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WLinux, the First Paid-for Linux Distro for Windows 10, Goes On Sale on Microsoft Store (techrepublic.com)
puddingebola shares a report: WLinux is a $20 open-source, Debian-based distribution, designed to run on Windows 10's Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The WSL allows Windows 10 to run various GNU/Linux distros inside Windows as Microsoft Store apps, providing access to Ubuntu, openSUSE, Debian, Fedora, Kali Linux, and others. The WSL has disadvantages over a running a dedicated GNU/Linux system. For example, there's no official support for desktop environments or graphical applications, and I/O performance bottlenecks, but it is being improved over time. The developers of WLinux describe it as a "fast Linux terminal environment for developers", saying it is the first distribution to be "pre-configured and optimized to run specifically on Windows Subsystem for Linux". Announcing WLinux's availability, Microsoft program manager Tara Raj, called out the wlinux-setup tool, "which allows users to easily set up common developer toolchains, and removes unsupported features like systemd."
Did Microsoft just release a Linux distro without systemd?
Up is down and black is white, the world has gone mad.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I guess maybe people that don't like VMs? Can't see this WLinux thing being better than a VM with real (and free) Linux.
Would one pay instead of using openSUSE, Ubuntu, or Debian? The value add from these guys must be tiny, maybe donate that $20 to Linux Foundation or some meaningful open source project.
Wrong article bot.
It turns my stomach to read "Linux running on a windows subsystem".
Run with the Windows kernel.
Not your product.
You'd better watch out;
You'd better not cry;
You'd better be good;
I'm tellin' you why.
Microsoft is comin', to town!
The future is foretold in TFA:
"The WSL allows Windows 10 to run various GNU/Linux distros inside Windows as Microsoft Store Apps..."
Embrace, Extend...
You know the rest.
systemd is supported in the enterprise. excluding it is part of the "divide and conquer" MS thing. I see absolutely no benefit to this pay for thing.
People who don't want to screw around often buy commercially supported software. If you are going to run a windows shop the techs you hire are (eventually) going to know WLinux if they know any Linux. Likewise if you use Azure and purchase a configuration you know will just work well because microsoft will make sure it does.
And finally people who want re-implement some stack that is already working on WLINUX. it's cheap.
Eventually however I think the log game is IBM is going to move into the Azure linux turf since they just bought red hat. Linux sales and support. Now Microsoft can play too with a holistic solution.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It does not have systemd when just installed.
But add some additional stuff, like Geary, and you will get it anyway.
Just stop. Their is no reason to run Linux on Windows. Just run Linux.
Would like to see in the future for Microsoft to partner with Canonical and just sell Ubuntu laptop; MS can even buy Canonical if they wanted to. But for Linux to get mass adoption at the desktop level that would help a lot.
Hope it's better than the Linux like app I bought from Apple store;) think captain cook mess'n with me.
It's the year of the linux desktop! On the windows desktop!!!
So how easy to pull the source and compile it? Save $20!
It's not Linux. The Linux Kernel is not run.
It's GNU Windows instead of GNU Linux.
Indeed: it is GNU/kWindows, not Linux.
Bye bye Linux?
At least that's pronounceable.
This is actually GNU on Windows, not Linux.
Can they legally call it "WLinux" when there is no Linux kernel in it?
that's the driving factor behind windows 10.
This is NOT linux. Linux is an OS - they are not running it. Are the confusing a terminal with a sane shell and a program that runs linux binaries with an OS?
Yes, a free Linux distro for $20 from the one company that's worked harder than anyone else to destroy Linux.
Where can I bow and worship at the feet of my new alien overlords?
Ehud
FAA Commercial helicopter pilot
Mint Linux user
Have not booted a Windows box in any property I rent or own since 2000
Has not paid "Microsoft Tax" on my Android phones, my laptops, my server, etc.
Oh yeah and if you want to downvote me, I voted BLUE not orange.
Microsoft showing even more greed by selling stuff
Does it stop Microsoft from phoning home? At least while one is working in the VM? Can't see the point otherwise.
Is the same as doing heart surgery in the hospital toilet. It can work in theory, but you end up swimming in shit.
Digital is, by definition, imperfect. Analog is the way to go.
What a scammy scam. $20 bucks for something that can be had for free. I think I'm gonna start selling me copies of Gimp; I'll just call it Pimp.
first, Microsoft is pretty much aware that they've lost the server/cloud game to linux (and router. and embed. and smartphones. and SBC. basically, desktop/workstation is the single niche that Microsoft is still holding)
BUT they know they hold the desktop, and would very much to keep holding it.
some of the logic going in the heads of microsoft is that wsl can be a bit of anti-gateway drug.
for all these devs, who have a mostly windows environment but need a bit of unix in their workflow. (devs that need to write code that will end on the linux server/cluster/etc)
until now their main choice were installing a Linux VM (or SSH into a Linux test server. or Switching to Mac OS X or some Linux powered laptop)
and probably some at Microsoft would be afraid that this VM would be a gateway drug: once they got a bit of taste of Linux, some are likely to jump ship and install Linux (or switch to OS X. or exclusively run a Linux VM full screen).
by providing wsl, Microsoft is giving an alternative test environment for the couple of linux needs, while keeping everyone still firmly within their system.
the problem (for them, but advantage for us) is that it might end up the other way around:
wsl is so much limited that eventually it will encourage some to go further and transition to the real deal.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
... DOS which had horribly buggy implementation of the add-ons!
Microsoft mostly managed to kill markets by turning people off with their horrendous reimplementations.
People default to Microsoft's built-in. Said built-in catastrophically blows up on them. People decide to abandon the technology.
Microsoft is happy to have gotten rid of a competitot (but technology stagnates).
see: Stacker vs. DoubleSpace/DriveSpace for an exemple.
there are numerous others.
some might wonder if the horrible quality of Internet Explorer wasn't actually an attempt to kill the whole internet in the same way.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Not the first, far from it. There have been various paid-for boxed set Linux offerings, including Xandros, Suse and even Red Hat before they went all weak kneed on the desktop.
Possibly the most successful? Well, the price is right. I seem to recall Xandros was $200 at the time. I can see numerous Windows users who previously swallowed the company line of Linux as cancer doing a 180 at this point for a tryout. Whether Microsoft is sincere in offering a polished product or whether their real goal is to make Linux look bad on the desktop, hence keeping their sheep in the flock, remains to be seen.
Once into a boxed set, it's easy to imagine most making the move to "real Linux".
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Who owns the Linux trademark? The Linux Foundation? Can this company call this product 'WLinux' if it does not run the Linux kernel?
offering something already free (both as in in beer and freedom) at a cost!
I don't get paying ... Is there some kind of added value? My guess is that someone is did an afternoons work putting something together and is trying to cash in on gullible new Linux users
Given who is running the Linux section at Microsoft, old Xamarin retreads, it's a safe bet that there will be a shit-ton of promo for Mono build in, with a view to getting Windows Linux users hooked on DOT.NET.
Naturally, expecting a bunch of slimy tricks. It's Microsoft after all, and some Linux turncoats.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I will stick to the free versions. don't need windows at all.
I have linux on all of my computers. over the years I may have had one computer that either dual boot or just windows" just in case." but for the last couple of years I have not needed windows except to make sure it was updated so it is now gone.
Can't see the point for us users, anyway.
I use Cygwin, but not on Windows 10 because I use WSL for that. Cygwin and WSL are very similar - the difference is the level they interface at. Cygwin is a translation layer between POSIX (or really SUS) APIs and the Win32 API. As far as Windows is concerned, every Cygwin application is just a console Win32 application.
WSL is lower level, and basically implements the Linux syscall interface on the Windows kernel. So applications talk to Linux based libraries which make system calls as Linux would expect, except they're being trapped by the Windows kernel and executed there. They are not technically Win32 applications and don't really have the interactions with Win32 that Cygwin applications would have. This would be the closest to "GNU/kWindows" you can get
Note that the Windows kernel is still enforcing security and other things, so WSL cannot be used to bypass permissions since the kernel is still involved with regular enforcements.
WSL is actually more like the BSD Linux personality - where the base kernel pretends to be Linux to run Linux binaries.
I find this interesting because I am an long-time linux user but work at a windows shop. When we needed to edit large (5MM row) csv files, people were trying to open them in Excel. I installed msys64 and using vi and other gnu tools sed/awk/cut/etc. I was able to quickly edit their files to do what they needed. Later on I wrote a shell script to take inputs and generate the csv files... and it was soooooo slow. It was faster to ssh to my home machine, run the script there, zip up the csvs, and send them back. It was on the order of 100x faster on Linux.
I have many opportunities to continue to leverage Linux now as we are creating new products using Linux servers in AWS. Now I am a go-to person since all of our developers are Windows developers. Worlds are colliding all over the place, but still need to keep a close eye on MS... trust has to be earned.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I was hired on a fairly short contract at a company whose product was for Microsoft Windows, but they needed a unix guy to do a quick little port of something so they could sign off on a contract. That was me, so I wasn't there too long, and didn't learn much about their main product, but apparently it was something pretty sexy for office management and this company was a pioneer in that area.
One day my boss there told me why he despised Microsoft. He said Microsoft was attracted to their product and offered to be partners. It seemed like a good deal, hey partners with Microsoft! What MS did was send a couple of reps over to learn everything they could about this company's product and then drop them and start a competing product of their own.
Another thing (since I'm talking about Microsoft), back in the 80s, I remember a lot of people talking about how WordPerfect was a great word processor, better than Microsoft's Word, but, because of bundling and maybe other things, Word finally won out. Microsoft was accused of making changes in their Operating System that only they knew about that would give their in house products an advantage.
I had a short contract at Netscape, (Those were the days, I felt like Travis McGee, taking my retirement in bits where when the money ran out, I'd look for more work). Netscape, for you whippersnappers, was the pioneer of browsers, and the managers there were terrified of Microsoft because they knew when Microsoft decided to bundle their own browser, they'd be in trouble, and that's what happened. Do a search on the browser wars, here's a sample:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/business/2000/microsoft/635689.stm
Downloaded Microsoft's proprietary, heavily restricted build of this editor which Microsoft suggests is an editor for wlinux. WTF? Doesn't run in text mode. But wlinux is text mode only. WTF.
And this is written in javascript. Again. WTF? Takes a full second to start up. Seriously, WTF?
Is this what it's always like in Microsoft land? I don't miss it a bit.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Is it April 1st already??
Honestly, what's the point of this over the already free Ubuntu shell that you can get in the store? I use that every day on my work computer running Win10 and I have all the terminal goodness I need. I can grab almost anything I need via apt and can even run graphical programs if I kick off an xserver inside WIn10.
I've said it before, and yearly it gets to be more and more prophetic.
Year Of The LINUX Desktop!!!
Brought to you by your good friends at Microsoft!!
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
the GPL extinguishes Microsoft. IANAL, but as far as I can tell, M$ just gave up any patent claim against users of GNU under the terms of the GPLv3 (Linux was not distributed). From the terms:
Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under the contributor's essential patent claims, to make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and propagate the contents of its contributor version.
In the following three paragraphs, a “patent license” is any express agreement or commitment, however denominated, not to enforce a patent (such as an express permission to practice a patent or covenant not to sue for patent infringement). To “grant” such a patent license to a party means to make such an agreement or commitment not to enforce a patent against the party.
If you convey a covered work, knowingly relying on a patent license, and the Corresponding Source of the work is not available for anyone to copy, free of charge and under the terms of this License, through a publicly available network server or other readily accessible means, then you must either (1) cause the Corresponding Source to be so available, or (2) arrange to deprive yourself of the benefit of the patent license for this particular work, or (3) arrange, in a manner consistent with the requirements of this License, to extend the patent license to downstream recipients. “Knowingly relying” means you have actual knowledge that, but for the patent license, your conveying the covered work in a country, or your recipient's use of the covered work in a country, would infringe one or more identifiable patents in that country that you have reason to believe are valid.
If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or arrangement, you convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a covered work, and grant a patent license to some of the parties receiving the covered work authorizing them to use, propagate, modify or convey a specific copy of the covered work, then the patent license you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of the covered work and works based on it.
Check and Mate!
Now for extend.
Year Of The LINUX Desktop!!!
Brought to you by your good friends at Microsoft!!
Just without the Linux bit.
there is no VM
what a load of nonsense that article is. i mean, sure it's 'GNU/Windows' technically. but the whole 'it has nothing to do with Linux' thing is ridiculous - it's emulating Linux syscall functionality with high-enough fidelity to run a large percentage of Ubuntu (or whatever distro's) user-mode code. it's not emulating BSD or Solaris. it's emulating Linux. besides, it doesn't need to run GNU software at all, it's a kernel emulation layer - you could have init run anything.
and the whole bashing MS out of the side of his mouth thing doesn't help either. MS is exposing its users to GNU tools in possibly the best way it could. not porting them to win32 (like it did with several old BSD utils back in the day), but unadulterated, with all the trimmings.
it says it right there:
C:\>wsl uname -a
Linux hostname 4.4.0-17134-Microsoft #285-Microsoft Thu Aug 30 17:31:00 PST 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Nope, this is the beginning of the end of Windows. Android (Linux) dominates mobile. Valve is doing massive work on SteamOS and Wine/Proton. Now Windows has Linux running in it. Windows is slowly being suffocated from all sides and will die off.
If you're a professional developer, and you prefer Windows, you're not a professional developer.
I would think about two categories :
- Game dev, either targeting Windows or XBox as main platforms, and not giving much fucks about server-side code, or about cross platform ports (with these handled by other devs in the crew, and thus definitely the kind that will need to run some linux tests once every blue moon and thus target for wsl)
- Legacy dev, stuck maintaining horrendous in-house custom apps that where designed before web apps were all the rage (I suspect that one day, the various VB, VB.Net etc will go the way of COBOL, skills that nobody with a sane mind would like to use but that are still in demand for business legacy reasons).
But that's not the kind of devs I'm having in my field of work.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
The "extend" part is what is technically impossible to achieve.
This strategy has been successful in the past in killing competitor, by having microsoft releasing a proprorietary variation with their own incompatible microsoftian twists inside. (Think Microsoft's flavor of Java).
This is what enabled to flow into the "extinguish" part (Microsoft manages to become the "default go-to" provider for that either because "nobody got fired for buying Microsoft" (as a variation of the previous generation's IBM memes) or because they did package it for free with one of their offerings (mostly the OS). Then everybody, because they use that, get used to rely on Micosoft's specific incompatible implementation. Then the thing either don't work elsewhere in competitor's product, or the microsoft implementation is so craptastic that everybody decides to drop the technology anyway).
In the specific case of Linux distros "extend" is impossible due to how GPL family licenses work (and their the one covergin most of the component in a distro). Nearly all attempt at "extend"ing will end up with Microsoft needing to open their code and thus unable to keep the proprietary part of these extensions.
(And also further down the line, the extinguish phase is going to be extremely hard too, as pointed by others in this thread the targetted userbase by WSL is insanely tiny, so the quantity of users for whom it becomes the "default go-to" is insignificant. Also it's nearly impossible to bankrupt something that is free)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Great, take the well intention ed open O/S, add it to the most widely used forced spying+advert platform and then charge for it. Because Microsoft is so so trustworthy.
Nope, this is the beginning of the end of Windows.
Yeah yeah, Year of the Linux Desktop is coming. Been hearing that for the better part of 3 decades now.
Now Windows has Linux running in it.
No it doesn't. All of these "Linux distributions" running on WSL in Windows are precisely not Linux at all, they are the distributions with Linux stripped out. Linux is an operating system kernel, WSL enables applications built to run on the Linux kernel to instead run on the Windows kernel.