Microsoft announces an update to the Windows Subsystem for Linux, the infrastructure that runs Linux applications and distributions on its operating system
In the eternal diatribe between Microsoft Windows admirers and those of Apple macOS, there has always been a third party people who enjoy it: Linux users. The UNIX-based operating system created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds over the past two decades has grown so much that it has developed into numerous successful distributions.
A success so well-deserved that it led Apple, back in 2001, to base its macOS X on UNIX code that has much in common with Linux (but macOS is not a Linux distribution) and Microsoft, as of the August 2016 Anniversary Uptade, to integrate a Linux “heart” into Windows 10. That is, the so-called “Windows Subsystem for Linux” (WSL), a draft kernel capable of running some basic Linux operations and applications by installing a Linux distribution inside the Redmond-based company’s operating system. Soon, however, Windows 10 will have an even more powerful Linux heart because Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 is coming. This was announced by Jack Hammons, Microsoft’s program manager, during Microsoft’s Build 2019 Developer Conference that opened yesterday in Seattle.
What the new Linux heart of Windows 10 will look like
Hammons explained that the new Linux heart built into Windows 10 will be based on the latest stable version of the “competing” operating system (i.e. 4.19, at the moment) and that “the kernel will be updated to new stable versions to ensure that WSL always supports the latest Linux.” Most likely WSL 2 will arrive with the second major semi-annual Windows 10 update, scheduled for the second half of 2019.
Among the advantages of the new Linux core over the old Hammons cited better memory management and much faster speeds for applications that use the file system a lot. Operations such as decompressing an archive in .Tar format, for example, can be done 20 times faster than possible with the current WSL. Moreover WSL 2 will support Linux Docker, that is the possibility to run Linux applications inside “containers” isolated from the rest of the operating system.
How WSL 2 will be distributed
The interesting thing about WSL 2 is that it will be distributed directly by Microsoft through Windows Update, which means that it will become an integral part of the operating system starting from the next updates. Obviously WSL will be distributed under an open source license and the configuration files will also be distributed on Github. Before even arriving in the official version, finally, WSL 2 will be distributed to beta testers through the Windows Insider Program starting next month.