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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

#671

Post by RulerOf »

oasisbob wrote: post #430
lolinder wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the same spirit if "it depends", there are other options that may work for people with different Linux/Windows balance points: * Wine is surprisingly good these days for a lot of software. If you only have an app or two that need Windows it is probably worth trying Wine to see if it meets your needs. * Similarly, if gaming is your thing Valve has made enormous strides in getting the majority of games to work flawl…

I'm struggling to find an option for running x86 Windows software on MacOS/Apple Silicon performantly. (LiDAR point cloud processing.) The possibilities seem endless and kinda confusing with Windows on ARM vs Rosetta and Wine, think there's some other options which use MacOS's included virtualization frameworks.

Try Whisky: https://github.com/Whisky-App/Whisky

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#672

Post by ankurdhama »

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…

We already have Distrobox that does same thing.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#673

Post by xarope »

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…

On linux, I've been using lxc (now incus) for years to get different distros.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#674

Post by wvenable »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #92

I've been using WSL on and off for Linux development for the last few years. When it works, it's great! When it doesn't....oh man it sucks. It has been non-stop networking and VPN problems, XServer issues, window scaling issues, hardware accelerated graphics not working, etc. this whole time. I've spent more time trying to fix WSL issues then actually developing software. It's never gotten better. It's fast. It's pow…

I use it all the time but then I've never run a GUI application in it.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#675

Post by rao-v »

nobody9999 wrote: post #535
rao-v wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you - after years of messing with dualboot Linux, including (foolishly) running multiday Gentoo builds, WSL + Windows now gives me everything I want from Linux with zero friction. In fact, I'm a little annoyed that I can't get a comparably smooth experience on my MacBook without spinning up a full QEMU VM. I know it's a bit hypocritical since, like most people, I run WSL2 (which is container/VM-based), not W…

> WSL1 (the original magic syscall translation vision). Actually, the OG "magic syscall translation" is Cygwin[0], which dates back to 1995[1]. [0] https://cygwin.com [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygwin Edit: Fixed prose.

Absolutely! I remember playing and struggling with Cygwin back in the day… I meant original in the sense of the original vision for WSL.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#676

Post by ben-schaaf »

incoming1211 wrote: post #527
GuB-42 wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> WSL is more powerful than Linux This is the kind of statement that makes you pay the karma tax. WSL is great, I use it on a day to day basis. I also use Linux on a day to day basis. And as great as WSL is, for running Linux software on supported hardware, Linux beats WSL hands down. And I mean, of course it does, do you expect a VM to beat native? In the same way that Windows software runs better on Windows. (with…

[flagged]

Do you believe the 600+ people with the same problem here: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#677

Post by wvenable »

stopthe wrote: post #344

A lot of people here are saying nice things about having dev environment on WSL. Honest question: how do you deal with with those minor but insufferable Windows' quirks like 0d0a line endings, selective Unicode support, byte-order-marks and so on. While right now I enjoy the privilege to develop on Linux, things may change.

The worlds don't really cross. If I'm using WSL to develop software using a Linux toolchain I'm not using any other Windows tools, other than VS Code, in that environment. I could but I just don't find the need. I could literally be remoted into an actual physical Linux box and the experience would be nearly identical.

Occasionally I'll use File Explorer to manage my Linux file system or Linux tools on the Windows file system but really not the degree in which any quirks would be an issue.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#678

Post by viraptor »

0x457 wrote: post #461
lxgr wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the best part of running Linux as the base OS is not having to deal with Windows. No ridiculous start menu spam; a sane, non-bloated operating system (imagine being able to update user space libraries without a reboot, due to being able to delete files that other processes still have opened!); being able to back up my data at the file level without relying on weird block-level imaging shenanigans and so much…

> For me, the best part of running Linux as the base OS is not having to deal with Windows. This is correct, but let's not pretend that linux is perfect. 99% of linux _for me_ is my terminal environment. WSL delivers on that _for me_. I don't see any start menu spam because I rarely use it, when I do I type what I'm looking for before my eyes even move to look at that start menu. oh, I can play destiny 2 and other ga…

> when I do I type what I'm looking for before my eyes even move to look at that start menu.

That's a /s, right? When I start typing immediately after the windows button, the initial letters are lost, the results are bad either way, and most turn into just web suggestions rather than things named exactly like the input.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#679

Post by wvenable »

aaronbaugher wrote: post #496
varbhat wrote: post #479

Cool! Now make Microsoft Office Open Source! I understand you won't,so atleast release the Linux versions of them!

I remember way, way back when Internet Explorer first came out, there was talk of a Unix/Linux version coming soon.

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

1997 to 2001 (IE 4 to IE 5 SP1)

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#680

Post by wahern »

ori_b wrote: post #350
juancn wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically it's not a VM, it's a subsystem, the same way Win32, Win64, Posix, OS/2, etc. are. It's a feature of the NT-family of kernels where you can create many environments sharing the same underlying executive and HAL. It's a quite interesting way to build an OS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Windows_NT

It used to be. They moved to a VM. Turns out that it's easier to emulate a CPU than syscalls. The CPU churns a lot less, too, which means that once things start working things tend to keep working.

> Turns out that it's easier to emulate a CPU than syscalls

I don't think WSL2 supports CPU emulation. It might not even support (or at least rely on) driver emulation, though Hyper-V itself does.

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