Microsoft loves Linux – as in, it loves Linux users running Linux desktop apps on Windows PCs
- Reference: 1619072284
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/22/windows_linux_gui/
- Source link:
Foretold [1]last year at the software titan's virtual Build 2020 conference, [2]WSLg takes the previously released WSL 2 beyond Linux command line tools and apps and makes it the foundation of a functional Windows/Linux desktop chimera.
[3]
"You can use this feature to run any GUI application that might only exist in Linux, or to run your own applications or testing in a Linux environment," explained Craig Loewen, program manager for the Windows Developer Platform at Microsoft, in a [4]blog post .
More Linux love for Windows Insiders with a kernel update [5]READ MORE
Loewen highlights the utility of WSLg by noting that it will let developers test their cross-platform apps in both Windows 10 and Linux without switching hardware or managing virtual machines.
By offering a hybrid development environment, Microsoft may encourage Linux developers to see its software and hardware as tools of the trade. At the very least, it presents an alternative to WINE, which runs Windows software on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems.
[6]
Loewen also points to WSLg's built-in audio and microphone support, which allows, for example, the Linux version of Audacity to record and playback sound on a Windows machine. What's more, WSLg offers support for GPU accelerated 3D graphics, via OpenGL, and the convenience of being able to launch Linux apps from the Windows Start menu should not be overlooked.
[7]Youtube Video
All this works without having to fire up X11 forwarding and an X11 server because WSLg launches a companion Linux system distro, Microsoft’s [8]CBL-Mariner , with Wayland, X server, pulse audio server, and other components necessary for connecting Linux GUI apps to Windows.
[9]
WSL 2 is not without issues that still need to be resolved. For example, it may consume half your memory or more, a tendency that last year prompted Loewen to [10]recommend that users explicitly set their preferred value in the .wslconfig file. But that's to be expected from preview software.
Those looking to try out WSLg should download the [11]Windows 10 Insider build 21364 via the Dev Channel. GPU compute support is advised and the GitHub repo contains [12]more detailed instructions . ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/19/wsl2_gui_linux_apps_windows/
[2] https://github.com/microsoft/wslg
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YIFJPCUFngtukztHV@XazgAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/the-initial-preview-of-gui-app-support-is-now-available-for-the-windows-subsystem-for-linux-2/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/19/windows_linux_5_10/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YIFJPCUFngtukztHV@XazgAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8_nvJzuaSU
[8] https://github.com/microsoft/CBL-Mariner
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YIFJPCUFngtukztHV@XazgAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4166#issuecomment-662710211
[11] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2021/04/21/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-21364/
[12] https://github.com/microsoft/wslg#pre-requisites
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Yes, of course
Yes it has, but if KDE suited people's needs then they wouldn't be running Windows.
Personally I strongly prefer Windows as my desktop but as I also develop Linux software I also need something for that too. And there is something inherently useful about being able to fire up a Ubuntu console in Windows and do it. On occasions I will even be developing the same code for Windows & Linux and I can edit / compile / test from the same code base from both operating systems at once.
If Wayland is integrated then better again since I can literally type a command for some native Linux graphical app and it pops up on the desktop.
So when will we hit the "Extinguish" phase?
Just curious, that's all.
There's no way I would run a Linux app on Windows, that's like trying to build on quicksand. That said, I can see some people having no choice.
That may be the actual end game: eventually paying Microsoft a subscription to run Linux in the corporate world.
Re: So when will we hit the "Extinguish" phase?
We've won the war, there is no way we can be extinguished now.
Viva La Revolution Comrades! Viva La Tux!
We have always been at war...
...We will always be at war...
Want more integration
Will try this, well some day. But now I want more, what would really be nice would be a Windows version that runs inside a container. Just imagine how convenient for IT to let users have a container version. When users log out the container can be backed upp to server. If they log in on another HW the container gets downloaded on the fly. Most users probably have similar files so some deduplication would be nice so files already present don't need to be transferred again. If a machine breaks just take another and continue as if nothing happened. Would solve a lot of windows legacy were every user need to be admin also. They can be admin on their container Windows but not necessarily on the host computer. All this updating can be done while users container version is residing on the server. Backup is inherent and reverting to some old state will not be a problem. /Henrik
Re: Want more integration
what you said here should be old news 5 years ago but sadly, while it's a no brainer for anybody here, containers are at least 10 years ahead of the technical ability of the average joe IT administrator. You're lucky if any of them have ever heard of Docker, let alone Linux. Password resets and installing Windows images is about all that they can manage. WSL is the 1s time I've been able to achieve any technical computing on a corporate machine without having to fall back to using a personal computer for work. Next up I dream of Git integration in Windows so that I can add version control to the rich suite of tools my corporate overlords can provide!
Re: Want more integration
I suppose the hapless IT administrator should have taught themselves these technologies and concepts for free, for the benefit of El Corpo, while watching the wages stagnate
Honestly, companies get what they pay for, and they aint paying...
I mean, we ‘could’ bring our ‘A’ game
Or we could just provide the bear minimum, much like the salary offering
Fuck em
BTW, docker or containers is not a hard concept to understand, give it a year and there will be some other concept that will get the hipsters cumming in their pants ;)
If only it didn't lock me into Hyper-V
I am genuinely interested in trying this out, but the Hyper-V requirement makes it impossible, since it locks me out of other virtualization products I'm currently using. If at least toggling it didn't require a reboot...
Re: If only it didn't lock me into Hyper-V
Personally I'm OK with Hyper-V - but the GUI still sucks, Windows Admin Center can be used, but that's even more basic for this job. But I think if you have time to explore/fight PowerShell, especially around the networking, it's as capable as 3rd party Virtualization Apps?
I'm impressed with WSL2 - see it being especially useful in the academic/teaching space
Without ... managing virtual machines
In the dark ages when I was forced to have Windows as my base OS for work, running Linux is a VM was the only way to get things done. My Linux VM could have an uptime of months, as I could just suspend and resume it every time Windows needed a reboot for an update.
Alternatively
I'd much rather run Win application on Linux (i.e. I'd prefer an improved version of Wine) for performance reasons if nothing else. There's so much going on in the background in Windows that time critical things are hard to do. We're currently fighting the OS for a time critical Java application - clock ticks are randomly up to twice too long because something outside the JVM steals time from our threads. Oh for a bare metal machine!
Re: Alternatively
a time critical Java application
Are you using an [1]RTSJ implementation like [2]JamaicaVM ?
[1] https://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=282
[2] https://www.aicas.com/wp/products-services/jamaicavm/
Re: Alternatively
Ever considered VXWorks? If it's truly a realtime requirement a conventional desktop OS probably isn't what you need... Even one with claimed RT features.
Return Infinity were working on an interesting monotasking OS for similar purposes (BareMetal OS) that might also satisfy those cases where you need absolute control over operation of the machine.
Fail to see the point
... of running Windows just to launch Linux applications. The experience is far better if you use Linux to run Linux code, without Windows talking its share of the CPU and memory.
A couple of years ago I still used (at work) a Windows 7 laptop with Linux in a VM, and spent most time in the VM. Then I manned up and ditched the Windows side (it helped that the corporate IT said that 8 years old machine cannot be upgraded to Windows 10). After that, it felt like I had got a brand-new laptop. Unshackled from Windows, the hardware could concentrate on running Linux, making everything noticeably faster.
Re: Fail to see the point
This is for brain-dead corps who stick doggedly to Windows 10 on the desktop even though the software they're producing is Unix or Unix-like.
Also I'm pretty sure the end game is to make the Win32 API and the Windows GUI yet another option in a Unix-based world so they don't lose developer mindshare. Possibly even swap out Windows' kernel to Linux in the long term to save money but businesses can still buy Microsoft because everything else is too scary for them.
They tried expanding Windows to mobiles, tablets, and IoT and it's not exactly been a success. I think they're Unixifying because they've realised that the alternative, in a Unix-based world, is Windows finally getting thrown out because everyone's continually trying to bash a square peg in a round hole.
Linux under MS Windows is not to be trusted
MS Windows can see everything that Linux does so the Windows spyware^W telemetry can still blab back to the USA government (via MS) what you are doing.
So: can you be sure that your passwords, etc, are now completely secure ?
Re: Linux under MS Windows is not to be trusted
... can you be sure that your passwords, etc, are now completely secure?
Absolutely not.
O.
Is managing a virtual machine difficult then?
I tried WSL or is it WSL2?
I’m not using it now, that’s for sure
Yes, of course
"By offering a hybrid development environment, Microsoft may encourage Linux developers to see its software and hardware as tools of the trade."
Separately, KDE has been available for Windows for years