Linux on Windows 10

A couple of days later and I'd have written this announcement off as an April Fool: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/0... I find it interesting as much for the direction that Microsoft is taking as the announcement itself. I wonder if it will run gcc? If it can do this without all that CygWin kludge it could be great news.

In reference to www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUsermodeUbuntuLi...:

Developers can run Bash Shell and user-mode Ubuntu Linux binaries on Windows 10

This isn't Bash or Ubuntu running in a VM. This is a real native Bash Linux binary running on Windows itself. It's fast and lightweight and it's the real binaries. This is an genuine Ubuntu image on top of Windows with all the Linux tools I use like awk, sed, grep, vi, etc. It's fast and it's lightweight. The binaries are downloaded by you - using apt-get - just as on Linux, because it is Linux. You can apt-get and download other tools like Ruby, Redis, emacs, and on and on. This is brilliant for developers that use a diverse set of tools like me.

You can, indeed, run gcc. It's a full command-line version of Ubuntu running natively alongside Windows. Awesome.

Next thing to try is whether graphics programs will run using an X server on Windows.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

You can, indeed, run gcc. It's a full command-line version of Ubuntu running natively alongside Windows.

Alongside Windows? No, it's running ON windows

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

You can, indeed, run gcc. It's a full command-line version of Ubuntu running natively alongside Windows.

Alongside Windows? No, it's running ON windows

I may have lost something, but what is the point?

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I may have lost something, but what is the point?

This is the point

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

In reference to www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUsermodeUbuntuLi...:

Developers can run Bash Shell and user-mode Ubuntu Linux binaries on Windows 10

This isn't Bash or Ubuntu running in a VM. This is a real native Bash Linux binary running on Windows itself.

Strictly speaking, it's a separate subsystem which is running alongside the Windows subsystem. But the terms used aren't really that important; the point is that it is running natively, not in a VM.

If this was of any use to you I think you would see the point immediately. It won't be of much use to the average user. To developers it's a boon.

Unfortunately, if you select the "Alongside Windows" install option for Ubuntu you install it dual-boot. Is that what you mean?

There's no "Alongside Windows" option when you install the Windows subsystem. The only choice you have is "enable Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta)".

Windows is just a subsystem of the NT kernel and so is this new subsystem. The Linux subsystem doesn't run on top of the Windows subsystem, it is an entity on the same level, alongside the Windows subsystem. (NT did previously have a much more limited Posix subsystem, and an OS/2 subsystem, but they disappeared somewhere down the line. Neither of those were nearly as advanced as this new Linux subsystem.)

I suspect that you may be getting confused with a normal Ubuntu install. Any "alongside" option offered there is completely different to this integrated subsystem.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

I suspect that you may be getting confused with a normal Ubuntu install. Any "alongside" option offered there is completely different to this integrated subsystem.

That's the point. You have introduced the confusion by your unwelcome use of the term "Alongside Windows" whereas this version actually runs ON Windows.