Slashdot Mirror


Microsoft's 'Windows Subsystem For Linux' Finally Leaves Beta (microsoft.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Microsoft's Developer blog: Early adopters on the Windows Insider program will notice that Windows Subsystem for Linux is no longer marked as a beta feature as of Insider build 16251. This will be great news for those who've held-back from employing WSL as a mainline toolset: You'll now be able to leverage WSL as a day-to-day developer toolset, and become ever more productive when building, testing, deploying, and managing your apps and systems on Windows 10... What will change is that you will gain the added advantage of being able to file issues on WSL and its Windows tooling via our normal support mechanisms if you want/need to follow a more formal issue resolution process. You can also provide feedback via Windows 10 Feedback Hub app, which delivers feedback directly to the team.
Microsoft points out that distro-publishers are still responsible for supporting and fixing the internals of their distros -- and they have no plans to support X/GUI apps or desktops. And of course, Linux files are not currently accessible from Windows -- though Microsoft says they're working on a fix.

18 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Summary full of shit by dnaumov · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Linux files are not currently accessible from Windows"

    Except they are.

    1. Re: Summary full of shit by J.+T.+MacLeod · · Score: 2

      They are accessible... At the risk of corrupting your data if anything is saved to that location without using the WSL.

      It would be foolish of them to stand behind the statement that it is accessible when it would be so easy to lose data by accident.

    2. Re: Summary full of shit by Milharis · · Score: 2
  2. Huh? by Misagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Shouldn't it be called "Linux Subsystem for Windows", because it is running under Windows and not the other way around?

    --
    "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    1. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      you must be new to Microsoft's way of thinking. Windows is the center of the universe and all else is subservient to it. So this addon to MS Windows is a subsystem FOR Linux. ie it is a subsystem for Linux to help it run on Windows so in Microserf speak it's a Windows subsystem for Linux.

      Reminds me of what Bill Gates said in a product development meeting discussing the integration of Java and Java products into/on Windows. He had to yell out "Does anyone remember Windows?"

  3. Re:I'm seriously considering moving back to Window by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I use windows 10 every day and I have not had a single reliability issue.

  4. Win32 and other NT subsystems by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    On the NT kernel, Windows itself runs in a container called the "Win32 subsystem". WSL is a container that uses the Linux ABI. There used to be an OS/2 subsystem as well.

  5. Re:I'm seriously considering moving back to Window by Highdude702 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I switched back to Windows from Linux when 10 came out cause they fixed all the windows 7 fuckups. UI was a pain in the ass to get used to, but that's with any new OS. I'm currently looking to run a Windows fm inside of Linux for gaming, since that's the only special thing I do on Windows that Linux doesn't fully support yet. But over the year that 10 has been out and "stable" they are taking the stability away from it weekly. And not allowing me to do what I want with my system. Not to mention every update resets my privacy settings back to "tell Microsoft every click I make" mode. If you don't notice that shit happening, then you don't actually use Windows you just browse the web. Which you can do on almost any device these days, including refrigerators.

  6. Re:I'm seriously considering moving back to Window by thegreatbob · · Score: 2

    I'm in need of a shiny new bridge, the one the last guy sold me never showed up... still shows 'out for delivery' six years later.

    --
    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  7. Well that's a relief! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Finally, now you can run all your favorite Linux server applications on an OS that will run them a bit slower, could BSOD at any moment, needs significant patching regularly which could nuke the whole box! All that uptime with Linux is really boring for the guys in IT! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  8. Re:I'm seriously considering moving back to Window by thegreatbob · · Score: 3, Informative

    It works, excepting that it doesn't always work quite right. Try administering it in a non-homogeneous hardware environment (in this case, spanning the entirety of the Intel i-series era; I've never used it on anything older). The biggest issues I've faced on it are:

    It really, really wants to update. Seems like no less than 4, and often more than 10 man-hours of productivity down the toilet every work week across a couple dozen users.
    Unnecessarily frequent hardware driver updates are a scourge; doesn't make the system unusable, but randomly losing peripherals is a nuisance.
    Taskbar/startmenu is a buggy mess. It has gotten better, but random disappearance/non-responsiveness of same still persists.
    Random bouts of extreme CPU and/or disk usage, especially on older hardware, that should still be highly performant (e.g. high-end Nehalem-era laptops).

    None of these things are the end of the world, but Microsoft's inattentiveness to what are clearly common issues (speaking from my own experience, as well as dredging through forums and other resources in search of answers/solutions) is very bothersome.

    --
    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
  9. Re:Embrace, Extend, Then Fuck It Up (also extingui by Njorthbiatr · · Score: 2

    Wow.

    I use WSL (not linux subsystem for windows) because I like to use bash, especially when programming in python or anything. I work on macs and ubuntu at work and this helps keep everything standard for me when I use my windows stuff at home.

    Why still use windows? First, I like to program in C#/WPF simply because it's the most enjoyable and richest feature set for building native GUI applications. Second, I like to play video games, and run them stable at 144 Hz, which for many games, isn't possible on Linux. Third, the MS Office suite of products is best on Windows, and really doesn't have a true competitor in terms of ease of use for someone like me. Fourth, almost every piece of software I use is also available on Windows, but the same can't be said of Linux.

    I want to use Linux because I don't want MS to automatically restart my computer when it decides it while I'm using it and them gathering info on me is meh. On the same shake, you give away personal information to Google all day every day. Even if you don't use them as your search engine they're collecting data on you. If Microsoft wants to collect anonymous usage data, which you can tell it only to collect stuff that's pretty basic, in return for using their OS, then I don't see how I have room to complain without getting all up in arms about Google doing it 100x more.

    As always, you just use the stuff that's best for you.

  10. Re:I'm seriously considering moving back to Window by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have you used Windows 10? The GUI is fucking terrible. I'd say there are no decent desktop systems these days, but really, under the hood, Linux is as solid as ever. I run Debian installs as custom routers that are up 24/7/365 and I'm not seeing any evidence at all of instability. So frankly, your claim is just a load of shit.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  11. Re:I'm seriously considering moving back to Window by unixisc · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't use Linux, but do use TrueOS and Windows 10

    TrueOS comes w/ Lumina, which is very similar to your standard Windows XP like experience, plus some extra features that make it great. If I had Linux, I'd have gone w/ Razor-qt or LX/QT, rather than GNOME 3 or KDE 4/5

    I use Windows 10 w/ Classic Shell, which restores the Windows 7 look to the interface. In fact, I get a wide choice - can make it look like Windows 8, Windows 7, Aero, Windows XP, and have tried out quite a number of them.

  12. Or I could just have a real Linux installation by gweihir · · Score: 2

    You know, with the features that make Linux better, like stability, performance and security. This is just a crappy Windows kernel with a Linux interface. If I want that, Cygwin gives me that and (of course!) the ability to run X11 applications as well.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:Or I could just have a real Linux installation by Bill+Hayden · · Score: 2

      In my personal experience, WSL is about an order or magnitude faster than Cygwin. If it weren't for 2 important things, we'd use WSL for everything that we used to use Cygwin for. Those 2 things are:
      1. Pathing. Cygwin still handles pathing better (e.g. WSL can't handle translating Windows path in commands like "cd c:\" and also can't handle native Windows apps using the WSL filesystem mounted at /mnt). This is pretty much a dealbreaker for us, since we need bash to script native Windows apps.
      2 GUI. WSL has no GUI support. This is no a big deal for us, but might be for some.

      --
      Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
  13. Re:I'm seriously considering moving back to Window by cheesybagel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Which Windows 7 fuckups? Windows 7 was pretty decent actually. Windows 8 was the horrible one with the forced transition to that touch screen GUI.

  14. Re:I'm seriously considering moving back to Window by courteaudotbiz · · Score: 2

    I think the thread has been hijacked by the NSA to tell people how great Windows is, and make people switch to it. Windows has been a pile of crap since they introduced their "telemetry", which is in fact a "report all my activity to the governments please" feature. I have switched to CentOS for my main desktop, and even though there are actually some stability problems with KDE Plasma and some apps that I compiled and installed, the OS itself is pretty stable.

    However, I would never put a Linux in the hands of my mom.

    That being said, to get back to the main subject, it is a plain shame to see that bash has its .exe version. Disgusting.