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Confirmed: Microsoft and Canonical Partner To Bring Ubuntu To Windows 10 (zdnet.com)
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports for ZDNet: According to sources at Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, and Microsoft, you'll soon be able to run Ubuntu on Windows 10. This will be more than just running the Bash shell on Windows 10. After all, thanks to programs such as Cygwin or MSYS utilities, hardcore Unix users have long been able to run the popular Bash command line interface (CLI) on Windows. With this new addition, Ubuntu users will be able to run Ubuntu simultaneously with Windows. This will not be in a virtual machine, but as an integrated part of Windows 10. [...] Microsoft and Canonical will not, however, sources say, be integrating Linux per se into Windows. Instead, Ubuntu will primarily run on a foundation of native Windows libraries. Update: 03/30 16:16 GMT by M : At its developer conference Build 2016, Microsoft on Wednesday confirmed that it is bringing native support for Bash on Windows 10. Scott Hanselman writes: 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 a 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.
The only reason I'd ever bother with Ubuntu is to get away from Windows. I don't want them together.
So what the hell does "Ubuntu will primarily run on a foundation of native Windows libraries" mean? "Ubuntu" is an OS with the Linux kernel and pre-configured utilities, programs and drivers put on top of that, but TFS is indicating that "Ubuntu" in this case is not including a kernel, utilities, or drivers. Unless this is an extremely mangled, obscure, and moronic way of saying that Windows 10 will be including a Linux compatibility layer sponsored by Ubuntu.
As if thousands of Linux fans suddenly cried out in pain.
I fear something terrible has happened.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." - Lt. Col. Carlos A. Keasler
I guess the point is that you don't need the kernel or drivers because the Windows kernel can actually provide the necessary services. You might want user-space utilities, obviously. But a way of running Whatever-ix userspace apps on Windows would be rather nice. No more weird/costly ports of UI toolkits?
Ezekiel 23:20
LINE Is Not an Emulator
reason defies logic
Could call it Microsoft Eunuchs.
Microsoft can do so many things to promote open source:
* not threaten companies that build products basing on linux because of patent infringement
* support open GL / Vulkan on xbox
* actually make their office product based on an open standard, and not apply corruption-like strategies for people who use open source competition
I don't see anything happening. One thing is fortunate however, the browser market is very rough, and Microsoft really has improved with Edge. But most of the "Microsoft loves open source" stuff is just greenwashing.
This move by microsoft is very smart: I interpret that they want to enable developers to develop cloud applications on windows (instead of on the ubuntu desktop), and then deploy it to ubuntu servers.
This is the first step. It promotes tools like Microsoft Visual studio, which of course only run on windows. New tools will be only developed for windows of course, and for the "extended" toolset provided by Microsoft, that only runs on Win. The second step will be that microsoft announces a hybrid OS, that's partly windows, partly ubuntu, for the server part. Then, once Microsoft has enough market share, they can cut off the connections to open source. They will maintain some pseudo open source products that require this windows+ubuntu server system to run, and point to it when they say "Microsoft loves open source".
I don't trust anything coming from this company.
The main reason people are not running Linux is that it is not pre-installed. And the next reason is that it is hard to install on modern machines, especially on laptops (which, as you should have heard, are more popular than desktops).
#!/usr/bin/wine
;;
;;
;;
#
# Start/start telemetry daemon in Microsoft Ubuntu
#
# Copyright Microsoft (r) 2016
#
CONFIG="/Program Files (x86)/Micorosoft/Telemetry 2016/etc/Teleme~0.ini"
. "$CONFIG"
case $1 in
start)
if [ x"$telemetry_enabled" = "xyes" ]; then
"/Program Files (x86)/Micorosoft/Telemetry 2016/sbin/Teleme~0.exe" -o StealthMode=yes -o IgnoreUserConfig=yes
else
sed -i -e 's|telemetry_enabled=.*|telemetry_enabled=yes|g' "$CONFIG"
$0 start
fi
stop)
$0 start
*)
echo "usage: $0 start"
esac
So what the hell does "Ubuntu will primarily run on a foundation of native Windows libraries" mean? "Ubuntu" is an OS with the Linux kernel and pre-configured utilities, programs and drivers put on top of that, but TFS is indicating that "Ubuntu" in this case is not including a kernel, utilities, or drivers. Unless this is an extremely mangled, obscure, and moronic way of saying that Windows 10 will be including a Linux compatibility layer sponsored by Ubuntu.
Well they're currently working on a set of libraries called LINE, which stands for LINE is Not an Emulator. The point of the project is to allow poor Windows users to have access to some of the great software that has been available on Linux for forever. This should also allow some businesses who have been hesitant to make the transition to Windows finally jump in feet first.
Windows : a better Linux than Linux!
Ironically, there's no actual Linux (as in the kernel) to be found here. Just userspace stuff.
I suppose one thing I could think of is for ease of porting/cross-platform development. If you have a Windows developer who needs to either write or port an application to support Linux systems, then this might be a convenient solution. I can't imagine that this is really targeted at anyone other than developers. I mean, if a user was interested in running Ubuntu, then as you indicated, they'd just run that OS directly rather than on top of Windows 10.
Keep in mind that Microsoft is focused on cloud and services now, but they also want to keep Windows relevant as a development platform, because that's needed to ensure that developers can easily integrate Microsoft cloud services into their products. That's why they've gone to great lengths to give Visual Studio multi-platform capabilities. You've also seen them take steps in the same direction but with a different tact - porting their own libraries and apps to different platforms.
So, I don't believe the primary point of this is to keep Windows 10 relevant. Windows already has a virtually unbreakable lock on the desktop OS market. If anything, this slightly weakens Windows by providing easy access to a competing OS. My feeling is that this is a move to keep Visual Studio and the Microsoft Azure cloud ecosystem relevant by giving developers an easy way to create and test cross-platform applications using Microsoft-provided tools.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
I suppose that since April Fool's day is two days away that this is not a joke. That said, Canonical has completely lost their collective minds. It started with Unity, then Mir, and now "ubuntu minus Linux". Seriously guys. What the hell IS ubuntu if it is not Linux? Unity for windows? Barf.
I'm updating my Windows 10 recommendation from "Avoid like the plague" to "Avoid like candy from a stranger in a van."
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways