Bashing in Windows
HOLD UP. IS THIS FOR REAL? I’ve checked outside for flying porcine figures, and pinched myself plenty, so it must be real. Someone over at Microsoft has decided to bring the Bash shell to Windows. To say that it’s just the Bash shell is incorrect, actuall
I know what you must be feeling, as the cognitive dissonance runs amok.
What I’m talking about is the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which is making its way out to Windows insider builds. Canonical and Microsoft are collaborating on the WSL project, which will bring the full range of the Ubuntu server core (more on this later) to Windows.
The WSL is more than just a terminal. It’s more like a translation layer that changes Linux syscalls to Windows equivalents. (Some people have described it as a reverse-WINE.) Since Linux is really just a kernel, not an operating system (the correct term for a Linux-based OS is “GNU/Linux”), the availability of Linux syscalls allows the Ubuntu base to run atop the Windows kernel. That’s pretty darn cool.
What’s not so cool is that this doesn’t mean all that much for most users. This project is aimed squarely at developers who are running Windows machines, but need to develop for Linux. Even then, it’s not really meant to be used for graphical development, because X and Wayland don’t work with WSL. However, nearly everything you can do in a Bash console should be available. That means using apt to install Apache or NGINX. That means you can use grep or awk. It even means you can use vi on Windows (for those who are vi wizards). All of this is done without a virtual machine, so there’s very little overhead. The IP address of the machine under WSL is the same as the Windows box. (Virtual machines generally get their own IPs.)
While Microsoft still isn’t loosening its deathgrip on consumers (I’m looking at you, DirectX), WSL does represent a reduction of Linux-phobia for the enterprise and development side of Redmond’s business. Developers have been able to run Linux on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform for some time now, and the addition of Linux command line tools to Windows seems to blur the lines even more.
As for regular users and gamers, this stuff won’t really matter all that much. Unless, of course, you decide to learn the Linux console without needing to have a Linux machine or dual-boot. To me, this (unholy) union demonstrates that Microsoft is warming up to opensource, even if the company is going to remain firm in keeping key money-makers proprietary.
While Microsoft still isn’t loosening its deathgrip on consumers, WSL does represent a reduction of Linux-phobia.