Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#81

Post by nitrogen » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:25 AM UTC

serge2k wrote: post #30

cannonpr wrote: post #21

I grew up through some of the more interesting business practices Microsoft employed, and it's several attempts to harm the Linux ecosystem. I would love to see this move by Microsoft in a positive light, but can't help but be suspicious ? For now the possibilities it opens are great, however I wish I understood Microsoft's strategic view of this and how it might evolve over time for Linux.

This attitude seems pretty dated. This microsoft are no longer the ridiculously dominant force they once were. Linux is a core part of their cloud business now. They have a new CEO, and a lot of time has passed. They are actively trying to change a lot of their culture and approach to things.

Microsoft still seems very divided. On one hand we have cool developer initiatives, but on the other we still have anti-user behavior like forced W10 upgrades, encrypted black-box telemetry that cannot be disabled, Android patent extortion, and lawsuits over FAT support in other operating systems.

I would love to see MS get their crap together, but it still seems like they can't break their addiction to abusive behavior.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#82

Post by sbuttgereit » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:36 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #26

I am really looking forward to this for my Surface Book. Historically I've loaded up a virtual machine running Linux, this was more complete and had fewer hiccups than a Cygwin type of setup for me. Of course it would be REALLY useful if they also support NFS for mounting stuff from my NAS appliance and a compositor (Wayland/X11/Etc.) that would allow things that create windows to work as well.

It's nice and what I use day-in/day-out... WSL on Surface Book.

The first iterations were a bit dodgy in my experience, but it's shaken out nicely. The only real, very nearly show stopper for me is that the console still stinks. That's not to say that Microsoft hasn't been working on it and making progress... but it's not as quality an experience as you'd have using one the Linux terminal programs in a GUI. I find emacs with not a whole lot of custom key mapping to be especially annoying; I swear sometimes that half the key bindings I want to use in org-mode are mapped first as short-cuts to the Windows console program itself.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#83

Post by sbuttgereit » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 4:43 AM UTC

kevindong wrote: post #62

nitinreddy88 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to re-read the post "It’s not about replacing other Windows-native tools such as Python, PowerShell, C# and more. It’s about removing friction when you just need to get stuff done quickly and efficiently in a modern development workflow."

My example was meant to support my assertion that: > I think that blog post is mostly made for tech journalists who aren't actually very techy. --- This statement: > This is definitely a “by developers, for developers” Windows 10 feature, specifically designed to remove a bit of friction from developers’ daily workflow. reads like a press release. I agree that implementing WSL will reduce "friction from developers' d…

I think you're right though I wasn't disappointed by the fact. I saw quickly that the audience wasn't me and kept reading for curiosity's sake... to test who they're trying to reach.

There's probably a fair number of Windows only people that the whole Linux ecosystem is something new and foreign; especially sysadmin and corporate IT types that have heard about this, but may not know anything about it... I expect there may be some gentle introduction for those types here, too.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#84

Post by nekitamo » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 6:13 AM UTC

MichaelGG wrote: post #54

SwellJoe wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been primarily a Linux user since 1995, and have been using Windows 10+WSL for the past week or so, since getting a new laptop. The only thing I can think of that it'll open up for you is if you want to develop for Windows, while still having Linux available to you. Whether that's for developing games (most of the good game development tools run only on Windows, even if they can deploy to Linux/Mac/Android), or…

>The modern Linux desktop is every bit as good as Windows Like resizing Windows in Xubuntu? They give you a 1 px border to grab. Bug reported years ago. No fix; happens in all built-in themes. This kind of lack of polish is everywhere. It's good, it's functional, usable, I'd take it over Windows XP or something, but let's not say it's every bit as good.

Regarding resizing windows on Xubuntu: Hold alt then hold right click and drag. It is very easy to resize this way.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#85

Post by stuxnet79 » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 6:24 AM UTC

WaxProlix wrote: post #46

rodgerd wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tmux works, screen shits the bed.

Is there a reason for this / is it likely to be fixed anytime soon? I grew up with screen but this might be a good reason to try out tmux, I guess.

I tried out tmux starting from a week ago after a long time using screen, and after I changed the key-bindings to be more screen-like I have to say that I'm very impressed. I wasn't even close to a screen power user but with tmux I feel like I have screen plus a whole lot of extra.

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#86

Post by SturgeonsLaw » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 6:48 AM UTC

dan-silver wrote: post #44

Looks like the comment on their warning isn't rendering html? Hopefully people still see this :) $ rm -rf /mnt/c/ [DO NOT DO THIS]

I hope that results in a malformed command, should anyone try and paste it in. Not gonna test it myself though :)

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#87

Post by spapas82 » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 8:46 AM UTC

xabotage wrote: post #43

Animats wrote: post #34

Why would you need a Linux subsystem to run Python? Python runs just fine on Windows. All my Python programs run on both platforms. If you just want command line tools, there's Cygwin.

My experience with WSL has been excellent so far, I see it making Cygwin obsolete almost entirely. Cygwin was always a pain to set up and occasionally very buggy.

And slow. For some reason all commands I execute through cygwin seem to be taking a little more than if executed through a normal windows command prompt.

This really breaks the cygwin experience for me :/

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#88

Post by spapas82 » Sat, Jul 23, 2016, 8:53 AM UTC

ambicapter wrote: post #49

benlower wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Python isn't installed by default on Windows. So this makes it easier.

Python not being installed by default honestly makes it very easy to install and manage on Windows.

Why not just use the good old python windows installer? I am using it for many years on various systems for both pytgon 2x and 3x and never had any problem or thought that it was difficult.

On the other hand, installing a different than the default version of python on a linux system is not something that a newbie can do (since it involves getting the sjc, compiling it and making an altinstall).

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#89

Post by e12e » Sun, Jul 24, 2016, 2:37 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #26

I am really looking forward to this for my Surface Book. Historically I've loaded up a virtual machine running Linux, this was more complete and had fewer hiccups than a Cygwin type of setup for me. Of course it would be REALLY useful if they also support NFS for mounting stuff from my NAS appliance and a compositor (Wayland/X11/Etc.) that would allow things that create windows to work as well.

Any reason to prefer nfsv3 to samba/cifs? As far I've been able to figure out nfsv4 is about as popular and well-supported as ipv6 was 10 years ago... And If you're stuck with nfsv3 - is that really a happy place?

Re: Fun with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

#90

Post by GeorgeHahn » Sun, Jul 24, 2016, 3:05 AM UTC

DocG wrote: post #53

How stable is it? I've been playing around with the idea installing it on my only (dev)machine. I dont expect the ubuntu subsystem to work perfectly but my old workflow to be stable. Edit: I am regularly suprised that nano filename does not open quick edit in my machine. And then I remeber I am working in my local machine.

There are official builds of nano for win32 (Cygwin). In my experience, they work quite well - especially when paired with Cmder/ConEmu.

https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/v2.5/NT/