Microsoft Improves Linux Subsystem of Windows 10

Microsoft has made the decision to place WSL in Windows to meet developer needs, WSL is a Linux-compatible environment that resembles and acts just like Linux. Indeed, nowadays, a variety of open source tools, programming languages ​​and libraries assume that developers are using Linux.

Many developers have tried WSL during its debut and have been a bit disappointed. But it is important to know that the version of the Linux subsystem implemented in the Anniversary Upade of Windows 10 was in fact a preversion intended to collect the opinions of the developers on the tools that they would like to execute with WSL.

"You could not send a ping, you could not have a look at your ifconfig to see the configuration of your network. We could not run Java, we could not run npm because it was unable to enumerate the network configuration. All this is possible now, and we can run MySQL, Postgres, Apache, Nginx, Node, Ruby, Java, Python and even Core CLR works with ASP.NET. "

Canonical maintains the user mode images that Windows 10 downloads at the first launch of Bash. Until now, these images have been those of Ubuntu 14/04, with a new image planned every three months (Microsoft suggested that this frequency is the most optimal for users, noted Kirkland). With the Creators Update, they will go to Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial, the version launched last April). This is a huge improvement, since it means that the newest versions of the most used libraries, compilers and utilities will be available and natively supported.

In this way, if you ever face a problem (a script error on Bash for example), you will only have to select the corresponding process and delete it. Network and system control tools can also see WSL processes, because they are exposed to the Windows management interface and they use the Windows network stack and the OS firewall . Companies may need this capability to use their control tools with both WSL and Windows processes.

Now that the Linux for Windows subsystem has become more mature and covers the majority of the scenarios that developers face every day, development will continue to bring updates and enhancements to meet developers' queries. However, it should not be expected that WSL officially supports Linux desktop.

"We have been clear from the beginning that the reason we are developing WSL is to provide an environment for developers to do their job. There are Linux GUI tools that can be used by developers, but the majority of the tools they want are compilers, debuggers ... we only focus on the tools and scenarios present on the command line. "

Ubuntu 16.04 will be installed by default if you use WSL on the Creators Update for the first time. If you already have 14.04, Windows will not update your distribution. This decision was made to respond to requests from developers who requested that the update not be automatic. If you want a new 16.04 instance, use `lxrun / uninstall / full` to delete your Ubuntu instance and reinstall it with` lxrun install.`

The Creators Update also provides other enhancements, such as mouse support in the console (with the addition of 24-bit colors). It also integrates and brings together the Windows and WSL environments. You can run a command on the Ubuntu system that affects the Windows system; So you have the ability to edit the files in real time and have the files updated in Notepad and vi, or you can run an application on Linux that makes these changes in Windows and vice versa. Integration also means that Linux processes can be seen on the Windows Task Manager. For example, if you are running MySQL, you can see its process on the Task Manager.

Source: The New Stack