←back to thread

Ubuntu on Windows

(blog.dustinkirkland.com)
2049 points bpierre | 7 comments | 30 Mar 16 16:35 UTC | HN request time: 1.049s | source | bottom
1. omarforgotpwd ◴[30 Mar 16 18:25 UTC] No.11391698[source]▶
Imagine going back in time to the 90s and telling people that in 2016 Microsoft would bend over backwards to make sure Windows could run Linux ELF binaries natively in the kernel by converting syscalls. You'd probably be laughed at.
replies(2): >>11392329 #>>11393534 #
2. jacquesm ◴[30 Mar 16 19:42 UTC] No.11392329[source]▶
No, they'd point to Kerberos and ask what the difference is.
replies(1): >>11392533 #
3. brlewis ◴[30 Mar 16 20:08 UTC] No.11392533[source]▶
Microsoft wasn't trying very hard to make their Kerberos compatible with MIT Kerberos, at least in the mid '90s. I think you'd still be laughed at, especially since Windows was ubiquitous, Unix was niche, and Linux was a niche within a niche.
4. keeperofdakeys ◴[30 Mar 16 22:28 UTC] No.11393534[source]▶
They'd laugh, because NT already had posix system calls http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1...
replies(2): >>11394536 #>>11394700 #
5. ◴[31 Mar 16 02:04 UTC] No.11394536[source]▶
6. omarforgotpwd ◴[31 Mar 16 03:00 UTC] No.11394700[source]▶
POSIX calls, which have always been there but require a recompiled binary, are different than the binary compatibility announced today. This additional step is actually quite an impressive feat of software engineering. To think that Microsoft would care so much about maintaining compatibility would have seemed ridiculous just a few years ago.
replies(1): >>11395104 #
7. cyphar ◴[31 Mar 16 05:06 UTC] No.11395104{3}[source]▶
It should be noted that FreeBSD has had this for a decade AFAIK, and LX-branded Zones have been massively improved in SmartOS.