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Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

#51

Post by joeyaiello »

pweissbrod wrote: post #21
penpapersw wrote: post #2

> "you cannot currently use WSL to run persistent Linux services, daemons, jobs, etc. as background tasks." Still, this has me wondering if that's the ultimate goal here. Is Microsoft trying to position Windows 10 as a high quality Linux server in the long-term?

That's something I look forward to. Does anyone know of a solution of reliable SFTP on windows? By SFTP I mean copy-over-ssh as opposed to FTP with TLS. So I guess I'm asking for a standard sshd running as a windows service.

We're doing a port of OpenSSH to Win32 right now that includes the SFTP server and client that ships as part of OpenSSH: https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/releases

Key configuration is a little tricky right now, but we've got some helper scripts (eventually to be released as a module on the PowerShell Gallery) that it a little easier:

[1] https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/wiki/Security-pr...

[2] https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/wiki/OpenSSH-uti...

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

#52

Post by tmzt »

Very cool. I wonder if picoprocesses could be extended to support something like coLinux, where the real Linux kernel runs as a timeslice alongside the Windows kernel.

Also it would be good to hear more about the progress on OpenSSH and PS remoting over SSH, the github project is getting updates but it doesn't seem very productised.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

#53

Post by sebazzz »

johnhenry wrote: post #27
erentz wrote: post #3

I've been using WSL on Windows 10 since it's release. I'd love to know the inside story of how it came to be. A lot of companies would never try something like this. For me WSL has worked as perfect as could be expected, nothing failed to run that I need yet. The gaps are being slowly closed (e.g. executing between WSL/Windows). I no longer have to develop in a VM, nor be forced to use a Mac just because it has "unix…

It seems that this grew out of a project initially designed to port Android apps to Windows Phone https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/04/why-m... .

Yes, but that ran actually a hypervisor (Hyper-V based) on your phone. It was noticeable because when you gained command line access in an Android app you could find Hyper-V references. Also, when the phone had just booted, the Android VM was not ready yet, so if you tried to run an Android app a message was shown stating to retry it later.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

#55

Post by greenhouse_gas »

Spivak wrote: post #24
basch wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is not the first time microsoft has done this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Services_for_UNIX one could even argue they are somewhere between the embrace and extend phase.

It's a risky move to embrace your competitor's platform. Once this tech matures will people prefer SSH to RDS/WinRM? Will people write software for IIS or will they use WSL to deploy their Apache/Nginx config? When enterprisey software starts shipping with a WSL requirement will admins decide to move to Linux where their software is a 1st class citizen? Why would you choose to be Windows native when its much easier t…

I think the idea is that right now, MS doesn't have much of a choice. Like it or not (and I doubt MS likes it), the server world runs on UNIX/Linux, and out of the four "mainstream" OSs (Windows/Mac /GNU+Linux/Chromebooks+Linux), it's the only one without a UNIXlike back, so while MS is fine on the desktop, they'll have long term problems if developers move to Mac or Linux and the community will see alternatives to Windows.

But in the end, it's not as if Windows is Open Source, and there's no guarantee that WSL will exist in it's current shape forever.

This is actually the whole EEE strategy. You embrace it, as a monopoly you can push your copy over any other, then you "extend" and improve it (so there'll be code which will only work on WSL) and then ... You won.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

#56

Post by mariusmg »

pweissbrod wrote: post #21
penpapersw wrote: post #2

> "you cannot currently use WSL to run persistent Linux services, daemons, jobs, etc. as background tasks." Still, this has me wondering if that's the ultimate goal here. Is Microsoft trying to position Windows 10 as a high quality Linux server in the long-term?

That's something I look forward to. Does anyone know of a solution of reliable SFTP on windows? By SFTP I mean copy-over-ssh as opposed to FTP with TLS. So I guess I'm asking for a standard sshd running as a windows service.

Try WinSSHD, https://www.bitvise.com/winsshd , i've been using it for years and been happy with it.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

#57

Post by mariusmg »

Spivak wrote: post #29
pjmlp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really because what Microsoft is doing is actually GNU/Windows. Google is busy with ChromeOS/Linux and Android/Linux. Apple keeps developing their NeXTSTEP/BSD derivative.

This is actually really interesting. Google doesn't have a kernel so they're borrowing Linux. Microsoft doesn't have a good developer userspace so they're borrowing GNU's.

>Microsoft doesn't have a good developer userspace

What does this even mean ? They do have the best IDE on the market ( Visual Studio). What they are really lacking is a proper console emulator app, but there is still the excellent ConEmu for this (3rd party , doesn't belong to MS).

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

#58

Post by limeblack »

jasonkostempski wrote: post #54

That name is horribly misleading. This is a Linux Subsystem for Windows Server. I'm guessing they wanted their brand name first, clarity be damned.

You can't put a trademark name at the front of a product name is what I have been told unless you get permission from the trademark holder. Not sure if this is true I also would love to know the reason.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

#60

Post by pjmlp »

ajross wrote: post #33
xorblurb wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except WSL has little in common with traditional NT personalities. Traditional NT personalities were a false good idea, and have been a failure in the long term, especially to run Unix workloads -- however this jugement is easy with insight -- when it came out traditional NT personalities were quite interesting.

No idea about code commonality, but the broad architecture of WSL is basically the same as the original POSIX personality from the 90's. The "foreign" process runs in a special mode and handles a different set of system calls via a different dispatch mechanism in the kernel, but still on top of the same set of kernel functionality beneath that.

Actually they are using the picoprocess ideas taken from Drawbridge research.

You are partially right, it is just that they improved a few things.

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