What’s new with WSL - BDL2028

[@sandwitches227]

Absolutely love Scott as an interviewer/group discussion master. Good voice tone, good questions, good insight, etc. I wish most build sessions had Scott somewhere to the left of the stage for additional goodness.

[@mrrobot427]

I agree.

[@Tech_Alchemy]

Yes, I agree Scott and Jon Galloway should be on most of these interviews and discussions.

[@chyldstudios]

2019: The Year of the Linux Desktop

[@carloslemare6060]

And Microsoft will provide it XD

[@osmagom]

windows = lag

[@ivailogeimara]

Inside Windows

[@Abhinav-tk1bt]

@@osmagom you have a weak machine then

[@kzakaria91]

@@Abhinav-tk1bt are you machine shaming him!!! jesus

[@mrclaytron]

This is seriously awesome... WSL 2 combined with new Windows Terminal and VS Code remote extensions is going to be soooo good. My mind is officially blown.

[@mrclaytron]

@@desertfish74 I'm a full stack dotnet dev. I primarily work with Microsoft technologies for back end. I like having access to Linux however, for Docker purposes, but my job is all Microsoft related. I'm not interested in running desktop Linux directly (plus, Linux desktop is still a fragmented mess IMHO... No thanks!)

[@lalnuntluangachhakchhuak5767]

In addition to that, windows have a precision touch driver which is superior to any Linux touchpad driver which makes a huge difference in experience. Windows as a PC is still so much superior.

[@mrclaytron]

@@lalnuntluangachhakchhuak5767 yeah I agree, and graphics cards on Linux can still be a pain in the butt too. For me at least, WSL 2 offers the perfect "Linux desktop"

[@Chocoholic1337]

I'm not sure if you'll see this post, Mr Claytron, but I'm just wondering what your workflow would look like combining WSL 2 with VSCode Remote. Does that mean you'll spin up an environment in docker, for instance, in WSL and remote into that with VSCode remote or?

[@ariramkilowan5325]

A MS developer talking about Linux wearing an Apple watch. How times have changed

[@androukos6441]

Glad Microsoft is turning open-source

[@keyboard_g]

How long until Microsoft flat out acquires Canonical.

[@justinkim7202]

This changes everything for me. I quit using Windows 3 years ago for Linux (Ubuntu distro) and now Mac, but this is going to take me back to Windows. Love seeing Scott btw!

[@PrashanthKrishnamurthy]

Excellent job, team. Appreciate *ALL* the new features!

[@busyrand]

This sounds great! I typically dislike being an early adopter, but I'm gonna have to check this out ASAP. I ran into some issues with WSL that have likely been cleared up with the new WSL2 setup. I'm still going to dual boot a Linux Distro with my new Windows 10 Dev Machine, but I'm looking forward to a world where the Linux Subsystem is fully fleshed out so things just work the same way development dependencies do in complete POSIX environments.

[@chris-ew9wl]

TIL that a lot of the primary maintainers of Linux Kernel are Microsoft Employees 🤯

[@MrBestard]

Microsoft is Cool again for running command line. ; )

[@LeandroCavalcanteLeandrw]

I'm a frontend and nodeJS developer, I really need this.

[@sayantandas7544]

Awesome ! npm installs faster. Real world problem addressed. Good to see it's a step towards right direction. 👍👍

[@SuperMarkusparkus]

Will I be able to run nmap without issues on WSL 2.0? nmap by default uses raw sockets. Will gdb debugging work?

[@drghartnangamn]

9:28 THIS MONTH when? Looking forward to try this out

[@stevanbr1]

Does anybody know if you can run a different linux distro (other than Ubuntu) on WSL 2? For example, Arch?

[@jimbarino2]

There are, I believe, 5 officially supported distros in the MS Store. There is an Arch distro there, too - but it was just put up by some random guy, so it is not neccessily supported...

[@erikkunz]

Will it have native gui support (This works on wsl1, but requires buggy third party stuff like vcxsrv)

[@1yaz]

FWIW I have had better luck with X410 (can find it in the Microsoft Store)

[@carloslemare6060]

hopefully, will provide access to the hardware so you can mount an ext4 external drive directly in Linux without the need to have drivers for Windows.

[@shamringo7438]

Most likely no. They have stated multiple times they won't support X applications. However, since all syscalls are in wsl 2, the experience should be pretty smooth even if it's on vcxsrv

[@duudleDreamz]

Amazing stuff! Is that a hair blower next to me, or did that just blow my mind?

[@werneromling]

Please, Say to me I'll be able to choose where this ubuntu file system is created .

[@drghartnangamn]

Well, as to WSL 1 it is created by default in the user folder inside application data, but there's a tool on github, which makes it possible to choose any location you want and to put a symlink to the location where it should be to be found by WSL. As they mentioned, WSL 2 will be placed in VHD with ext4 FS, so this wouldn't be a problem hopefully.

[@Zer010X]

Can explorer finally handle more than 255 characters in the path yet?

[@larshansson1953]

Will it be possible to relocate the WSL filesystem? I'd rather avoid having it on my SSD, if possible.

[@digitalx788]

I want..make windows great again!

[@avanish80]

Is it possible to do a yocto bitbake build in WSL2

[@clarity7862]

Who is the host?

[@sudosu]

so directory sharing in win-docker use docker client from wsl will work faster?

[@christobanistan8887]

WSL 2 is literall a Hyper-V hosted Linux VM. Simple as that. It's far faster and more lightweight than a normal VM, but still a VM. So you can do anything Linux can do because it's Linux.

[@locusm]

Does this mean LX Containers will run in WSL2?

[@bonniesimon14]

When will WSL2 be launching ?

[@Ozuqam]

Can we run nvidia-docker on windows

[@lesliesavege1206]

They used Linux to get what really is Unix. If this is really a VM, then where is the Linux GUI?

[@arjunkirpal9776]

Awesome

[@tractatusviii7465]

Ships this fall... October-ish!

[@beardymonger]

I'll wait for wsl3 ;-)

[@DivergentDroid]

O.k... I wanna do this: Use WSL to install a distro with a DE of my choice and run my Windows programs From the DE. Like Virtual Box, if WSL is just a subsystem, why cannot it integrate with the main Windows system too? In this way, I'd be able to configure the DE or desktop like I could in Linux and still run my windows games! - Is this possible and if not - Why Not?

[@SmplySilver]

(My knowledge on this is very limited so forgive me if i'm wrong) The problem with WSL in its current state is that it's not a true version of linux, just more of an emulation on windows that allows it to run linux apps within the command line. this is fine for those kinds of apps, but as soon as a GUI is introduced it all breaks down. X11 windowing is not compatible with windows at all. now with WSL2 where i believe they're beginning to ship a linux kernel along with it, this removes some of the emulation layer that WSL1 has, and perhaps this will make it easier for them to integrate the windowing schemes that linux uses in a window on your Windows machine. it might not come out first thing, but it's a step towards it. hope that helped.

[@DivergentDroid]

@@SmplySilver Thanks for the info. I have seen instructions on how to run DE's through a distro installed in WSL but haven't tried it. They did say above you can run windows files from WSL but I don't know if that works from a DE.. seems to me if they can make them run from WSL they can make them run from within the DE. - Wait a minute.. I'm over thinking this.. if we can file explore our windows drive from within the linux system we shoud be able to start the windows programs from there right? Just put a shortcut on the linux desktop?

[@KieranShort]

@@SmplySilver I find that interesting that you say x11 isn't compatible... Because, right now, I can launch sublime text (a great GUI text editor) from my wsl1 shell, and it opens up an x11 session in windows using xming. So if this can be done already, implementation of a translation layer/window handler by MS with access to a full Linux kernel in wsl2 should be a doddle. Hell, maybe they can do something cooler and have a Wayland translation layer/window handler. Also, java apps spawn GUI windows from wsl1. So basically, there are tools now that can spawn GUI Linux applications from wsl1 shells, so MS can do it if they want... and they should. If you can launch grep/cat etc from windows directly, there must also be a way forward where I can launch a Linux GUI application directly from windows without having to spawn a wsl command line instance.

[@SmplySilver]

@@KieranShort sorry for the misinformation, i barely use windows anymore as it is let alone wsl

[@werneromling]

I'm very excited to see How it comes out and how It will work, I'm just imagening how cool GUI applications for Linux running on a Windows Screen would Look like

[@logicaldistraction]

Still not sure if this path is a good idea... I remember when I got excited about WSL and tried to install jupyter notebook and load a CSV. It was super confusing because the browser didn't open when command was used I didn't know where my files were and what the home directory is (windows or linux). You can now choose from CMD, Powershell, Bash but not a single choice can do all. It's just getting more and more complex without a real reason. On my mac it's all similar to bash, all the same folder structure (I know where my home directory is) it feels subjectively like a better linux unlike on Windows. On Windows I would currently prefer to use a VM instead of WSL because then I know that stuff will work when I follow tutorials and not think about magic connections between the systems like opening a File via VSCode on Windows but hosting it via WSL etc. Either switch your kernel to linux or don't... Just having "a small team" and expact to make everyone happy is an illusion. But PLEASE proof me wrong :)

[@FelipeSchmitzS]

I think they discussed your issue on 9:16, take a look. I'm very excited about WSL.

[@auvski5903]

Interesting, I've never had any issues with Jupyter Notebook myself in WSL 1. Even if the browser weren't to open automatically, you can always just paste the URL that the command gives into your top bar and it'll work just fine since the Linux subsystem sees the same ports as the Windows host. FYI, you should probably avoid Jupyter Notebook at first for WSL 2 because as confirmed elsewhere, due to technically being a VM, the Linux system will have a different IP address from the host. They mentioned that they're hoping to eventually trick both machines into having the same localhost and eventually even the same IP address, but for the moment that's not possible.

[@ahmadalwazzan384]

Are they wearing an apple watch?!

[@erikkunz]

Also wtf are those tiny water bottles xD

[@zoomosis]

2019 is the year of tiny water bottles on the desktop.

[@drghartnangamn]

This is a symbol of the fact that you have to pay for everything, even for the water, not only for your OS.

[@alirezanet]

i can't wait for it :(

[@fejkkonto]

"shush" I'm taking it

[@infeltk]

Microsoft has energy and money for another terminal but doesn't have it for get Windows10 right (Control Panel, stability of updates, text rendering).

[@MrBestard]

infeltk some people choose to ignore feedbacks

[@infeltk]

@@MrBestard What do you mean? Whether MS ignores feedbaks or users ignore sending feedbacks? I think that Microsoft (about 100k employees) should release good, polished product and not a beta version.

[@MrBestard]

They have a feedback system, they respond to highest voted requests.

[@infeltk]

@@MrBestard ooo yeah, we all know, how they respond, so the important is new terminal! for stability, for clear UI, for better UI scaling and dark theme for every app :-)

[@MrBestard]

infeltk lol, it has tabs.

[@mungunkhuyagz5191]

Cool

[@dtienloi]

Scott!

[@pebre79]

I want!

[@KieranShort]

So when will wsl2 ship to the masses?

[@tractatusviii7465]

This fall is what the keynote saaid

[@MehranHeidarzadeh]

Your T-shirts rock Scott. You should add a section about cool shirts to your website.

[@DivergentDroid]

I get it, I do but I just can't help but feel Microsoft its trying to keep Linux market share from growing. There is always a VM which isn't as bad as these guys suggest if you have a fast machine and there is dual booting. I'd rather a Linux Distro have a Linux Subsystem for Windows that will let you play all windows programs in Linux.

[@fuseteam]

i would like that too.....but we're not their users sooo

[@DivergentDroid]

@@fuseteam What do you mean "Their users?"

[@fuseteam]

@@DivergentDroid microsoft's user we as linux users are not windows users, there's no reason for them to put effort in getting their ecosystem to work on a linux system what i _can_ see happening is windows becoming linux distro

[@DivergentDroid]

@@fuseteam I don't think Windows will ever become a Linux distro unless they intend to scrape all the work on all the DLL's and systems they have created over the years and Steal all the good Open Source stuff and charge for it.. that's a little insane. I don't see why free open source software cannot let windows programs run on Linux as well as Linux programs running on Windows. It's all just matter of figuring out the compatibility issues. As you see, they have the tech to do that, they just have to allow the users to do it.

[@DivergentDroid]

@@fuseteam Think of it like this.. if Windows can create a WSL then why cant Linux create a LSW?

[@ioagel]

In 3-5 years windows will be a linux distro!!!

[@hblaub]

Scott, you are old