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Microsoft's Windows Subsystem for Linux is coming to all Windows 10 users (archive):
You won't have to be a tester to try Windows 10's new, built-in Linux kernel in the near future. Microsoft has confirmed that Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 will be widely available when Windows 10 version 2004 arrives. You'll have to install it manually for a "few months" until an update adds automatic installs and updates, but that's a small price to pay if you want Linux and Windows to coexist in peace and harmony. It'll be easier to set up, at least -- the kernel will now be delivered through Windows Update instead of forcing you to install an entire Windows image.
Embrace, Extend... Excite!
Previously: Windows 10 Will Soon Ship with a Full, Open Source, GPLed Linux Kernel
(Score: 5, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Sunday March 15 2020, @04:11AM (4 children)
I learned of a new way that Windows sucks. Get a low end tablet that's so cheap, the manufacturer won't support it after 2 or just 1 year. No more driver downloads. They don't even offer the existing drivers for download. No drivers for it in Windows 10 either, so if Windows can be upgraded at all, it is a huge hassle. Bascially, you have to save the existing drivers to some offline storage. There's a Windows utility that can do this. Then upgrade Windows, and have it use the drivers you saved earlier. If you didn't know about that, and you wiped the storage, thus losing your copy of the existing drivers, you're S.O.L. until you can find a copy of the drivers online somewhere. Another item you have to deal with in this messy upgrade process is the damned license. Pretty easy for that to go missing when you get extreme and wipe disks, accounts, and so on.
Windows Update of course cannot handle this situation. It will attempt to upgrade, fail to find working drivers, roll back, and repeat. It will also badger you about the extremely limited storage space, if the tablet is one of those that has only 30G of storage. There's a reason so many Windows tablets with such low storage are so cheap. It's because M$ allows manufacturers to license Windows for far less $ if the device has less than sonething like 32G storage.
Oh, and the cheap bastards will have given you a 32bit version of Windows 10. Why not? Takes about 2G less space on that 30G of storage. Even though the hardware can do 64bit, you can't upgrade, because 32bit drivers do not work in 64bit Windows, and there aren't any 64bit drivers. Suck city.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday March 15 2020, @04:27AM (1 child)
AnandTech recently interviewed a cheapo Chinese brand:
How Good (or Bad) is a $100 Laptop? The Coda Spirit Review [anandtech.com]
So if you have the right version, I guess you can use a microSD card to facilitate an update. Still pretty stupid and all of these Windows devices should come with 64 GB minimum. ChromeOS on the other hand can deal with 16 GB just fine.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Sunday March 15 2020, @09:53AM
He probably can't. Many cheap Atoms have platform drivers that weren't packaged in Windows that supply the SD card driver so the upgrade boot environment can't reach the extra storage.
In one particular Bay Trail device I couldn't even work the keyboard, touch screen, ethernet or bluetooth so I ended up doing the USB installation from the media creation tool on the one available USB port and a powered usb hub connected through a USB OTG on the power port chaining a keyboard, mouse, and a usb-ethernet adapter. I also weren't supplied drivers from the manufacturer and had to collect bits and pieces from similar lenovo, intel nuc and dell when the installation was done to get everything working...
compiling...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 15 2020, @12:42PM
I'm thinking of three levels of frustration:
1) The iPad-One, beyond impractical to upgrade or continue working with the App Store - abandon all hope, your shiny is dead.
2) The Windows ecosystem, sure - it updates... somehow, sometimes - your shiny isn't completely dead after 2 years, but the work required to limp it along does grow considerably with age.
3) The *nix ecosystem, your shiny takes an excessive amount of care and labor to get working in the first place, plus a fairly steady stream of effort as it ages, but it ages more gracefully than the alternatives.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 16 2020, @02:59PM
Okay, I get it. Old Windoze tablet . . . useless. Old Apple tablet . . . it would be heresy to say useless, so I won't say it.
Old Android tablet . . .
Just make sure it runs a version of Android that supports SDR apps, and use it for SDR. Use an OTG adapter and cheapo RTL receiver.
The amount of rust code in Linux has grown.
The amount of rust code in Linux has groan.