mean sure, you'll eventually get tired of Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of Mordor. But when that happens you can just play Shadow of Mordor.

I realize you were attempting to make a joke, but there's a ton of great games on Steam for Linux nowadays, and GOG.com has been porting some of their games to Linux as well. Anything made in Unity, Unreal engines, and id Tech engines can be easily ported to Linux.

Beyond native ports, one can use PlayOnLinux or just plain Wine with varying degrees of success.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#42

Post by socmag »

kuschku wrote: post #39
socmag wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious general open question here. It strikes me as odd that on the one hand you say you want to ditch windows in favor of FOSS, but then go on to say that you use Windows just to play games. The interesting thing is that games are some of the most costly and closed source things in software today. Windows costs the price of two games or less. Further, if you own a PlayStation, an XBox it's likely you have spent hun…

Free as in Freedom != Free as in Beer

Well that part I understand, but freedom has a price, and to make that work the onus is on the community to prop you up. Unfortunately, the human genome is pretty selfish in my personal experience.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#43

Post by _qbjt »

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 a different beast - automatic updates, mostly proprietary software and no major customizations other than performance tweaks and what the OS allows. I use it for gaming and media, and it works great. Boot times are very short with SSDs so restarting is not a problem. No compatibility issues, no fussing about with drivers and no need for translation layers like the Windows Subsystem or WINE; just two independent OSs that never let me down.

That said, no hate toward this project. Arch Linux is probably my favorite distro (although I'm on Xubuntu at the moment).

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#44

Post by Kenji »

socmag wrote: post #24
Kenji wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that works? Video games are pretty much the last thing that holds me on Windows. Everything else is solved on Linux. I am very interested in any solution for this problem.

Serious general open question here. It strikes me as odd that on the one hand you say you want to ditch windows in favor of FOSS, but then go on to say that you use Windows just to play games. The interesting thing is that games are some of the most costly and closed source things in software today. Windows costs the price of two games or less. Further, if you own a PlayStation, an XBox it's likely you have spent hun…

I have nothing against closed source, and I don't think FOSS is inherently good. I am a long-time fan of Windows and Microsoft, and I owned two Xbox 360 and an Xbox One. I just noticed a trend in Windows: Less customizability, less control, more automatic updates and erratic behaviours (recently, a Windows update caused my screen to turn black randomly on my Laptop. While I was working on my thesis that was due in a few days! Uninstalling the offending 'update' fixed the bug...).

I can slap a Linux distro on my PC in 30 minutes and be ready. Copy over your home folder and apt-get your software and you're ready to go. You can even install it on a USB drive. On the other hand, with Windows, I have to worry about licensing, version (will Windows 10 install home or professional?? It's the same image and it decides by itself...) and just a ton of other stuff. We're at the point where Windows has no advantage over Linux (except for games). A decade ago, you would always run into driver problems, packet manager bugs, configuration problems, etc. on Linux. Today it is rock solid. I am just choosing the better system here - who programmed it and how available the source is does not matter to me.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#45

Post by socmag »

jfmyers9 wrote: post #29
socmag wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious general open question here. It strikes me as odd that on the one hand you say you want to ditch windows in favor of FOSS, but then go on to say that you use Windows just to play games. The interesting thing is that games are some of the most costly and closed source things in software today. Windows costs the price of two games or less. Further, if you own a PlayStation, an XBox it's likely you have spent hun…

They didn't say anything about using Linux because of FOSS. They said games were the only thing keeping them on Windows. There is a possibility that they just enjoys using a Linux OS over Windows for general computing?

He said, he feels he is betraying open source.

Actually that somewhat hits the nail on the head regarding how a lot of us feel. We'd love to do it but the pragmatic reality is that we can't do that all the time.

He feels the pain, I feel the pain, and I'm sure a lot of other people do as well.

The fact remains if he or I play games, or I buy a tv or a washing machine. Well screw us both because on some level we are betraying open source. It's 50 shades of gray.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter. I'm no less confused.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#46

Post by pfranz »

socmag wrote: post #38
iamdave wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't pick up many hints that they were using Linux purely because FOSS, that seems like a projection?; personally I went entirely Linux because I'm fond of the nearly infinitely granular controls I can make over the UI and UX (plus a few system level things) that I can share with others, get improvements on and reiterate into my daily use. Perhaps there's a similar trend here to the user you're responding to; I a…

Aside from the other comment where I hope I pointed out the reasoning.. The "Betray Open Source" bit. You might be right that there is some projection. I've been working on a project for quite some time now, without any pay and it is close to completion, and I more and more frequently reflect on how it should be positioned, marketed and ultimately generate some revenue so that I can actually afford my own apartment.…

I think everyone is a bit split on it. We realize how accessible and empowering open source software has made things, so there's a preference to encourage that. As a kid I was curious about Unix workstations, but knew they cost $30k and I wasn't going to get access to one unless it was a university or larger company shared with other people. Only a few years later Linux was released and today I could get a computer for less than $50 and dig through the source to my heart's content. I have access to a commercial quality Operating System, Databases, and Web Servers. All I have to do is download it.

In general the conceit seems to be paying for support and giving the source away for free (RedHat). Or selling a service and not making the source available (GitHub). It sucks because someone who writes an amazing tool still has to come up with a whole other business in order to make income from it.

There is commercial software on Linux where I don't hear people avoiding it because it's not open source: PyCharm, Sublime, Autodesk Maya, Foundry's Nuke, as well as (like you mentioned) games.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#47

Post by socmag »

Kenji wrote: post #44
socmag wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious general open question here. It strikes me as odd that on the one hand you say you want to ditch windows in favor of FOSS, but then go on to say that you use Windows just to play games. The interesting thing is that games are some of the most costly and closed source things in software today. Windows costs the price of two games or less. Further, if you own a PlayStation, an XBox it's likely you have spent hun…

I have nothing against closed source, and I don't think FOSS is inherently good. I am a long-time fan of Windows and Microsoft, and I owned two Xbox 360 and an Xbox One. I just noticed a trend in Windows: Less customizability, less control, more automatic updates and erratic behaviours (recently, a Windows update caused my screen to turn black randomly on my Laptop. While I was working on my thesis that was due in a…

Okay I understand, and I more or less feel the same way for the most part.

Although I use Linux 95% of the time, and I think Windows has lost its way a little. I would disagree that it isn't robust. The kernel at least is quite excellent. But that's another topic.

Sorry for raising this issue, it's the "I will pay $1000's of dollars for hardware, and games", but I can't spare change for an OS that got me started. Apologies.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#48

Post by alexbecker »

socmag wrote: post #45
jfmyers9 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't say anything about using Linux because of FOSS. They said games were the only thing keeping them on Windows. There is a possibility that they just enjoys using a Linux OS over Windows for general computing?

He said, he feels he is betraying open source. Actually that somewhat hits the nail on the head regarding how a lot of us feel. We'd love to do it but the pragmatic reality is that we can't do that all the time. He feels the pain, I feel the pain, and I'm sure a lot of other people do as well. The fact remains if he or I play games, or I buy a tv or a washing machine. Well screw us both because on some level we are b…

Those were different users commenting.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#49

Post by MaulingMonkey »

socmag wrote: post #24
Kenji wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that works? Video games are pretty much the last thing that holds me on Windows. Everything else is solved on Linux. I am very interested in any solution for this problem.

Serious general open question here. It strikes me as odd that on the one hand you say you want to ditch windows in favor of FOSS, but then go on to say that you use Windows just to play games. The interesting thing is that games are some of the most costly and closed source things in software today. Windows costs the price of two games or less. Further, if you own a PlayStation, an XBox it's likely you have spent hun…

> The interesting thing is that games are some of the most costly

Hah! I wish. I've spent thousands on single SKUs - yet SASS and anything B2B can make that look like chump change.

Meanwhile, Steam sales discount high quality, high end titles significantly pretty quickly - to the point where a lot of gamers basically never pay full price.

To say nothing of mobile being flooded with $0.99 titles. To say nothing of the effectively free humble bundles. To say nothing of all the free web and indie games out there.

Although I guess the right freemium Skinner box can also cost thousands in DLC and micro-transactions? But you can get games so cheap these days that people don't even get around to playing everything in their Steam libraries.

> I just find it hard to rationalize FOSS zealotry that is almost universally hypocritical to some degree.

On the more practical side of things, games are entertainment and frequently rely heavily on obfuscation to avoid hacking to gain unfair advantages in multiplayer. It's all somewhat fungible - if you can't play game X, you can still have fun playing game Y - the only real downside being your emotional investment in game X. Vendor lock-in isn't much of a problem, and a number of games are mod friendly.

Having your business and personal data stuck in vendor lock-in and being legally prohibited from taking over where they fuck up, or try to escape from their clutches should they jack up their prices, etc. is a whole new level of potential downside. Entire businesses die when twitter changes their API terms.

Meanwhile, if WoW ever shut down, gold farmers would find another MMO to abuse the same day.

Re: Arch Linux adapted for Windows Subsystem for Linux

#50

Post by jcrites »

_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.
Post reply on HN