Microsoft Releases New Tool To Get More Distros on Windows (zdnet.com)

Microsoft has released a tool to help Linux distribution maintainers bring their distros to the Windows Store to run on Windows 10's Windows Subsystem for Linux. From a report: Microsoft describes the tool as a "reference implementation for a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distribution installer application," which is aimed at both distribution maintainers and developers who want to create custom Linux distributions for running on WSL. "We know that many Linux distros rely entirely on open-source software, so we would like to bring WSL closer to the OSS community," said Tara Raj of Microsoft's WSL team. "We hope open-sourcing this project will help increase community engagement and bring more of your favorite distros to the Microsoft Store." WSL helps programmers build a full Linux development environment for testing production code on a Windows machine.

Comments

Maybe they can first fix Win10 so updates work

[Anonymous Coward]

I have one computer now that been trying to get Win10 1709 for over 3 months. Keeps getting 83% done then bows off, reloads old version of Win10, then starts at it all over again starting with the download. There is no way to stop it or control it.

You want Linux to run on such a broken system? My Linux boxes are going on over 100 days of uptime (moved from one room to another). Maybe Win10 should be a subsystem to Linux? At least I know Linux is stable enough to run a subsystem.

missing the point of open source entirely.

[nimbius]

Open source wasnt developed as a 'feature' or a clever gimmick that people wanted as part of their computing experience. Open source was developed in direct opposition to the types of traditional licenses and restrictions placed on code and programs from Microsoft and other companies like them. The fact is Linux never needed windows support, and no one has explained the net-gain from supporting the execution of free software that has run stand-alone for decades other than the potential to sell more licenses for the proprietary OS under which it is being made to run.

in other words, given the chance, no one is going to intentionally shell out cash to run GCC on a copy of windows.

Re:So..., we can trust Microsoft now?

[drinkypoo]

Is this the "embrace" part or the "extend" part of that whole process? Or can we really trust them?

Microsoft is a publicly traded corporation controlled by a board, so anyone who trusts them (regardless of their history) really could not get any dumber. However, they could seem dumber if they ignored Microsoft's history, which proves conclusively that no one should trust them.