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DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

devblogs.microsoft.com

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Re: DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#71

Post by mmcconnell1618 »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #20
zakk wrote: post #16

I remember when DirectX was a huge obstacle to porting games to Linux. This feels like a great, great victory for Linux to me!

You're not seeing the big picture. If Windows can do Windows apps and also 90% of what Linux developers use Linux for, what need is there ever for Linux on the desktop? MS marketing may be trumpeting their love for open source but WSL2 is a actually a brilliant bit of jujutsu[0] on Microsoft's part. [0] I use this word specifically because it's a martial art about using an opponent's strength against themselves. MS's…

Microsoft saw developers flock to Mac OS/X where they had a true terminal and could also run line of business apps like Office. I was at several Microsoft developer conferences where 90% of the machines were MacBook Pros and I know that didn't make Microsoft leadership happy. I believe the Surface line was a direct response to that along with WSL. Someone in Redmond realized they couldn't beat Linux so now comes the embrace.

Re: DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#72

Post by dade_ »

squarefoot wrote: post #66
wmf wrote: post #6

...and extend. I'm sure this architecture was easier for MS but it opens the door to code that runs on WSL2 that doesn't run on regular Linux.

> but it opens the door to code that runs on WSL2 that doesn't run on regular Linux. Which is exactly what I was expecting since day one when WSL was announced. WSL is going to slowly kill Linux, or to be more accurate, it will kill any Linux (be it on servers or desktops) not Microsoft branded and distributed. Forks on smaller embedded systems will resist for a while, until one day MS decides to port some killer tec…

Yeah, but right now it solves the problem of not being able to run code on WSL that does run fine in Linux.

What really stops me from using Linux on the Desktop is compatibility issues with my laptop(s), reliable sleep/wake and rendering issues with High DPI display.

Microsoft released an MS Teams client for Linux which astonished me. So, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

Re: DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#73

Post by microcolonel »

ghostpepper wrote: post #64
miffe wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also adding an wayland server. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/the-windows-subsy...

Aren't large parts of the wayland stack incompatible with NVIDIA drivers? It would be ironic if Microsoft was the one to bridge that gap.

That's more a matter of buffer management. Though it may turn out , if their work is too tied to NVIDIA, to only support NVIDIA's de facto proprietary selection: EGLStreams.

Though in principle, there's nothing preventing them from using GBM instead of EGLStreams, and there are some good practical reasons such as having compatibility with the broad base of existing accelerated Wayland windowing libraries and applications.

Re: DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#74

Post by monocasa »

badRNG wrote: post #63
monocasa wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anymore so than they're already locked into CUDA. It's more a WDDM bridge than a strict DirectX bridge.

I don't see how being "locked into CUDA" should make one less skeptical of a change that will functionally lock projects into Windows. I can't help but think this is going to siphon resources from Linux native graphics development.

I don't see how it'll be locking projects into windows. There's no user space DirectX library here.

The whole point looks to take your CUDA code that would run just fine on Linux without a hypervisor, and run it just as well in WSL2.

ie. this is at worst still the embrace stage, IMO.

Re: DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#75

Post by pier25 »

modeless wrote: post #10
_vbdg wrote: post #2

> This also enables third party APIs, such as the popular NVIDIA Cuda compute API, to be hardware accelerated within a WSL environment. Dollars to donuts this is why Microsoft is implementing this. GPU acceleration is becoming a critical feature for many users (but especially developers) and this will continue. If WSL is to be a serious competitor, this is necessary and I'm glad to see it showing up. This is true of…

Yes, machine learning is the first priority as they say in the thread. However, the blog post goes on to say that window system integration is coming. This will eventually be a full graphics stack. > Anyway, this isn't really a Linux port of DirectX The entire user mode side of Direct3D is ported, in addition to the user mode parts of the Nvidia, AMD, and Intel graphics drivers.

> This will eventually be a full graphics stack

Are we seeing the start of the migration of Windows to linux?

Re: DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#76

Post by empath75 »

wmf wrote: post #6

...and extend. I'm sure this architecture was easier for MS but it opens the door to code that runs on WSL2 that doesn't run on regular Linux.

Microsoft doesn’t consider desktop Linux its competition, it considers MacOs its competition.

It’s going after macbook’s position as the default developer laptop and Apple deserves what’s coming to them IMO, for neglecting it for so long.

Re: DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#78

Post by [deleted] »

Mic92 wrote: post #7
_vbdg wrote: post #2

> This also enables third party APIs, such as the popular NVIDIA Cuda compute API, to be hardware accelerated within a WSL environment. Dollars to donuts this is why Microsoft is implementing this. GPU acceleration is becoming a critical feature for many users (but especially developers) and this will continue. If WSL is to be a serious competitor, this is necessary and I'm glad to see it showing up. This is true of…

Do ML people actually care about DirectX? I thought everyone is using CUDA? Anyway in my university building I have not seen anyone that does machine learning on Windows.

[deleted]

Re: DirectX is coming to the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#80

Post by squarefoot »

kalium-xyz wrote: post #5

The Year of the linux desktop has come

Actually, the year of Linux on the desktop will never come also thanks to this. Developers will find more comfortable writing Linux software on Windows (some already do); desktop users will have both worlds at hand without being forced to dual boot; Linux gamers won't have any reasons to keep using native Linux. Etc. I foresee in a not so distant future Microsoft integrating Windows UI elements and events hooks right into WSL, so that Linux developers too will be able to take advantage of the well standardized Windows UI; no more GTK or Qt frankenapps on Windows: just pure Linux code written on well known Windows RADs that access all windows internals while opening standard Windows dialogs and widgets. That would likely take away a huge part of Linux users.
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