Microsoft is bringing the Bash shell to Windows 10

What do you mean? Anything that you find online that works with bash and the rest of the GNU utilities will work on here, according to Microsoft.

EDIT: of course, it may need some file paths changed.

So i can run linux box inside windows? Run steam OS in windows 10!

Not exactly.

The GNU utilities have been ported, the Linux ABI has been integrated into the NT Kernel, and it appears there is a virtual Linux style filesystem mounted somewhere, but you won't be able to (or want to) run steam OS in windows 10.

Also, as far as running an X server to get Gnome, Unity, KDE, etc... running within this, it's too early to tell for sure, but from what they've told us so far, it's unlikely that will ever work.

This is so early in preview that even the top command doesn't work properly and anything that spawns a daemon doesn't work either. Don't expect this to be a fully featured "linux in windows" for a couple years.

so does this means I still have to install dosbox or VM to play dos games huh?

to play dos games?

If they previously worked in windows, they will still work. This is in addition to the regular windows command line.

But... why? We have VMs. Just fix the horrible autocomplete on PowerShell and I'll be happy.

Remember OS/2?

What, you've never heard of it?

That's because IBM made it so that Windows programmes could run on it natively - so developers simply developed for Windows and stopped developing for OS/2.

:-D

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Why yes, yes I do lol.

We also have MinGW/MSYS since 2008 (or bash for windows).

For those who don't know, this is just another Windows subsystem that will allow executable and linkable format files linux syscalls to run without emulation.

I don't like this at all. M$ keeps taking from the open source world but doesn't give back as nearly enough.

The problem is that there's no good way for them to avoid that without Windows redoing the way they handle disks. If they do it the hacky awful way they show in the demo, they don't have to totally reinvent the wheel to make storage work (even though their storage implementation is garbage)

I'm still fairly new to linux, but from what I've learned combined with my built in tin foil hat, this all just screams Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. too early to tell i guess, we shall see. long time linux wizards.. how does this sit with you?

Is this purely bash or will you be able to install Ubuntu applications as well, like Apache, Nginx, MySQL, etc, etc?
Also, would symlinks finally act like real symlinks or would this just be like using Cygwin?
Similarly, would it just basically be Cygwin?

They aren't bringing BASH to Windows. though it's a possibility they would like to,

They have Ubuntu, running inside a Windows Container and they got BASH to work on windows using a subsystem. it's still running on Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is running from Windows 10. it's not that exciting. though it's good. butI don't think they are doing this for all the right reasons. they are looking to profit from Linux. which they are already doing now, but this is Icing on the cake. so far they are just trying to port over sublibaries and such.

for me, and im not a linux guru..

this is a terrible idea..

if only because it means its possible to SSH to a linux box from a windows kernel, even if we give the hand wave to any microsoft//goverment shennanigans, it opens the flood gates to W32 viruses being able to run in linux..

also, it discourages new users from installing any linux distro's as you can just play with the console in windows. though it isnt a proper BASH console (as it uses w32 system calls, not gnu/linux system calls) because it sits on the windows kernel...

maybe i am being a little tin foil hatted, but i do not like the idea of microsoft using anything from a linux distro, and yes i am aware a hell of a lot of windows 'features' are out right stolen from the open source world... now they may not have to, as most any linux components could be made to run natively in windows.. bad bad bad..

edited for typo

Using Ubuntu's LXD ?

I don't have the article on me right now, but Bash isn't technically running on Windows. It's running on Ubuntu. And if you look at some of the commands in the video Where one of the guys starts listing some directories and specifications to prove he's running BASH it says GNU/Linux

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I say if they do this we should be able to run exe files natively on Linux. The Linux community should be getting something out of this too

What this essentially (most likely) is, is a Linux ABI (Application Binary Interface) most likely implementing the Linux ABI entirely in user space. I'm quite certain that this is going to be very similar to what WINE is doing for the Windows ABI on Linux (LINE anyone?). Most likely windows is providing this functionality via a userspace service. Although if the performance rumors are true, it might be running in kernel space. BSD btw has been doing linux ABI translation for over a decade.

As awesome as this may seem to some of you we have to be as vigilant with the new Microsoft as with the old.
On one hand saying Microsoft ♥ Linux while on the other hand Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC is still damaging Linux devs with patent litigation. Is giving me EEE (embrace extend extinguish) ideas.

Also who remembers SFU? Windows old POSIX experiment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_Services_for_UNIX
Last I checked this was still available on Windows Server 2012

Gives some insight to as to where this ubuntu rumor may have come from:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/ubuntu-conspiracy

All I know is, I cant wait to hear RMS repsonse to this XD.
But at bare minimum, under GPL we should get access to some interface methods for the ABI/ELF binary side of things. It would be pretty useful to the likes of WINE efforts.

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if wine can improve that would be amazing