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    Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10

    (www.zdnet.com)
    535 points raddad | 23 comments | 30 Mar 16 11:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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    hobs ◴[30 Mar 16 16:36 UTC] No.11390553[source]▶
    Some additional details from Scott Hanselman:

    http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUs...

    "This is a real native Bash Linux binary running on Windows itself. It's fast and lightweight and it's the real binaries. This is an genuine Ubuntu image on top of Windows with all the Linux tools I use like awk, sed, grep, vi, etc. It's fast and it's lightweight. The binaries are downloaded by you - using apt-get - just as on Linux, because it is Linux. You can apt-get and download other tools like Ruby, Redis, emacs, and on and on. This is brilliant for developers that use a diverse set of tools like me."

    "This runs on 64-bit Windows and doesn't use virtual machines. Where does bash on Windows fit in to your life as a developer?

    If you want to run Bash on Windows, you've historically had a few choices.

    Cygwin - GNU command line utilities compiled for Win32 with great native Windows integration. But it's not Linux. HyperV and Ubuntu - Run an entire Linux VM (dedicating x gigs of RAM, and x gigs of disk) and then remote into it (RDP, VNC, ssh) Docker is also an option to run a Linux container, under a HyperV VM Running bash on Windows hits in the sweet spot. It behaves like Linux because it executes real Linux binaries. Just hit the Windows Key and type bash. "

    replies(11): >>11390574 #>>11390626 #>>11390693 #>>11390705 #>>11390731 #>>11390748 #>>11390890 #>>11391364 #>>11392443 #>>11393237 #>>11402098 #
    drinchev ◴[30 Mar 16 16:38 UTC] No.11390574[source]▶
    > This is a real native Bash Linux binary running on Windows itself.

    How does it work without VM? I'm super curious!

    replies(5): >>11390600 #>>11390601 #>>11390609 #>>11390641 #>>11390652 #
    1. pionar ◴[30 Mar 16 16:40 UTC] No.11390601[source]▶
    They added a subsystem in Windows that responds to Linux APIs.
    replies(6): >>11390766 #>>11390868 #>>11390922 #>>11390934 #>>11391230 #>>11391370 #
    2. tkubacki ◴[30 Mar 16 16:53 UTC] No.11390766[source]▶
    Lol "linux is a cancer" has new meaning now :)
    replies(1): >>11391277 #
    3. fla ◴[30 Mar 16 17:02 UTC] No.11390868[source]▶
    Think of it as Wine, reversed.
    replies(3): >>11390954 #>>11391586 #>>11392823 #
    4. PeCaN ◴[30 Mar 16 17:07 UTC] No.11390922[source]▶
    They've had a POSIX subsystem (SUA) for a while, but it's kind of ancient. I assume they resurrected it and implemented some Linux-specific APIs, which would actually be SO COOL.
    replies(2): >>11391841 #>>11392031 #
    5. drinchev ◴[30 Mar 16 17:09 UTC] No.11390934[source]▶
    Curious to see what's the support of the Windows API then.

    Follow up questions would be if it will support kernel-dependent utils like tcpdump, ifconfig, etc.

    6. darkr ◴[30 Mar 16 17:10 UTC] No.11390954[source]▶
    Eniw?
    replies(1): >>11391093 #
    7. unclenoriega ◴[30 Mar 16 17:25 UTC] No.11391093{3}[source]▶
    Emulator Not In Windows

    Sorry it's not recursive.

    replies(2): >>11391302 #>>11391648 #
    8. keithpeter ◴[30 Mar 16 17:36 UTC] No.11391230[source]▶
    So LINE on Windows like WINE on Linux?

    Seriously:shows an appreciation of where a lot of the workload for computer programmers is these days.

    replies(1): >>11391898 #
    9. stcredzero ◴[30 Mar 16 17:40 UTC] No.11391277[source]▶
    Is it a cancer if it doesn't kill you, but actually helps you be stronger? Maybe Linux is more like gut bacteria now. Linux is E.Coli?
    replies(1): >>11398274 #
    10. stcredzero ◴[30 Mar 16 17:41 UTC] No.11391302{4}[source]▶
    Enterprise Networked Internet Workstation?
    11. jdcarter ◴[30 Mar 16 17:48 UTC] No.11391370[source]▶
    In other words, they're not using "Linux" at all. It's an Ubuntu userland on top of the Windows kernel, similar to how Nexenta was an Ubuntu userland on top of the OpenSolaris kernel.
    replies(1): >>11391814 #
    12. vram22 ◴[30 Mar 16 18:10 UTC] No.11391586[source]▶
    Vinegar?
    13. ant6n ◴[30 Mar 16 18:19 UTC] No.11391648{4}[source]▶
    ENIW is 'Nix In Windows
    14. bitcrazed ◴[30 Mar 16 18:40 UTC] No.11391814[source]▶
    You pretty much nailed it :)
    15. bitcrazed ◴[30 Mar 16 18:44 UTC] No.11391841[source]▶
    No - this is a whole new thing.

    The Windows POSIX subsystem which shipped in NT 3.5.1 was a minimal implementation of POSIX syscall API plus a userland toolset. That was replaced with Interix which was renamed Services for Unix (SFU) which had a more comprehensive kernel implementation and more up to date userland. However that tech was not resurrected to build the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

    Importantly, WSL doesn't ship with a distro - we download a genuine Ubuntu userland image at install-time and then run binaries within it.

    replies(2): >>11392548 #>>11416488 #
    16. igravious ◴[30 Mar 16 18:51 UTC] No.11391898[source]▶
    Came here to say that. It'd be nice if they open-sourced it so it wasn't yanked away from under our feet one day :) But maybe they are? I shouldn't presume they are not.
    17. brobinson ◴[30 Mar 16 19:07 UTC] No.11392031[source]▶
    Does Windows 10 still ship with the OS/2 subsystem? (os2ss.exe)
    replies(1): >>11392238 #
    18. gpvos ◴[30 Mar 16 19:30 UTC] No.11392238{3}[source]▶
    It was dropped with Windows XP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Windows_NT#Use...
    replies(1): >>11399167 #
    19. tavert ◴[30 Mar 16 20:09 UTC] No.11392548{3}[source]▶
    > Importantly, WSL doesn't ship with a distro - we download a genuine Ubuntu userland image at install-time and then run binaries within it.

    So can we use WSL by itself and pick a different distro, if we'd rather use say Alpine or openSUSE or Arch's userland?

    20. vram22 ◴[30 Mar 16 20:41 UTC] No.11392823[source]▶
    Everywhere Now Is Windows
    21. tripzilch ◴[31 Mar 16 16:17 UTC] No.11398274{3}[source]▶
    e.coli isn't a gut bacterium, ... is it?
    22. brobinson ◴[31 Mar 16 18:00 UTC] No.11399167{4}[source]▶
    Thanks!
    23. JdeBP ◴[03 Apr 16 15:43 UTC] No.11416488{3}[source]▶
    > However that tech was not resurrected ...

    I, for one, would like to see it resurrected. It's exceedingly useful, and is one major reason that I am not, nor will be, using Windows 10. This new subsystem does not have the things that I use SFU/SFUA for. Nor does it have the BSD-style toolset of SFU/SFUA.