Windows Subsystem for Linux Distribution Switcher

Windows Subsystem for Linux Distribution Switcher(github.com)

85 points by vgallur 9 years ago | 14 comments

tym0 9 years ago |

Weird not to see Arch in the list, https://github.com/alwsl/alwsl did the trick for me.

terrywang 9 years ago | |

I knew alwsl (Arch Linux as Windows Subsystem for Linux) long before this WSL distribution switcher ;-)

Anyway, I run Linux as workstation so I don't really need WSL. Plus I have never laid my hands on Windows 10 so far (I ran Cygwin on the only Windows 7 machine we have at home).

flukus 9 years ago | |

Do any of arch's benefits (aside from rolling releases) matter much in a virtualized environment?

trapperkeeper79 9 years ago |

Is there a way to chroot the linux distro? I'd love to be able to have multiple systems (even if I could only have 1 active at a time). It would be great for experimentation ala VMs.

baldfat 9 years ago | |

That is why we have VMs this is not a VM but a subsystem that is sharing the same space as Windows.

zaphar 9 years ago | | |

His request is not really all that unreasonable. And given how the subsystems work seems to me like it might be within reason to implement.

mulrian 9 years ago |

Great work, I'll definitely be checking this out. I find myself using the WSL more and more recently. It still has plenty of rough edges, but Microsoft seem to be committed to improving it. The lack of a full Linux like terminal is probably one of the bigger reasons I can't switch fully over to Windows.

pythonaut_16 9 years ago | |

Supposedly whenever it exits beta they will publish a stable API/ABI, at which point hopefully different software platforms and IDEs (e.g. IntelliJ, Visual Studio) can target it and interface more directly with it.

My only holdout for Linux right now is that I can't just tell Pycharm to use WSL for the Python interpreter; you still have to register the WSL Python as a remote SSH connection.

alfalfasprout 9 years ago | | |

I would actually not mind using windows if there was a way to use a native linux toolchain (including running and debugging) from within Windows. Especially if I could use something like CLion to do it. But alas it's not quite there yet. Valgrind doesn't even work yet.

marsrover 9 years ago | |

The lack of a full Linux like terminal is also my current hold back. I know I can use VcXsrv and run xfce4-terminal, but I would rather use something that is more native to Windows than some hacky solution. In addition, now that the Windows Console supports 24-bit color, using things like ConEmu feels like two steps back (ConEmu doesn't support 24-bit color).

baldfat 9 years ago | | |

This drives my crazy BUT I have found mobaxterm http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/ is the best solution for me. So much so I threw money at them.

drampelt 9 years ago | | |

I've been using mintty and it's been pretty nice so far https://github.com/mintty/wsltty

nunez 9 years ago | |

I just run a ssh server in a separate window in some hidden virtual desktop and use PuTTY

Works great