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."

Comments

Re:I wonder who will buy it

[AlanObject]

This was my impression. I use MacOS with Windows in a VM. I don't have a Linux VM because I have so many other systems that I can ssh into and do stuff either from the shell or an X app.

But if Windows were my primary operating system and I wanted to use Linux, I don't see why a Linux VM wouldn't be better than this halfway solution.