Windows 10 Spring Update Bringing WSL Unix Sockets Support, OpenSSH / Curl / Tar Support

[torsionbar28]

This really has nothing to do with Linux or open source. It's about MS wanting to give web developers on their platform the tools they are asking for, which right now are the Linux/OSX tools that web developers are used to and like.

As always, Microsoft is so late to the party, they've become irrelevant. Linux and FOSS technologies are absolute king of the web. Developing on Windows and deploying on Linux is about as clunky and obtuse as it gets, which is why Microsoft is attempting to add this Linux functionality into Windows. It is too little too late. Microsoft should have done what Apple did back in 2001, when Apple recognized their OS was fundamentally broken and crap, so they did a clean-slate redesign with UNIX underpinnings. Instead, we're left with the loathed Win10 plus this goofy WSL Linux overlay. Sorry Microsoft, no thanks.

[edwaleni]

Ah, so Docker won't be able to use the GPU still on Windows for the time being. Still requires running Linux with access to it from the sounds of it.

Docker on Win10 is just HyperV. As HyperV on W10 goes, so does Docker.

There is a rumor in the press that Kali Linux subsystem will be in the Windows Store soon.

[ElectricPrism]

I'm glad Microsoft is lowering the barrier of Windows devs becoming Linux devs, but I hate Microsoft and don't trust their sketchyness so I hope they die.

[polarathene]

Docker on Win10 is just HyperV. As HyperV on W10 goes, so does Docker.

There is a rumor in the press that Kali Linux subsystem will be in the Windows Store soon.

There is two kinds for Windows. Docker for Windows(Windows OS containers), and Docker on Windows(Linux OS containers via VM like boot2docker). If you want to run a Linux based Docker container which can utilize the GPU for something like TensorFlow, afaik that requires a Linux host to be able to use the GPU.

[nslay]

Dear Microsoft,
With all the other problems/unfinished features in Windows 10 that affect all the 99% of non-savvy users, and the exceptionally clever surveillance system you have developed that can foil all sorts of clever attempts to block it and help keep us under your watchful eye, and that of unknown 3rd party partners with whom you do business and trust, and that we trust that your trust is well placed, thanks for fixing/improving the one feature that almost none of those non-savvy users even know about. That said, I can run Windows executables from WSL, but if I press Ctrl+C to kill the Windows process running from a WSL terminal, it continues to run as if backgrounded. This is unexpected behavior since Linux processes run in WSL will properly die if I press Ctrl+C. The Windows process running from WSL does not show up in Task Manager in any obvious fashion. I must use Process Explorer to find and kill the process. Sometimes bash scripts will have mysterious interpreter problems that are not reproducible. It can sometimes consistently take seconds to fork off processes in a script, resulting in very slow running times (since bash/sh scripts are practically all executables... even true, false, and [ are executables!).

Also, tmux sessions do not persist if I close a WSL terminal. This is also unexpected. Tmux heavily uses Unix sockets... how did WSL not have Unix socket support already?

[pegasus]

Unix sockets ... so ... can we now run Samba server on WSL?

[dragorth]

Docker on Win10 is just HyperV. As HyperV on W10 goes, so does Docker.

There is a rumor in the press that Kali Linux subsystem will be in the Windows Store soon.

Kali is there now.

[uid313]

I hope Windows 10 gets support for Fedora too!

Microsoft <3

[dragorth]

Dear Microsoft,
With all the other problems/unfinished features in Windows 10 that affect all the 99% of non-savvy users, and the exceptionally clever surveillance system you have developed that can foil all sorts of clever attempts to block it and help keep us under your watchful eye, and that of unknown 3rd party partners with whom you do business and trust, and that we trust that your trust is well placed, thanks for fixing/improving the one feature that almost none of those non-savvy users even know about. That said, I can run Windows executables from WSL, but if I press Ctrl+C to kill the Windows process running from a WSL terminal, it continues to run as if backgrounded. This is unexpected behavior since Linux processes run in WSL will properly die if I press Ctrl+C. The Windows process running from WSL does not show up in Task Manager in any obvious fashion. I must use Process Explorer to find and kill the process. Sometimes bash scripts will have mysterious interpreter problems that are not reproducible. It can sometimes consistently take seconds to fork off processes in a script, resulting in very slow running times (since bash/sh scripts are practically all executables... even true, false, and [ are executables!).

Also, tmux sessions do not persist if I close a WSL terminal. This is also unexpected. Tmux heavily uses Unix sockets... how did WSL not have Unix socket support already?

WSL already has Unix socket support. This annoucement is about win32 now carrying support for basic Unix sockets, allowing direct communication between WSL and the rest of windows.

[dragorth]

Ah, so Docker won't be able to use the GPU still on Windows for the time being. Still requires running Linux with access to it from the sounds of it.

Since Docker uses Hyper-V, if it supports using the GPU, so does Docker.