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posted by chromas on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the year-of-Linux-on-the-desktop dept.

Has no one seen this yet? Don't cross the streams!

Ars Technica:

Earlier today, we wrote that Microsoft was going to add some big new features to the Windows Subsystem for Linux, including native support for Docker containers. It turns out that that ain't the half of it.

Not even half.

All is changing with Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. Instead of emulating the Linux kernel APIs on the NT kernel, WSL 2 is going to run a full Linux kernel in a lightweight virtual machine. This kernel will be trimmed down and tailored to this particular use case, with stripped-down hardware support (since it will defer to the host Windows OS for that) and faster booting.

The Linux kernel is GPLed open source; the GPL license requires that any modifications made to the code must be published and made available under the GPL license. Microsoft will duly comply with this, publishing the patches and modifications it makes to the kernel. WSL 2 will also use a similar split as the current WSL does: the kernel component will be shipped with Windows while "personalities" as provided by the various Linux distributions can be installed from the Microsoft Store.

To quote Han Solo, "I've got a bad feeling about this."


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  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:37PM (3 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:37PM (#840177)

    Being dragged there, ready or not. I'm not sure what MS are up to, but one cynical take is they're trying to make Linux look bad to the general non-technical public. The details will be interesting.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:48PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:48PM (#840189) Journal

    You no doubt saw what I mention about Chromebooks.

    Microsoft might succeed in making Linux look bad . . . on Windows. Using Microsoft Linux.

    But people still use Linux every day without even knowing it. Once it is pointed out to them just how much they have used Linux for years, that might change everyone's impression.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday May 08 2019, @03:51AM (1 child)

      by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday May 08 2019, @03:51AM (#840615)

      > You no doubt saw what I mention about Chromebooks.

      No, sorry, I did what I do too often: glance, post, read later. Sometimes regret (no post submission edits allowed!) But now I have read your Chromebook comments. I have very little direct experience. I had my hands on one once several years ago and tried to install something (I forget) and quickly discovered it's not as simple as I had expected. Hmmm. If someone gave me one I'd have to tinker and figure it all out, but I have enough more interesting things to do. But I like the concept and the prices look good.

      Yes, long time Linux admin here. Most people barely know how many cylinders their car's engine has, and generally don't care from what I can tell. I tell people about Linux in Android, etc., and I get blank stares, or maybe a "huh". They care about the UI, but seem to adapt to almost anything in spite of idiosyncrasies, bugs, etc.

      No, I haven't read enough about MS Linux (ptooey) but my guess is that it will somehow make Linux look bad, even if it's just that running in a VM will make it feel slower, things might not translate well, some things won't work, etc. It'll be interesting for sure.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Wednesday May 08 2019, @01:55PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 08 2019, @01:55PM (#840757) Journal

        People don't care about "Linux" or even "Android" on a Chromebook.

        But they will care if you tell them that "your phone / tablet apps in the Google Play store will work on your Chromebook". Now at this point in time, you would have to qualify that as not all Chromebooks offer Android support.

        Later you will be able to tell them that there is a "Linux store" with apps like Gimp, Inkscape, WxMaxima, LibreOffice, etc. Maybe at some point video / audio editors that are better than the similar Android offerings on the Play store. The state of Linux on Chromebooks is still definitely not for end users. You can enable it in Settings and try it out. You get a default Debian tightly security boxed by default. In a LXD container on a VM hosted on Google's crossvm. Google wrote crossvm because other virtualization solutions had many features they didn't need, and crossvm is written in a higher level language than C with a strong focus on security. They must ensure that Android and Linux apps simply cannot compromise the actual Chrome OS kernel. If you read up more on this, you can create additional containers, or even vms. You can install other distros. If you install some google packages, then it will get all of the plumbing for its GUI desktop.org compatible apps to have GUI integration with the Chrome OS desktop. I believe the future of Chrome OS is brighter than most people realize. But that is speculation and optimism on my part.

        The Google Play store also has Crossover Wine as an Android app.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.