News: 0183583186

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Microsoft Plans Linux Tools, RTX Spark Desktop For Windows Devs (arstechnica.com)

(Wednesday June 03, 2026 @05:00PM (BeauHD) from the new-and-improved dept.)


An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

> Microsoft's Build developer conference kicked off today, and as with almost everything the company has done in the last few years, Microsoft's opening keynote focused overwhelmingly on AI and other closely related technologies. [...] On the hardware front, we didn't get any updates for existing Surface devices (not counting yesterday's Surface Laptop Ultra announcement), but we did get something new: the [1]Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is "a compact developer PC" built around Nvidia's new RTX Spark chip with up to 128GB of built-in memory. The Dev Box looks a little like a cartoon anvil or piano fell onto an Xbox Series X and flattened it. Its aluminum casing was designed "to double as a heatsink," and its preloaded version of Windows 11 Pro will include a "purposeful" set of developer-centric default settings and preinstalled tools.

>

> This is a follow-up of sorts to the [2]Windows Dev Kit 2023 , also known as "Project Volterra." This Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3-powered PC was essentially the system board from a Surface Pro tablet stuffed into a plastic box, and it was introduced alongside Arm-native versions of several Microsoft developer tools. It helped to set the stage for the Arm-based flagship Surface devices that launched the next year, which benefitted from a better and faster x86-to-Arm code translation technology called Prism and a greater number of Arm-native third-party apps that didn't need to be translated in the first place. Microsoft didn't announce pricing or specific specs for the RTX Spark Dev Box, but you can probably expect it to cost quite a bit more than the $600 that Project Volterra did. Hopefully, Microsoft can keep the price at least somewhat lower than the $4,699 asking price for Nvidia's similarly specced [3]DGX Spark box .

>

> On the software side, several developer-centric changes are coming to Windows 11, particularly for users of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Microsoft is introducing a [4]Windows-native version of the [5]coreutils command line tools, so that [6]commands or scripts made for Linux work within Windows and the other way around ; the ability to run WSL inside of containers, said to be arriving in "the coming months"; and something called Windows Developer Configurations that uses the [7]WinGet tool to quickly set up "a distraction-free dev environment with VS Code, GitHub Copilot, WSL, PowerShell 7 and developer-optimized settings with one command on any Windows 11 device."

Microsoft also introduced Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC), as "enterprise-grade sandboxed environments" that let AI agents like OpenClaw operate on Windows without getting unrestricted access to the whole system. In theory, MXC could let organizations enforce agent-specific limits, such as blocking access to personal accounts, separating work and personal data, or requiring permission before deleting files.

The [8]MXC GitHub repo also notes support for "multiple containment backends," meaning the same sandboxing concept could apply beyond AI agents to other plugins, tools, and workloads.

Further reading: [9]Microsoft Unveils Scout, an Autonomous AI Agent Built On OpenClaw



[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/devices/surface-rtx-spark-dev-box

[2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/windows-dev-kit-2023/94k0p67w7581

[3] https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/products/workstations/dgx-spark/

[4] https://github.com/microsoft/coreutils

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Core_Utilities

[6] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/microsoft-plans-linux-tools-and-an-rtx-spark-desktop-for-windows-developers/

[7] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/

[8] https://github.com/microsoft/mxc/tree/main

[9] https://build.slashdot.org/story/26/06/02/1835229/microsoft-unveils-scout-an-autonomous-ai-agent-built-on-openclaw



Could you...? (Score:3)

by cayenne8 ( 626475 )

Could you install Linux on this new box?

Re: (Score:2)

by Murdoch5 ( 1563847 )

From what I've heard, RTX Sparc isn't available for Linux right now so I don't think so, but I'm sure that will change soon enough. If you can't install Linux or a Unix, that kind of limits it for professional level work.

Re: (Score:2)

by Local ID10T ( 790134 )

Raw? no. The drivers don't exist (yet). I expect MS to roll out a few flavors of Linux for WSL as this is targeted to be a dev box.

Re: (Score:2)

by Holi ( 250190 )

That will depend on Microsoft. The SoC most likely has the dtsi files since it is basically the same a s the DGX spark, but the boards dts files will need to be supplied by the manufacture. Both are required to create the DTB blobs required for boot. I would be very surprised if Microsoft provided them. They will say WSL is enough.

Microsoft Execution Containers? (Score:2)

by Murdoch5 ( 1563847 )

Microsoft is going to make Windows into Qubes? That's a great idea if they do such a thing, and the concept of Microsoft Execution Containers sounds interesting. At this point, why don't they make Windows a user land to Linux, and then professionals can leverage what they need, instead of paddling up a stream with a fork, that's locked behind cloud and AI nonsense?

who is this for? (Score:2)

by RegistrationIsDumb83 ( 6517138 )

The rare AI enthusiast who prefers windows and can tolerate slow inference performance?

Re: (Score:3)

by dfghjk ( 711126 )

Interesting how Nvidia has become associated with AI and nothing else.

This product is about Nvidia making what they can make. No reason to think a market is actually targeted.

Re: (Score:2)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

And failing sound output after the last "update". I have it on two instances of completely different hardware as of about 2 weeks ago. Fortunately, these are the last instances of the rotting Windows crap that MS puts out. I hope that by the end of the year just one will be left.

Re: (Score:2)

by Himmy32 ( 650060 )

It's clearly for Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers...

Re: (Score:2)

by greytree ( 7124971 )

Calm down, Balmy32 !

Old is new? (Score:2)

by Himmy32 ( 650060 )

Windows for ARM, MinGW-lite, and non-docker microVMs/containers. What year is it?

Also I think Ars got the WSL Container-stuff backwards, instead it's Linux containers on WSL. As it appears to from the [1]Microsoft docs [microsoft.com]. That plus an an API for Windows Apps to use those Linux containers. Probably the most useful of the announcements.

[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-container

FUD & embrace, extend, extinguish (Score:2)

by HnT ( 306652 )

The M$ of the 90s sure has turned around on Linux. When decades of FUD did not kill their hated competition, they now just embrace, extend and extinguish as the new m.o. - and they already basically killed GitHub that way.

Nobody should allow M$ any foothold in F/OSS.

Will go better than Qualcomm's Dev Windows Desktop (Score:1)

by gabebear ( 251933 )

It couldn't go worse. . . right? [1]https://www.jeffgeerling.com/b... [jeffgeerling.com]

[1] https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/snapdragon-dev-kit-windows-fastest-x-elite-tested/

Uh, no way (Score:2)

by gtall ( 79522 )

Mr. MS, I'm a Mac user and everything you ever produced for the Mac is about as appetizing as cat vomit. Now you want to do the same for Linux. Please stop and go away.

Buy our Slop machine (Score:2)

by locater16 ( 2326718 )

So, probably same price as an M5 Max Macbook Pro with 128GB, except not a laptop, and [1]far behind on benchmarks [notebookcheck.net]. Nvidia is somehow so smug they're making a Macbook Pro with high ram look like a good deal.

[1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-N1X-far-behind-Apple-M5-Max-comparable-chips-show-expected-performance.1313665.0.html

Will Silicon Valley Become A Ghost Town?

Back in the 80s, businessmen hoped that computers would usher in a
paperless office. Now in the 00s, businessmen are hoping that paper will
usher in a computerless office. "We've lost more productivity this last
decade to shoddy software," explained Mr. Lou Dight, the author of the
bestselling book, "The Dotless Revolution". "By getting rid of computers
and their infernal crashes, bluescreens, and worst of all, Solitaire, the
US gross domestic product will soar by 20% over the next decade. It's time
to banish Microsoft crapware from our corporate offices."

Lou Dight is the champion of a new trend in corporate America towards the
return of pen-and-paper, solar calculators, old IBM typewriters, and even
slide rules. If "dotcom" was the buzzword of the 90s, "dotless" is the
buzzword of the 21st Century.