I'm surprised, is integrating a Linux kernel with Windows not a GPL violation? Is this a "mere aggregation" situation? Are the Linux kernel and other closed source Windows code at no point linked, or exchanging complex internal data structures?
The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
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Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
While all my servers are Linux, on the Desktop it is my last choice. Interesting enough I used to love customizing the window manager to death but I'm older now and I just want something that is consistent and works out of the box. Macs work really well out of the box but with some tweaks WSL makes Windows a quite decent development workstation. Currently I'm using Windows + WSL and I'm quite satisfied. Looks like wi…
I don't tweak anything after installing Debian/RHEL at work or at home. They're stable and flexible. IMO, the folks who spend hours customizing their desktops are usually the ones who don't know linux well and want to feel like they do.
Same here. Even when I switched laptop it was a painless: copy homedir, apt-get the same packages I had in the old one, let it cook for a while, and I was up and running with not a hiccup.
The only secret is to use hardware you know beforehand is well supported.
Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Customizing your window manager to death That is not required to use a Linux desktop.
My pet peeve is the default clipboard behavior, personally I hate when I select text and it overrides the previous content in the clipboard.
That's not the default in all Linux desktops I've seen.
Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#44Are there any plans to support graphical guest applications running in a native Windows window, like VMWare Fusion? Their client/server VS Code demo where only the UI runs in Windows seems really bizarre to me. Why not just run X? I suppose you could pipe X over SSH but it would be nice to get built-in support without the hassle or performance penalty.
Their equivalent of vmware fusion is hyperv.
Is it? I didn't think Hyper-V allowed separated windows. The only resource I've found that does this effectively is X410.
Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have the same motivation as you, I just want shit that works. But Windows is the absolute last place I find that. All I get are updates that break my setup, constant inane interruptions from Cortana or the desktop or wherever, advertisement tiles in the fucking start menu, forced updates that can't be done in the background, Windows Activation disappearing after hardware upgrades, etc. I feel like I'm in the Stepfo…
Interesting, may be I have some setting that prevents Cortana from annoying me and prevents windows from placing ads on the start menu. Not that I use the start menu often, generally I just hit the search box and start typing the name of the app I want (if it is not pinned to the task bar already). I'm using Windows 10 Pro (Insider Preview fast track) and not seeing the annoyances you are experiencing.
In my experience, the ads are only present at initial setup. Once you remove the shortcuts (and disable suggested apps), they don't show up again.
Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#46I'm surprised, is integrating a Linux kernel with Windows not a GPL violation? Is this a "mere aggregation" situation? Are the Linux kernel and other closed source Windows code at no point linked, or exchanging complex internal data structures?
I was thinking about this issue on binary blob driver like nvidia's.
GPL is a clever hack of copyright law. It grant derivative works a copyright permission under the condition of accepting the same license.
Now, Windows kernel and Nvidia's binary blob driver exist without relying on Linux kernel at all. How could they be considered as a derivative work in terms of copyright law? Since GPLv2 relies on copyright law, it has no effect on situation where copyright law doesn't allow exclusive right.
For Nvidia's driver, Nvidia released a thin shim wrapper code as GPL which interface between Linux API and Nvidia binary blob driver API. But the core Nvidia binary blob driver existed independently from Linux kernel, it can't be a derivative work of Linux kernel.
For WSL2 case, Microsoft may take the same approach. They may release a thin shim wrapper which interface Linux kernel and Windows as GPL. But Windows kernel itself cannot be a derivative work of Linux kernel if it's separated well.
At least, that's my conclusion. I'm not a lawyer.
Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#47This seems to run on a VM that dynamically adjusts its RAM size according to the current usage. Does a VM like this have any kind of file cache?
I'm pretty sure the Linux side owns it's own FS cache. The whole point of this release is just to run a real Linux kernel in a VM in order to increase FS perf. I'm not sure how you do that and divorce it from the Linux kernel's FS cache.
Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#48I'm surprised, is integrating a Linux kernel with Windows not a GPL violation? Is this a "mere aggregation" situation? Are the Linux kernel and other closed source Windows code at no point linked, or exchanging complex internal data structures?
It’s just another app that runs on Windows. They’re moving from a white-box implementation written by Microsoft of Linux kernel with no GPL code, to just shipping the thing in a VM and be done with it. I can’t say I blame them, WSL always had its rough edges and it breaks in unexpected ways.
Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#49Sounds like Docker for Mac for Windows. Might have some of the same shared FS consistency issues from running two full kernels with their own FS caching hierarchies.
Re: The New Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) Architecture [video]
#50I'm surprised, is integrating a Linux kernel with Windows not a GPL violation? Is this a "mere aggregation" situation? Are the Linux kernel and other closed source Windows code at no point linked, or exchanging complex internal data structures?
The interpretation around what "linking" means in the context of the GPL is a full-time job. At the least, the literal interpretation I was raised with has never been the official position of the FSF. For example, just because you link a library statically doesn't mean you're GPL-violating. You need to for example, swap complex data structures in some complex control flow to cross the line.
Even then there are still more exceptions for 'runtimes' and suchlike where while in a literal sense, the final assembled program when executing is linked against GPL source the result is not considered to be covered by the GPL.
None of this stuff is actually part of the license text -- it's built on precedence and common understanding. These things are a lawyer's job, we're just engineers