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Ubuntu on Windows

(blog.dustinkirkland.com)
2049 points bpierre | 7 comments | 30 Mar 16 16:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.414s | source | bottom
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abritishguy ◴[30 Mar 16 17:22 UTC] No.11391061[source]▶
I wonder how buggy thus is. For example, how do symlinks work given windows doesn't have an equivalent that behaves the same.
replies(1): >>11391085 #
1. sabarn01 ◴[30 Mar 16 17:25 UTC] No.11391085[source]▶
Windows does have symlinks and hardlinks that work very similarly but are only exposed via a built in cmd command. That said no one uses them.
replies(4): >>11391119 #>>11391175 #>>11391281 #>>11391588 #
2. wvenable ◴[30 Mar 16 17:28 UTC] No.11391119[source]▶
I use them. They're also heavily used by the OS itself -- the entire WinSxS folder structure is a whole lot of symlinks.
replies(2): >>11391566 #>>11392195 #
3. mmebane ◴[30 Mar 16 17:32 UTC] No.11391175[source]▶
I used to use them (directory junction points) quite a bit back when 64GB SSDs were still expensive and I wanted to redirect a few folders without changing my folder structure.

Nowadays, the most common use I've seen is as the Windows implementation of 'npm link' for Node.js developers.

4. sabarn01 ◴[30 Mar 16 17:40 UTC] No.11391281[source]▶
I was being a little over dramatic windows has like 1B installs obviously someone "uses" them.
5. Dylan16807 ◴[30 Mar 16 18:08 UTC] No.11391566[source]▶
It is? I thought it was hard links.
6. abritishguy ◴[30 Mar 16 18:10 UTC] No.11391588[source]▶
I know but the semantics are different.
7. stcredzero ◴[30 Mar 16 19:25 UTC] No.11392195[source]▶
My work uses symlinks to avoid re-downloading 3rd party libraries in different Perforce branches.