On the last day of January, Oracle Linux 8.5, the current version of Big Red's RHEL-alike, quietly appeared on the Windows Store.

It's [1]packaged to run on the [2]Windows Subsystem for Linux and says it needs Windows 10 version 19041.0 or newer. That's the [3]much-delayed Windows 10 May 2020 update, also known as 20H1.

This is the first official presence of any member of the greater Red Hat family – although Oracle Linux isn't directly a Red Hat product, obviously – in Microsoft's online souk.

[4]

In the Windows Store, if you search for Linux, you'll [5]find Ubuntu, both SUSE and openSUSE, Debian, Kali, Alpine, and Pengwin, which was [6]built for WSL . What you won't see is Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, or anything like it. There is a so-called Fedora remix, but since it costs money whereas real Fedora is free, we suggest avoiding that.

[7]

This isn't totally unprecedented. It's [8]possible to install Fedora in WSL2 – but that's quite a different animal.

[9]Linux on Windows 10: Will penguin treats in Creators Update be enough to lure you?

[10]Microsoft quietly delivers Windows 11 Enterprise VMs for devs

[11]For those worried about Microsoft's Pluton TPM chip: Lenovo won't even switch it on by default in latest ThinkPads

[12]Saved by the Bill: What if... Microsoft had killed Windows 95?

[13]WSL2 runs a full Linux kernel in a VM on Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor. The original WSL, on the other hand, is a personality of the Windows [14]kernel , distantly related to the POSIX environment that came with NT 3.1 just under 30 years ago.

Still, it's an interesting step. WSL has been somewhat sidelined by WSL2: the latter means running a real Linux kernel, which means better compatibility. WSL1, on the other hand, uses fewer resources and integrates [15]better with the rest of the OS. ®

Get our [16]Tech Resources



[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/oracle-linux-85/9p06h18wxbvp

[2] https://www.theregister.com/2017/02/27/linux_on_windows_10_creators_update/

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/13/windows_10_2004_release_preview_tweak/

[4] 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=2YfpkXD3MeBbefPN@M@H7EgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[5] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/search/shop/apps?q=linux

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2019/04/10/pengwin_1_2/

[7] 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=44YfpkXD3MeBbefPN@M@H7EgAAAIs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[8] https://dev.to/bowmanjd/install-fedora-on-windows-subsystem-for-linux-wsl-4b26

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2017/02/27/linux_on_windows_10_creators_update/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/23/windows_11_vms_for_developers/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/20/microsoft_amd_pluton_lenovo/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/25/windows_95/

[13] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/compare-versions

[14] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/cmdline/wsl-architectural-overview

[15] https://jmmv.dev/2020/11/wsl-lost-potential.html

[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/