Quote of the week

[Posted May 8, 2019 by corbet]

Beginning with Windows Insiders builds this Summer, we will include an in-house custom-built Linux kernel to underpin the newest version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This marks the first time that the Linux kernel will be included as a component in Windows.

— Microsoft

Quote of the week

Posted May 9, 2019 0:42 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (6 responses)

Finally, a year of Linux on the desktop!

Quote of the week

Posted May 9, 2019 13:13 UTC (Thu) by swilmet (subscriber, #98424) [Link] (5 responses)

AFAIK, the current/previous version of WSL doesn't emulate all Linux kernel APIs, for example a big missing chunk is the graphics subsystem to run GUI apps. Is it correct?

So with the WSL including a Linux kernel, I suppose that all the Linux APIs will be implemented. So it will be possible to run Linux GUI apps on Windows. Christian Schaller posted one month ago:

In fact we have some very interesting developments underway for Flatpak, with some major new efforts underway, efforts that I would love to talk about, but they are tied to some major Red Hat announcements that will happen at this years Red Hat Summit […]

Maybe that major new effort is to bring Flatpak on Windows (with the apps installable from its app store)?

Quote of the week

Posted May 9, 2019 16:08 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (4 responses)

<quote>AFAIK, the current/previous version of WSL doesn't emulate all Linux kernel APIs, for example a big missing chunk is the graphics subsystem to run GUI apps. Is it correct?</quote>
Yes, you have to rely on a native Windows X-server if you want graphics in the current WSL.

The new WSL2 has given up on Linux syscall emulation and instead is going to use Linux kernel running alongside with Windows.

Quote of the week

Posted May 9, 2019 19:12 UTC (Thu) by zdzichu (subscriber, #17118) [Link] (1 responses)

Which is a bit sad, as WSL was fourth implementation of Linux out there. The Linux kernel itself, FreeBSD's linuxolator, Linux branded zones in Solars, and the WSL1. Now Microsoft put their implementation in the closet and went for the real thing ;)
(isn't monoculture bad?)

Quote of the week

Posted May 13, 2019 13:16 UTC (Mon) by tao (subscriber, #17563) [Link]

Multiple independent implementations; time to submit it as an ISO-standard. We can follow Microsoft's example for Office and just use "Implement as in Linux Kernel 4.x" whenever we want to avoid having to be precise.

Quote of the week

Posted May 10, 2019 7:13 UTC (Fri) by mjthayer (guest, #39183) [Link] (1 responses)

> The new WSL2 has given up on Linux syscall emulation and instead is going to use Linux kernel running alongside with Windows.

Looking forward to the LWN article about how that works.

Quote of the week

Posted May 11, 2019 12:35 UTC (Sat) by lypanov (guest, #8858) [Link]

More info https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhMThePdIo