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Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

blogs.msdn.microsoft.com

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Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

#71

Post by BinaryIdiot »

OhSoHumble wrote: post #61
chrisan wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't that the first beta release of insider? I thought they fixed inode support https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2016/10/07/wsl-...

They did. My point was that I just don't want to encounter bugs. When I run Linux, I get Linux. I already have it installed and I know how it works. I don't want to take the chance of a bug breaking my development workflow.

> My point was that I just don't want to encounter bugs.

You purposefully installed a pre-release version in which they heavily mentioned there would be major bugs and other unfinished things in it.

I'm not sure what you expected here but unless you're talking about the release version I don't think you're being fair at all.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

#72

Post by colordrops »

tyrw wrote: post #9
therein wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not an emulator and the experience is pretty great for anything involving Linux as a workstation. Even though they say "NO current plans to support X/GUI apps, desktops, servers, etc. at this time", this is achievable by installing VcXsrv.

Perhaps emulator was a poor descriptor in this case -- I haven't used it. But it is running a subset of functionality non-natively, correct?

If windows supports the linux system calls by apis that are compiled natively, would the functionality be considered native?

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

#73

Post by wfunction »

OhSoHumble wrote: post #61
chrisan wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't that the first beta release of insider? I thought they fixed inode support https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2016/10/07/wsl-...

They did. My point was that I just don't want to encounter bugs. When I run Linux, I get Linux. I already have it installed and I know how it works. I don't want to take the chance of a bug breaking my development workflow.

>> Wasn't that the first beta release of insider? I thought they fixed inode support

> They did. My point was that I just don't want to encounter bugs.

What an awful response. If that's the problem you have then the solution is that you don't run beta software. You're not really making a sensible point by citing bugs in explicitly-marked-as-beta software as a reason to avoid release software that has already fixed those bugs. I would give the final version a try before complaining about nonexistent bugs.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

#74

Post by BinaryIdiot »

dboreham wrote: post #42
SPACE_LAWYER wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an emulator

Depends on your definition of "emulator". Since it is a thing that emulates Linux kernel calls on top of the NT kernel...it is definitely "emulating".

The dependency to make this work is transforming the calls but the Ubuntu itself is not. Not everything has to run through that translation layer either, only specific types of calls to make things work. Code that isn't using specific *nix commands will run like normal without that layer.

It's pretty complex. I don't think I would call it an emulator but I can see why someone would.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

#77

Post by sangd »

I hope my Macbook days would be over soon. After using Macbook Pro many years, I find good Windows machines are as reliable as Mac's ones. Apple products are usually overpriced, much less options for hardware accessories and upgrades, very expensive to fix. I have to keep running both Mac & Windows machines which is very inconvenient sometimes.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

#78

Post by drdaeman »

dboreham wrote: post #42
SPACE_LAWYER wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an emulator

Depends on your definition of "emulator". Since it is a thing that emulates Linux kernel calls on top of the NT kernel...it is definitely "emulating".

A mirror of WSL is WINE, and we know that WINE is Not an Emulator ;)

But, yeah, jokes aside - it depends on the definition.

Still, the translation (or emulation) layer is partial at best. No cgroups (so no native Docker and rkt would work only with fly stage1 and a few patches), sockets are limited (e.g. a number of setsockopt stuff is missing), no tun or tap devices, no netfilter subsystem at all (so no iptables/iproute2/nftables), no GPU access, etc etc etc. Even though it's out of beta it's a bit early to think of it as a "real deal". Best it can do is run some desktop apps and build some software. Would probably work for basic webdev stuff (without containerization), but that's about it. It would probably never come close to the real thing, just as WINE probably won't ever replace Windows. But they try.

And, of course, it's non-free.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

#79

Post by Infernal »

throwaway91111 wrote: post #76

So is this complementary to the linux subsystem in windows, or a completely unrelated option?

I think you've fallen victim to Microsoft's somewhat awkward naming scheme - the Windows Subsystem for Linux is the name of the "linux subsystem in windows" that you're referring to. It's not complementary or unrelated, but the same thing.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux is out of beta

#80

Post by smaddox »

nerflad wrote: post #75

I really hope they make WSL's /home/. symlink to /mnt/c/users/. by default. What's the point of having a separate filesystem and home directory? I want native POSIX in Windows. The WSL implementation feels like... not that.

The linux filesystem has to be segregated from the windows filesystem. If I remember correctly, the linux FS can read from windows FS, but not write to it, due to locking issues. Or something like that. Whatever it was, it made me discount it as a way to write windows code. Instead, I'm using Git Bash, which is based on mingw
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