
Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server - benaadams
https://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2017/08/08/windows-subsystem-linux-windows-server/
======
erentz
I've been using WSL on Windows 10 since it's release. I'd love to know the
inside story of how it came to be. A lot of companies would never try
something like this.

For me WSL has worked as perfect as could be expected, nothing failed to run
that I need yet. The gaps are being slowly closed (e.g. executing between
WSL/Windows). I no longer have to develop in a VM, nor be forced to use a Mac
just because it has "unix" under the hood.

~~~
oblio
NT has had support for "personalities" since its inception. This is not even
the first *NIX one it has had :)

Still, I agree that it's an impressive achievement.

~~~
xorblurb
Except WSL has little in common with traditional NT personalities. Traditional
NT personalities were a false good idea, and have been a failure in the long
term, especially to run Unix workloads -- however this jugement is easy with
insight -- when it came out traditional NT personalities were quite
interesting.

~~~
ajross
No idea about code commonality, but the broad architecture of WSL is basically
the same as the original POSIX personality from the 90's. The "foreign"
process runs in a special mode and handles a different set of system calls via
a different dispatch mechanism in the kernel, but still on top of the same set
of kernel functionality beneath that.

~~~
xorblurb
Traditional NT personalities were about the mechanism details.

Otherwise it is very current in operating systems to have a common kernel
running different kind of userspace using different API - so of course there
are some similarities, but only because it would be completely impossible not
to have some.

------
penpapersw
> _" you cannot currently use WSL to run persistent Linux services, daemons,
> jobs, etc. as background tasks."_

Still, this has me wondering if that's the ultimate goal here. Is Microsoft
trying to position Windows 10 as a high quality Linux server in the long-term?

~~~
pweissbrod
That's something I look forward to. Does anyone know of a solution of reliable
SFTP on windows? By SFTP I mean copy-over-ssh as opposed to FTP with TLS. So I
guess I'm asking for a standard sshd running as a windows service.

~~~
joeyaiello
We're doing a port of OpenSSH to Win32 right now that includes the SFTP server
and client that ships as part of OpenSSH:
[https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/releases](https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/releases)

Key configuration is a little tricky right now, but we've got some helper
scripts (eventually to be released as a module on the PowerShell Gallery) that
it a little easier:

[1] [https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/wiki/Security-
pr...](https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/wiki/Security-protection-
of-various-files-in-Win32-OpenSSH)

[2] [https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/wiki/OpenSSH-
uti...](https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/wiki/OpenSSH-utility-
scripts-to-fix-file-permissions)

------
tmzt
Very cool. I wonder if picoprocesses could be extended to support something
like coLinux, where the real Linux kernel runs as a timeslice alongside the
Windows kernel.

Also it would be good to hear more about the progress on OpenSSH and PS
remoting over SSH, the github project is getting updates but it doesn't seem
very productised.

------
jasonkostempski
That name is horribly misleading. This is a Linux Subsystem for Windows
Server. I'm guessing they wanted their brand name first, clarity be damned.

~~~
limeblack
You can't put a trademark name at the front of a product name is what I have
been told unless you get permission from the trademark holder. Not sure if
this is true I also would love to know the reason.

~~~
jasonkostempski
I have no clue if you're right but that sounds as reasonable as anything else
I know about the trademark/copyright/i.p./patent system.

Edit: This actually seems like a sane restriction in the context of the
trademark system. Without even looking up the rules, it's pretty obvious
people will see "Linux ..." and assume it's endorsed, or at least unopposed,
by the trademark holder, which can be somewhat ambiguous with free software
since it can be used so freely.

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wakkaflokka
I'm particularly eager to see WSL allow GPU pass-through so I can use PyTorch
without a VM or dual-boot on my work computer.

~~~
IamCarbonMan
I don't think that's necessary. WSL runs Linux binaries directly, it should
use the host GPU just like any Windows program.

~~~
21
It doesn't work, because Linux GPU drivers don't run on the WSL (fake) Linux
kernel.

------
nickthemagicman
Lol, what about just using Linux.

~~~
prodikl
photoshop, muscle memory

in that order

~~~
ajross
But this is an announcement about a feature addition to the Windows Server
product (not Win10, which already has it), which does little to no image
editing in practice and tends to be touched by zero muscle-driven input
devices in production use.

------
gargarplex
I am not even joking. In the next few years we are going to see Linux on the
desktop!

~~~
pjmlp
Not really because what Microsoft is doing is actually GNU/Windows.

Google is busy with ChromeOS/Linux and Android/Linux.

Apple keeps developing their NeXTSTEP/BSD derivative.

~~~
Spivak
This is actually really interesting. Google doesn't have a kernel so they're
borrowing Linux. Microsoft doesn't have a good developer userspace so they're
borrowing GNU's.

~~~
mariusmg
>Microsoft doesn't have a good developer userspace

What does this even mean ? They do have the best IDE on the market ( Visual
Studio). What they are really lacking is a proper console emulator app, but
there is still the excellent ConEmu for this (3rd party , doesn't belong to
MS).

~~~
gargarplex
[https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/87625/what-is-
diffe...](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/87625/what-is-difference-
between-user-space-and-kernel-space)

