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Microsoft Windows 10 Gains Linux/WSL Console Copy and Paste Functionality (betanews.com)
BrianFagioli writes: For better or worse, the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) initiative seems to be moving full steam ahead. There are some very respectable distributions available in the Microsoft Store, such as Debian, Ubuntu, and Kali to name a few. Not to mention, Microsoft is trying to encourage even more maintainers to submit their distros with a new tool.
Apparently, some Windows 10 users have been clamoring for the ability to copy and paste both from and to WSL consoles -- a reasonable request. Well, as of Insider Build 17643, this is finally possible.
'As of Windows 10 Insider build #17643, you can copy/paste text from/to Linux/WSL Consoles!!! We know that this is a feature MANY of you have been waiting for -- our sincerest thanks for your patience and continued support while we untangled the Console's internals, allowing us to implement this feature. To ensure that we don't break any existing behaviors, you'll need to enable the 'Use Ctrl+Shift+C/V as Copy/Paste' option in the Console 'Options' properties page,' says Rich Turner, Microsoft.
Apparently, some Windows 10 users have been clamoring for the ability to copy and paste both from and to WSL consoles -- a reasonable request. Well, as of Insider Build 17643, this is finally possible.
'As of Windows 10 Insider build #17643, you can copy/paste text from/to Linux/WSL Consoles!!! We know that this is a feature MANY of you have been waiting for -- our sincerest thanks for your patience and continued support while we untangled the Console's internals, allowing us to implement this feature. To ensure that we don't break any existing behaviors, you'll need to enable the 'Use Ctrl+Shift+C/V as Copy/Paste' option in the Console 'Options' properties page,' says Rich Turner, Microsoft.
What is the endgame here? How long before MS considers mandating locked-down bootloaders on all Win 10 machines, even Intel? After all, WSL gives users a "choice" of operating system, so they no longer "need" to boot a different OS.
No thanks to that or WSL. I'd rather run Linux over bare metal and put Windows in a nice, padded, VirtualBox cell. It gets to communicate/update/run when *I* (rarely) allow it to, not whenever the machine is on.
Seems backwards to me. Windows is the shit I need to install and run in a vm on my linux machine from time to time.
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not on servers and not in the EU
if there even is one, is to offer a "feature" to monolithic corporations where Linux already exists as a second class citizen. typically these companies already pay a license fee for redhat/suse/Oracle linux and are addicted to consolidation. Directors/managers at these companies have zero Linux experience, but see value in consolidating anything and everything inside a windows world. In the end, "no one ever got fired for buying windows" is going to once again save the bacon of whomever inherits the train-wreck of Linux administrators trying to do their jobs in windows, and Microsofts fickle habit of ditching new ideas about eight years after they fail to generate appreciable revenue.
there is no "embrace extend extinguish" here because Microsoft is competing with something not only free, but more powerful than the OS its already offering. Much like Comcast and their bundled netflix, all MS can do is try to catch up to the money train and hope this linux support at least grants them some cloud customers.
Good people go to bed earlier.
And, why would you want to run a high performance OS virtualized on a bloated OS when you can virtualize the bloated OS on top of the high performance OS that has provided this ability for years?
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I can't answer for anyone else but, while I have no interest in running a full Linux desktop at this time, I do like some of the tools available in the Linux terminal.
I did, in the past, try to run Linux as my main desktop, it failed miserably (don't get me started). I tried booting into it for the few tools that I preferred on the platform, it proved to be much too cumbersome to be worth it. Getting easy access to them from within Windows in a fashion that is not Cygwin, is all good in my book.
So, to answer your question, I guess WSL exists for people like me.
Because sometimes software packages have so many dependency trees that running a virtualized Linux instance ("subsystem") is most reasonable solution, especially when you want to transfer data or networking calls between the software stacks.
In other words, not all software source-code can be recompiled for native Windows functioning without breaking the Windows environment. This subsystem route provides an isolated environment for the Linux-dependent software to run within a restricted-yet-accessible operating container.
This company is really committed to comp.sci. advancement!
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
Last time I heard copy & paste was not implemented was on the early iOS versions.
How long before MS considers mandating locked-down bootloaders on all Win 10 machines, even Intel?
Are you sure that they don't already require this because I have been copying and pasting to the WSL console for the past year. The only new thing that they seem to be adding is that you can do it with the usual windows keys instead of using the right mouse button for pasting from Windows->Linux or selecting with the mouse and Ctrl+C for pasting from Linux->Windows. Copy and paste is not a new feature.
In fact cygwin terminals, COM terminals, Xterms all copy/paste, but with annoyingly different key combinations. Control-X, /Control-V, shift-ins/control-ins, middle mouse click .... But in theory the text gets copied.
Anyone migrating from Cygwin to access local Windows machine to WSL? Any special reason to use WSL over cygwin?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
inb4 Shashdot: Microsoft Windows: The Only Linux Based OS Without SystemD
if i happen to have an external disk partition or even another drive inside the PC with a Linux partition, windows would offer to format it and i would always have to click cancel or close, god damn windows thinks it has to be the only operating system allowed on a PC, it wont be friendly and allow another OS live beside it, so when i boot to windows i am always on the watch as to what it wants to do to other disk partitions and drives
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in just a short time MS could rebuild Windows 11 as a desktop environment sitting on top of Linux.
The user would be none the wiser, but so much better off.
Go well
People who actually do real work need local software and storage -- they don't want to upload everything to the "clown" and be dependent on 24/7 connectivity. For pure consumers, maybe you're right.
makes those fabulous copy pasta stackoverflow abusers that much less likely to make their own mistakes while using someone elses solution to a problem they don't fully understand.
shittiots.
No one said there wasn't.
However, MMMV. I hate using the mouse, much prefer keystrokes, which don't require me to take my hands off the keyboard.
So now we will have the best of both worlds: mouse clicks for people who like that, and keystrokes for people who like that.
The article is a little unclear on this, but the improvement is that you will be able to use the keyboard, rather than (just) the mouse.
A little biased, eh? Your comment reminds me of Spock's reply to a similar comment: Is there something wrong with the mind I have?
Guess that makes me a 67 year old kid, Anonymous Coward. I rather like that... sort of like Han Solo: "Scoundrel... I like the sound of that." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMk0-pZfx5Q @1:11)
"Retarded", otoh, I can do without for a few more years. At least until that Alzheimer's cure they're talking about in another /. thread comes through.
WSL is not a virtual machine running Linux, in fact it's not Linux at all. Linux is a kernel. People think of distributions built around the Linux kernel as being Linux, but you can run other kernels with the same tools. Depending on your objectives and kernel choice, you can get very different or practically identical functionality while still not technically running Linux. That's all WSL is; it is a bundle of tools associated with Linux distributions but running on the Microsoft Windows kernel instead.
Your concerns about Windows accessing the Linux RAM don't make any sense in regards to WSL because it isn't a separate or hosted OS. Of course Windows has access to WSL memory; WSL is an integrated part of Windows. The point of WSL is to give Windows users less motivation to switch to a different OS, which it does fairly well. Most of the things I want to do in Windows but would normally have to switch to Linux to do are easy to do with WSL, meaning no switch is necessary. Most of the work I get paid to do needs to be done in a Microsoft OS (not always Windows) but it is easier and sometimes massively faster to do some things with the tools that were previously only supported by dual booting or running a VM. WSL makes my job simpler in that respect.
All that said, your concerns make sense in regard to Hyper-V. I think you're wrong about MS's goals there too, but at least it is a debatable topic.
B) Eliminate all the stupid users. This is frowned upon by society.
I'm in the same boat. Every couple years I try Linux on the desktop and each time something frustrating happens within the first few hours - it's usual one or two fairly trivial things but together they have enough of an impact on my workflow or patience to make me decide it's too much effort.
I've got 20+ years now of Windows desktop knowledge, tools, muscle memory, workflows, etc. It's hard to break that habit; when I need Linux I just ssh to one of a few VPSs I maintain or load up one of a few local VMs I keep.
I'm too scared of Windows 10 to want it for WSL though, but I assume I'll inevitably be forced into it and I look forward to having WSL available as an alternative.
There seems to be a common misunderstanding that WSL is running a Linux kernel. It isn't. WSL is still running on the Windows kernel. People think of popular Linux distributions as being Linux, but they're only Linux because of the kernel, not because of the tools they're bundling to create a distribution. When you switch to a BSD or Mach kernel using the same tools, you're no longer using Linux, regardless of the programs you're running. That's what WSL is too. It's a distribution's bundled tools running on a different kernel, in this case the Windows kernel.
It'd make more sense to call it Ubuntu on Windows. Really though, it makes more sense for MS to call it "Linux" because that's what people think of when they hear the word. Otherwise you'd have "GNU on Windows" and spend all your time explaining you're talking about running a Linux distribution on Windows without using actual Linux. It's like insisting people use the original meaning of the word "hacker." If you use the word to mean what it really means, then people won't understand what you mean.
I know this post is pretty much off topic, but a lot of people still seem misled by the term and I hope at to help clear up the misconceptions for a couple people.
B) Eliminate all the stupid users. This is frowned upon by society.
There is no Linux in WSL.
There is no van. There is no Linux. There is no spoon.
Windows uses ctrl C + crtl V
Linux uses mouse index click to cut, mouse middle click to paste - it's very fast. The Linux paradigm is so far ahead in terms of efficiency than using ^C and ^V, which is really horrible. I shouldn't have to take my hand off the mouse to cut and paste.
Cygwin allows this on windows, does WSL?
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Is that it's GNU/Windows?
systemd is not an init system. It's a GNU replacement.
We found a better way to design Windows, by utilizing the power of Linux mixed with the look, feel, and all the programs you used on MS Windows 10
I went through the same the same thing. After the constant new windows builds being pushed to me and removing candy crush for the thousandth time I decided I would try linux on my new laptop. My old laptop is acting as my kind of term server for windows stuff. So you could say I'm "cheating".
To be fair, my new laptop is an alienware 15" - e.g. a bunch of proprietary crap. I first tried (and am currently running) Mint 17.10 - almost all the different DE versions - but the installer would often lock up or cause other issues. I don't know if that's the architecture, the nvme boot device or what it was. But eventually, some how, I was able to get the stupid thing to install (the proprietary driver extensions actually caused more lock ups). I installed an RDP client (remina, something like that) so I could connect to my windows 10 machine when needed (work has a windows-only VPN client and I have hundreds of steam games) and for the most part it has worked without any issues. Doesn't hurt that the only applications I seem to run are chrome and that RDP client.
The main problem I have involves rebooting the machine in so far as it doesn't on the first try. And there seems to be a subsystem update that never finishes installing. But since the OS is usable it's hard to care. And even though there's a clear option to switch from the nvidia GPU to the intel GPU doing so completely disables the entire OS forcing a re-install (if I knew more I assume I could rescue it but it's easier to wipe the storage and start over).
Eventually I'll try Mint 18 to see if hardware support has improved. But at least the OS is usable on some level now.
I guess my only point is that it depends on how much you care about those 8 gig build pushes every 6 months and removing candy crush on a regular basis. Is that annoyance outweigh the frustration of getting a linux distro to work? For me it was totally worth it. With the RDP cheating thing.
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
Exactly. A lot of early comments about WSL was about how "the Linux side is a security hole". Not beyond typical Windows - because the Windows kernel still enforces security permissions even for WSL.
It's really more of a kernel personality - BSD has a Linux personality so it can run Linux binaries easily by emulating its system call behavior. Windows is doing the exact same thing - for WSL, it's emulating how Linux does system calls. And since the Linux system call table is public information (how to make a system call, register contents, etc), all anyone needs to do to add Linux support is emulate those system calls.
And just like Debian on BSD calls itself "GNU/kBSD" to show it's a GNU userspace (versus BSD userspace) on a BSD kernel. So technically this is more "GNU/kWindows" than anything.
Oddly, it's probably the closest to a full POSIX implementation WIndows would ever have - its POSIX implementation back in the day was fairly limited.
Hey, they can cut and paste! Woo hoo. Such an achievement.
How about updating your cryptography to something recent? Never mind. Microsoft will always suck until they make vacuum cleaners. Then it'll blow.
Thanks for the suggestions on RDP clients. I just kind of went with the first one that came up in the search.
And for Steam that's actually what I meant. Eventually I'll have the native steam client for Linux installed and stream or use wine for whatever doesn't run native. The prior laptop is setup as something of a game console right now. I can always play the games that support gamepad that way. I won't be running out of games for a really, really long time.
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie