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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

#641

Post by stephenr »

p_ing wrote: post #408
stephenr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... You know that you can run VMs, or full-OS containers on a Linux desktop right? Or on a macOS Desktop. Bonus: doing so on either platform doesn't also mean your host OS is running under a hypervisor, as it does with WSL2. Bigger bonus: you don't have to run fucking Windows.

> Bonus: doing so on either platform doesn't also mean your host OS is running under a hypervisor Why do you think, technologically, this is some form of "bonus"?

Because it broke/put restrictions on the ability to run other hypervisors as the user.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#642

Post by naikrovek »

ryao wrote: post #257
avestura wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft can't name a project leading with a trademark (Linux ), hence why it's called WSL. Source: https://x.com/richturn_ms/status/1245481405947076610?s=19

It was previously called the Windows Subsystem for Android before it pivoted. It had a spiritual predecessor called Windows Services for UNIX. I doubt the name had been chosen for the reasons you say, considering the history. That said, to address the grandparent comment’s point, it probably should be read as “Windows Subsystem for Linux (Applications)”.

WSA was a separate thing.

WSA and WSL both coexisted for a time.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#643

Post by stephenr »

adithyassekhar wrote: post #269
stephenr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... You know that you can run VMs, or full-OS containers on a Linux desktop right? Or on a macOS Desktop. Bonus: doing so on either platform doesn't also mean your host OS is running under a hypervisor, as it does with WSL2. Bigger bonus: you don't have to run fucking Windows.

Windows by default runs on a hypervisor since some Windows 11 version.

That just sounds like another reason not to use Windows at all honestly.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#644

Post by TylerJaacks »

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…

I agree with you. Maybe if it had AI shoehorned in, hn would be happy.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#645

Post by naikrovek »

rsynnott wrote: post #61
Matl wrote: post #58

OT but the name irks me; Windows subsystem for Linux makes it sound like some sort of official Wine layer. It's a Linux subsystem for Windows if anything. It makes it sound like Microsoft is giving some capability to Linux whereas it's the other way around.

There's history here; there was an old thing called Windows Subsystem for Unix. Again, not what you'd expect from the name.

That was ”Windows Services for Unix”.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#647

Post by hypercube33 »

jjcm wrote: post #151

When WSL came out I was absolutely overjoyed - finally an actual linux shell on windows! I use windows for my gaming pc, and I wanted to have a unified gaming/dev box. It felt like the solution. Over time though more and more small issues with it came up. Packages working not quite right, issues with the barriers between the two, etc. It always felt like there was a little bit more friction with the process. With Val…

WSL 1 was supposed to be like "Windows on NT" where it emulated the Linux kernal to the NT one. they skipped a ton of features then dumped the whole thing for a containerized virtual machine thing for version 2. Wish the NT one worked out but I get it being complicated.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#648

Post by rizalp »

dataflow wrote: post #632
rizalp wrote: post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because WSL2 is using HyperV behind the scenes, and HyperV is a Type 1 (Native Hypervisor), running directly on top of hardware. When you activate it, it also makes you host windows OS virtualized as well, albeit with native access for some components like GPU etc. That's why all other Windows Hypervisor (Virtualbox, VMWare Workstation) will experience one issue or another when WSL2 is activated, because more ab…

That makes no sense. Are you actually familiar with the technical issues or are you hand-waving? WSL2 itself is a Linux VM running in top of Hyper-V. Heck, as far as I know other Hyper-V VMs run fine alongside WSL2 too. Why can't a VirtualBox Linux VM do the same?

Because Virtualbox and VMWare Workstation is Type-2 hypervisor, they run on top of the host OS (Windows), and not directly on hardware.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypervisor

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#649

Post by LeFantome »

jchw wrote: post #469
zymhan wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The integration between Windows and the WSL VM is far deeper than a typical VM hypervisor. You cannot claim with a straight face that Virtualbox is easier to use.

> The integration between Windows and the WSL VM is far deeper than a typical VM hypervisor. Sure, but I never claimed otherwise. > You cannot claim with a straight face that Virtualbox is easier to use. I also didn't claim that. I wasn't comparing WSL to other virtualization solutions. WSL2 is cool. Linux doesn't have a tool like WSL2 that manages Linux virtual machines. The catch 22 is that it doesn't need one. If…

Distrobox seems a lot like WSL to me. You can run many different Linux distros, each well integrated into the host system.

Except that Distrobox does not require a VM of course as the host kernel is Linux.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#650

Post by alisonatwork »

CJefferson wrote: post #590
ok123456 wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My coworkers stubbornly try to use WSL instead of Linux directly. They constantly run into corner cases and waste time working around them compared to just using Linux. Some tooling detects that it is running on Windows, and some detects that it is running on Linux. In practice, it's the worst of both worlds.

What detects it is running on windows out of interest? I use WSL extensively, with lots of languages, and I’ve never had anything do that. It’s running in a VM, so that would be some kind of weird VM escape?

It's easy, it's right there in uname -r.
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