←back to thread

Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10

(www.zdnet.com)
535 points raddad | 1 comments | 30 Mar 16 11:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
Show context
untog ◴[30 Mar 16 16:37 UTC] No.11390571[source]▶
Well, this has increased the changes of my next laptop being a Surface Book by around 100%. I already loved the form factor of the thing, but lack of bash was absolutely causing me to hesitate and wonder if I could justify doing all my work in a Linux VM or something (I can't).

I'm genuinely very tired of OS X, which (to my perception at least) has gotten steadily worse with every version. I for one will be happy to switch.

replies(7): >>11390649 #>>11390703 #>>11390773 #>>11391204 #>>11391345 #>>11392305 #>>11392379 #
freekh ◴[30 Mar 16 17:46 UTC] No.11391345[source]▶
Me too, but to be honest I am not quite sure what I don't like about Mac OS X anymore. At work I got Arch with i3 which is (extremely) addictive, but at home I have Mac OS X (and I use for work too). I don't really have any specific problems (compared to Arch :) with Mac OS X. Still I was thinking to put Arch on it, but I don't want to tinker to be able to watch netflix after a long flight in that 'weird' network which the wifi driver version X.Y doesn't like :) Windows felt weird after getting used NIX-ish systems so it was out of the question.

I have tried to figure out why I want a non-mac for my laptop and concluded I just like change... :) I was almost settled on that dell xps with ubuntu, but if the Surface Books get thunderbolt 3 and this before the autumn I am pretty sure I can't resist anymore...

EDIT: typo

replies(1): >>11391593 #
zxcvcxz ◴[30 Mar 16 18:11 UTC] No.11391593[source]▶
Why don't you just use Linux in a VM on Windows? I don't really understand why native bash (and full Linux ABI) would make Windows a better development environment than just running a Linux VM.

If you plan on using the Linux environment and having it interact with the Windows environment you're going to have the same limitations that you would with a VM, OR you'll have to change your workflow because the way a program running under a Linux environment interacts with some windows service is going to be a completely new thing.

Will I be able to use a windows only service to interact with a command line program written in python running in the Linux layer? If I can't interact with the windows layer completely then it's very much like a VM or a container running inside a jail.

What happens when I install python or nodejs and stuff just doesn't work right? Like say I have a database running on windows and I want to interact with it with python. Will I have to rely in Windows making sure the compatibility layer always work?

replies(2): >>11391869 #>>11397635 #
1. NateDad ◴[31 Mar 16 14:58 UTC] No.11397635[source]▶
So, VMs are effectively a completely different machine. Different memory space, different disk space, different process space, etc. This is linux applications running on the same machine as your windows applications. Yes, they'll be able to talk to each other. Your windows service will be able to talk to a database running from linux and vice versa. The linux processes are still processes running on your windows machine (evidently they're some sort of "lighter process" but that hasn't been explained well... but it was explained that they'll be able to be communicate directly with other processes via sockets, ports, etc).

The demos are VERY convincing. Basically everything works exactly like you would want it to work. It's exactly ubuntu and windows running through the same kernel at the same time.