More Details On Microsoft's WSL2 Implementation For Running Linux Binaries On Windows 10

[Bubbles_by_day]

Phoronix: More Details On Microsoft's WSL2 Implementation For Running Linux Binaries On Windows 10

Earlier this week Microsoft announced Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) as a more performant implementation of this Linux binary compatibility layer for Windows. Following that news, during their annual Build Conference, was a more detailed presentation on the WSL2 architecture...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...ild-Conf-Video

For the love of god, "Performant" is NOT A WORD. At least, not as used. "Performant" means an actor in a play.

Yeah yeah, language evolves, new words are invented, etc. I'm all for that. I cheer when new words make it into the dictionary. But "Performant" is particularly egregious. It's pure, Grade-A, Corporate Bull***t Bingo Lingo.

I've read Phoronix for years, since the beginning. I just now registered. Michael Larabel, Please cease and desist on the "Performant". An apology to Humanity might also be in order.

[Luke_Wolf]

Yeah, like, I'm sure the Xbox has something to do with their profits.

Or it's just a very odd coincidence that the Xbox One releases in 2013 just right when their profits begin to skyrocket.

Given the XBone was almost a failure to launch... no. On the other hand that there's another very important demarcation you can see in that chart. During the Gates period they were rising in the market, then under Ballmer they fell and stagnated... because he was a shithead and the company was falling apart and doomed to destruction under him... then Nadella takes over and *boom* suddenly the developers and tools division becomes unleashed and starts open sourcing stuff like they wanted to, the larger company starts expanding back out and being openly innovative with things like WSL and suddenly investor confidence in the company explodes as a result.

[chithanh]

You say that like it is a bad thing. If Microsoft wants to retain developers by giving developers something they want, then that should be applauded.

Where did I say or imply that this was a bad thing? A desperate move, sure. They are throwing native Windows APIs under the bus (Win32 is legacy, UWP is effectively a dead end now that Office Mobile is on life support, etc.). But WSL is certainly useful for some.

[F.Ultra]

Yeah, like, I'm sure the Xbox has something to do with their profits.

Or it's just a very odd coincidence that the Xbox One releases in 2013 just right when their profits begin to skyrocket.

The major part of their profits is the Office suite, what you see in the chart above is the stock price, not their profits. Their gross profits have been somewhat stable but did a major leap in 2018/2019 (from roughly $60B to $80B).

[skeevy420]

So MS is doing so well because of Windows alone? 'Cause they have a lot of other divisions too, you know...

Yeah, like, I'm sure the Xbox has something to do with their profits.

Or it's just a very odd coincidence that the Xbox One releases in 2013 just right when their profits begin to skyrocket.

[paulpach]

Make no mistake. WSL is an attempt to retain the developers in the enterprise. Without WSL, the pressure to move off Windows workstations for development would be much greater.

You say that like it is a bad thing. If Microsoft wants to retain developers by giving developers something they want, then that should be applauded.

[Vistaus]

No, not quite, the desperate (and sad) thing is the Phoronix comment section, whenever MS comes up. MS is doing fine, having reached even 1 _trillion_ market cap recently.




That's "desperate" and "suffering" Microsoft for ya. But the zealots were never too good at grasping reality, only their own pipe dreams and superiority complex ("smart people do not use it").

(disclaimer: I'm a linux system engineer)

So MS is doing so well because of Windows alone? 'Cause they have a lot of other divisions too, you know...

[chithanh]

No, not quite, the desperate (and sad) thing is the Phoronix comment section, whenever MS comes up. MS is doing fine, having reached even 1 _trillion_ market cap recently.



That's "desperate" and "suffering" Microsoft for ya. But the zealots were never too good at grasping reality, only their own pipe dreams and superiority complex ("smart people do not use it").

No no nooo! You cannot use individual company stock performance alone as an indicator how well MS is doing. You always have to see it in relation to the rest of the field.

Taking for example MSFT vs. Nasdaq 100 Technology Sector, you see that MSFT tracked the index quite closely until early 2018. This is when Linux started to overtake Windows in Azure coincidentally.

(source: Yahoo! Finance)

I'm a linux system engineer

That may be an explanation, but not an excuse.

In addition, stock price does not tell us everything. Microsoft has become irrelevant to the future of computing. They are still able to squeeze a lot of money out of those who are unfortunate enough to be locked into their platform (which is reflected by the stock price), but the innovation happens elsewhere and not on Microsoft platforms.

Make no mistake. WSL is an attempt to retain the developers in the enterprise. Without WSL, the pressure to move off Windows workstations for development would be much greater.

[paulpach]

Umm. M$. Can I have your kernel source tree and all the modifications you have made please?

They answered this both in their blog announcement and in the video. Yes, they will publish the source for this kernel and whenever possible they will try to upstream their changes.

[babai]

Just like they realized it with Edge, MS will probably one day replace the NT kernel with Linux. It would probably turn out to be better for them.