Beyond Bash: Microsoft Refines the Windows Subsystem for Linux

Beyond Bash: Microsoft Refines the Windows Subsystem for Linux(thenewstack.io)

35 points by n3mes1s 9 years ago | 7 comments

Interesting that Microsoft is so eager to support enough syscalls for non-GUI developers. But I wonder how much this increases the attack surface of both Windows and the WSL Linux.

tracker1 9 years ago | |

It may not be the only reason, but my thoughts from the start were that if this flushes out enough, getting Linux containers (docker) on windows in a native way could be a big win, and even bigger in Azure's space. I really liked the approach that Joyent took to getting Docker/Linux containers on their Solaris fork.

najajomo 9 years ago |

"the increasing number of developers considering a move from Mac OS because they find the MacBook Pro underpowered for their needs"

Why the need to insert anti Mac FUD into a technical article?

"via a pico driver with Microsoft’s clean room implementation of the Linux syscall interface."

Why clean room it, the kernel is GPL after all. This whole Linux-on-Windows strategy is nothing more than a ploy to slow down Linux adoption. Provide enough features to call it Linux without being actually being useful.

predakanga 9 years ago | |

All FUD aside, "developers looking for an alternative to the new MBP" is a pretty decent market to capture. I have no doubt that Microsoft are directing their efforts to try and take advantage of them.

hamandcheese 9 years ago | |

I think it makes a lot more sense to clean room it. Most (all?) of the functionality is already present in the Windows kernel, there just needs to be a Linux compatible API exposed.

The alternative is to... run two kernels? I doubt that's feasible in any form that doesn't resemble running a Linux VM.

beojan 9 years ago | | |

The NT kernel has had a POSIX subsystem since the beginning. I'm not sure whether WSL uses this though.