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Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10

(www.zdnet.com)
535 points raddad | 3 comments | 30 Mar 16 11:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.447s | source
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FLGMwt ◴[30 Mar 16 11:40 UTC] No.11388514[source]▶
Would anyone be able to give insight on why this would be useful? Im curious, sure, but I'm at a loss to think of a use case.
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supergreg ◴[30 Mar 16 12:37 UTC] No.11388760[source]▶
Docker containers would be an excellent use case.
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jasonjei ◴[30 Mar 16 15:16 UTC] No.11389877[source]▶
I can't +1 this one enough. I have some developers on my team who insist on using Docker on a Windows setup, and it is painful to use with VirtualBox.

OSX is better because it doesn't feel too different from Linux (aside from setting docker machine ENV variables). Still virtualized so you take a performance hit.

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1. jjuel ◴[30 Mar 16 16:03 UTC] No.11390260[source]▶
Docker recently announced a beta where they are using native systems in both Windows and OS X though. So I doubt this is the driving force for that.
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2. bboreham ◴[30 Mar 16 19:18 UTC] No.11392136[source]▶
It's more complicated than that:

The beta announced a few days back by Docker uses HyperV to boot a Linux kernel to run Linux Docker.

The preview announced around a year ago by Microsoft and Docker is a native Windows implementation of Docker, running on the next Windows OS.

[later]

But...

This new layer should let you run most Linux containers straight on top of the next Windows.

Interesting...

3. jasonjei ◴[30 Mar 16 19:39 UTC] No.11392293[source]▶
The Docker beta that was announced is using Windows 10 builtin virtualization APIs. In theory when utilizing kernel virtualization features there will be less overhead (closer to the metal), but still overhead.

I wonder how they will make Ubuntu happen on Windows. Reading some of the comments, some speculate a subsystem, while others suggest an interoperable interface.

Edit: reading bitcrazed's comments it looks like it will be implemented a la WINE. No need to recompile binaries made for Linux x86; you'll be able to run apt packages from Ubuntu out of the box.