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New Windows 10 Preview For PCs With Bash, Cross-Device Cortana Released

Posted by msmash on from the microsoft-camp dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs. The preview, dubbed build 14316, comes with a range of features including support for Bash, which Microsoft had announced at its developer conference Build last week. Users interested in it can enable the feature by turning on Developer Mode (detailed instructions here), searching for "Windows Features," choosing "Turn Windows features on or off," and enable Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta). To get Bash installed, open Command Prompt and type in "bash" (without the quotes.) Other features included in the new build include low battery notification, find my phone (ring my phone), and the ability to share map directions across devices. Additionally, the company has also released a new universal Skype app.

8 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. trumpet winsock:win95:cygwin bash:win10 by nyet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Only took 15 years to get tcp/ip into windows.

    Makes sense it took another 15 to get it a reasonable shell.

    1. Re:trumpet winsock:win95:cygwin bash:win10 by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What about PowerShell?

      That was pretty reasonable.

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    2. Re:trumpet winsock:win95:cygwin bash:win10 by Junta · · Score: 1, Insightful

      For some twisted version of reasonable....

      For one, it tends on being very verbose.

      For another, there is a very large amount of *nix ecosystem work in utilities that Powershell hasn't caught up to. Thanks to not invented here.

      It's hard to put to words, but a lot of the same syntax things that make perl frequently hard to maintain is present in Powershell.

      It's awkwardly in between the simplicity of a shell language and the power of other scripting languages. For example, most sophisticated languages have syntax for object oriented usage. For powershell, you better be off to C# for that sort of power.,

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  2. Windows Subsystem for Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Shouldn't that be Linux Subsystem for Windows?

  3. Re:Typical Microsoft by setantae · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No it doesn't, at least on my device.

  4. Re:Bash? by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've developed plenty of sophisticated scripts in Bash. Just because you haven't learned Bash doesn't mean it isn't useful, it just means you lack experience and knowledge.

    For some of us, having a common scripting language on Windows and *nix, one which has decades worth of scripts behind, is more valuable than OOP concepts. For chrissakes, even on a fairly well-speced system, the amount of time Powershell takes to start is astonishing, whereas I have Linux installs on crappy Cyrix processors with 256mb of RAM where Bash pops up right away.

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  5. Re:Bash? by alantus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just use Python. It'll let you accomplish the same tasks, likely in a fraction of the time, and with a much better result. Plus your script will likely be more portable, too, even to Windows!

    Sure, as long as you have the same version of Python installed, your script might be portable. I can't remember when was the last time I had to check $BASH_VERSION.

    Bash is a relic from a pre-Python world. It's time to move away from bash.

    How about using the right tool for each job?
    Use Bash for simple tasks that involve running programs, piping their output, checking their exit code, etc.
    Use Perl for text manipulation, regular expressions, complex data structures, complex logic, one-liners, etc.
    Use Python for your code to be readable by an 8 year old.

  6. Microsoft Linux by Kaenneth · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've said many times, Linux can't 'beat' MS, because MS can always do MS Linux.