←back to thread

Ubuntu on Windows

(blog.dustinkirkland.com)
2049 points bpierre | 1 comments | 30 Mar 16 16:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
Show context
dcw303 ◴[31 Mar 16 00:15 UTC] No.11394076[source]▶
This is good news for developers with Macs, and it has nothing to do with an option to switch platforms.

By doing this, Microsoft are legitimising bash as an OS feature for "developers who like unix". This has two effects on Apple:

1. It means they will be less likely to remove their bash CLI from a future OSX / iOS hybrid workstation OS nightmare that we all don't like to think about.

2. They will have to compete with Microsoft for customers who are "developers who like unix". Competition is good for us, the users.

replies(2): >>11395038 #>>11417932 #
1. JdeBP ◴[03 Apr 16 21:47 UTC] No.11417932[source]▶
> Microsoft are legitimising bash as an OS feature for "developers who like unix".

You are imputing far too much power to Microsoft. It's Linux operating systems that have "legitimized" the Bourne Again shell as an operating system feature, long since and with more clout than Microsoft could wield in this regard.

As such, if Apple can stand up to the "pressure" from a quarter of a century of Linux operating systems, several of which are no longer "bash everywhere" in any case, it can stand up to any pressure that the Windows NT Linux subsystem could possibly exert.

Anyway, "developers who like Unix" hopefully also like its long-standing notion, going back to the 1970s, that there is not only one shell. Thompson, Bourne, Almquist, C, TENEX C, Korn 88, Korn 93, MirBSD Korn, Bourne Again, Z, Debian Policy-compliant, Debian Almquist, Friendly Interactive, Yet Another, ....

Given that this new subsystem is touted as giving developers the means to run Ubuntu toolsets, it behooves us all to look and see what Ubuntu (14.04, the same as in the demo video) actually has when it comes to shells:

* http://packages.ubuntu.com/hu/trusty/shells/