I still will never understand why it's not called Linux Subsystem for Windows.
this post was submitted on 19 May 2025
728 points (97.5% liked)
Technology
70249 readers
4887 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
There's a trademark for Linux so Microsoft can't name a product starting with Linux.
So they can use Linux in the name, just not at the beginning? We're so stupid. Can they do Windows Subsystem for Coke? Or Windows Subsystem for McDonald's? Or Windows Subsystem for MacOs?
Good gravy.
Sorry, "gravy" is a registered trademark of Gravy, Inc.: https://trademarks.justia.com/854/89/gravy-85489026.html
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(6 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
I think it is because Windows has many subsystems, it's just that you don't hear about most of them aside from WSL.
So it is referring to the particular Windows Subsystem (of which there are many) that can run or emulate Linux.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I got hung up on this before too but it's apparently "Windows Subsystem for (using) Linux"
load more comments
(1 replies)
I know there's a lot of hate for Microsoft on Lemmy, but WSL is one of the best parts of Windows. It's really powerful and well integrated to Windows. Since I still can't leave for pure Linux install, I'm glad for WSL.
Funny that the Linux is best part of Windows lmao
Doubly ironic since Win32 is the only stable ABI on Linux.
I don't think that is true any more but it is funny
Microsoft hate is justified.
WSL made windows tolerable in the time I had to use a windows machine for work.
macOS is still the better choice for corp approved work, integrates decently with IT systems and is a “real” unix system underneath.
Linux on a corporate desktop is mostly about how well you know the IT guys and do they trust you. And of course the software stack.
load more comments
(7 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
Great! With this source code out, I can finally complete the port to Linux. I call it WSL24L, aka "Windows Subsystem For Linux 2, For Linux"
Do you name every FOSS project? This is uncannily close to what an actual open source project would be called, including the logic behind it.
Nah, needs more recursion. The 'W' in "WSL" stands for "WSL"
Don't you think this is another Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish strategy from Microsoft?
That's exactly what it is. Any time now you'll see "the best way to run Linux: on windows" or similar.
Does Lemmy even know what EEE means anymore or are we regurgitating words we heard from some article now?
What's it going to embrace and extend? WSL has existed for ages and is just a way to run Linux in a convenient container on top of Windows. That's it. It's not an attempt to "extenguish" Linux, literally just make the development experience on Windows less painful so people don't switch to another OS. This has nothing to do with EEE.
Open sourcing it with a permissive license can only be a good thing, and again they're doing it to be more appealing to devs and maybe get free bug fixes from the open source community. It isn't some grand conspiracy. But of course this community will react to news of "proprietary blob is now open source" with pessimism.
literally just make the development experience on Windows less painful so people don't switch to another OS.
You said it right there yourself and don't seem to realize it.
Why have a laptop or a dual boot with Linux when you can now more easily stay on the proprietary OS ?
This is called market retention.
Preventing migration to another OS, another software ecosystem.
The 'Embrace' and 'Extend' parts of EEE.
And if it works, then in a few years, MSFT will figure out how to further monetize some other part of its software ecosystem that is either reliant on, or much much easier for an average user of WSL to use than switching their whole setup or stack all the way over to Linux.
Call that EEM for 'monetization' if you want, or 'enshittify' for another E...
...the commonly used term to describe software or services or platforms that suddenly jump over to making previously free stuff cost money, put ads everywhere, break the previously free features and put the 'new' working versions behind some kind of paywall...
... All after you've captured your market and dominated as many competitors as possible.
Standard monopolist strategy throughout the entite history of capitalism, same general concept goes back even further.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
I think it's an attempt to keep people on their platform who need easy access to a unix-like shell. Linux has it and so does mac os. Windows didn't until they introduced wsl.
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(37 replies)
This is for WSL2, not for WSL1. WSL2 is just a VM, not a big deal it it's open-sourced. WSL1 is superior to WSL2 in every way. BTW, WSL2 is not a continuation of WSL1, they are being developed in parallel. I still try to use WSL1 whenever possible. For Linux specific features, like systemd dependancy and mounting file systems, I'd use full-featured VM instead of WSL2.
load more comments
(9 replies)
Making WSL open source could actually lead to some useful contributions and better transparency overall ; and good for Linux tools?
Fair play to Microsoft here. Hopefully we see some pull requests from non-ms employees and a better wsl experience for us all
I am legit excited to install WINE Subsystem for Linux
Or how about KDE on ReactOS on WSL?
The possibilities are endless
load more comments
(4 replies)
fuck microsoft and windows so hard. had to reinstall that shitshow on my mothers computer because a driver update fucked the whole networkstack... they throw error codes and what not but give no help whatsoever. the conclusion of everyone for every problem is to reinstall windows.... shitshow of an os, keep your dirty hands of linux!! can't wait to nuke it and install linux there and have no windows machine left
load more comments
(6 replies)
view more: next ›