Interop between Ubuntu and the Windows Subsystem for Linux

58 points by jackhammons 8 years ago | 18 comments
  • anoother 8 years ago
    I really, really wish they would release this for 32-bit Windows 10. Let me explain...

    I bought a laptop with W10, mainly to use WSfL on it. Only after updating to the insider preview and then scratching my head for a bit, did I learn that WSfL is only available for 64-bit Windows. The laptop, however (Bay Trail-based), has a 32-bit UEFI, with which 64-bit Windows refuses to install.

    I'm dual-booting (amd64) Arch for now; the first distro whose installer played nicely with the funky UEFI setup _and_ F2FS. But I'm really impressed with the W10 on this laptop. If only it could provide a native UNIX experience...

    • bbatha 8 years ago
      I wish microsoft would stop producing 32 bit windows, its just an excuse for hardware manufactures to get away with pre-loading windows on sub-standard hardware.
      • type0 8 years ago
        I hope that Arch will take off on WSL [1], it's early stages still but it would be good to not be limited to ubuntu.

        1. http://www.infoworld.com/article/3120888/open-source-tools/n...

      • yummyfajitas 8 years ago
        Out of curiosity, do any long term Linux users have experience with the new windows? I.e. is windows now an acceptable Linux?

        I've been using Linux for > 15 years and my emacs config is older than git. (Repo was converted from svn to darcs to hg to git over many years.) Now windows purports to run Linux binaries, has a tiling window manager and good command lines. Is it worth considering as a primary os?

        • randomsearch 8 years ago
          Depends what you're doing.

          For most technical work, hacking, most coding, Linux is the way to go. .NET being a notable exception. I don't have experience of powershell but it doesn't make much sense to me to use anything but *NIX if you're hacking, eg bash is the de facto standard shell.

          If you're using a laptop, Windows still has big advantages in terms of drivers, "just working" etc. But then I'd buy a MacBook anyway.

          The general UI is fine with Windows 10. I actually prefer the task bar to OS X's dock and definitely to Unity.

          But overall I find things still don't work here and there. Stuff randomly crashes still, you do find yourself restarting and reinstalling things. And I've only been using it rarely (colleague insist on using Windows).

          In a word, I guess, "no".

          • philtar 8 years ago
            I switched. The customizability of linux isn't there which I sorely miss, but now my laptop runs quietly and gets 8 hours of power as opposed to 4-5
            • patates 8 years ago
              Having to log out and back in to refresh ENV is the biggest annoyance IMHO.
              • calferreira 8 years ago
                Have you tried tlp or powertop on your linux installation ?
              • lj3 8 years ago
                I've been using linux since 2001, but I do hop around from OS to OS depending on what's mandated at my current place of employment.

                If you just focus on the LXSS, windows 10 isn't bad[0]. It's still effectively beta, so there are things it can't do, like list running windows processes and kill them from the command line or launching a windows app[1].

                Development is identical between my ubuntu machine and my windows machine. I use ack, vim and other command line tools as my IDE and I haven't noticed much difference between the systems. I do occasionally run into an issue with live code reloading systems (like middleman-livereload). It looks for a valid ip address to use instead of just using 127.0.0.1, but the networking subsystem hasn't been exposed to LXSS yet, so it errors out. webpack-livereload works fine though as does apache and mysql.

                [0]: there are many, many other complaints I have about the OS. I use it right now because of the better driver support and video games.

                [1]: I think they added that just recently, as per https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/interop?f=2...

                • patates 8 years ago
                  Wow, Windows has a tiling window manager? You don't mean window snapping hopefully, or do you?
                • aq3cn 8 years ago
                  Making use of bash utilities has made Windows 10 fun again. MS has been very responsive in answering feature requests in Uservoice. It's impressive.

                  https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-con...

                  • jsingleton 8 years ago
                    Interesting that Microsoft are, at the same time, integrating Linux features into Windows and making .NET Core for Linux. I'm not sure if it's a joined-up strategy or separate parts of the company doing things independently?
                    • digi_owl 8 years ago
                      The first is to draw devs away from OSX and onto Windows laptops and desktops.

                      the second is to get their .NET stuff into the cloud.

                      MS have always been about controlling the stack under their "total cost of ownership" pitch.

                      • teekert 8 years ago
                        Why bet on one horse? They are just spreading the risk and cater to different needs.
                      • kyriakos 8 years ago
                        • visarga 8 years ago
                          This is cool. Windows should have been integrated with Linux 10 years ago or provided an alternative that was on par.
                          • kire456 8 years ago
                            It did actually, even longer ago[1]. I used Interix for a while, but it required (in my experience) an even greater love for yak shaving than most unices and was eventually scrapped. I'm excited to see whether this new attempt will work.

                            1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interix

                            • anondon 8 years ago
                              It wouldn't have made business sense back then.