Microsoft Brings Linux to Windows 10
At the recent Microsoft Build 2019 Developer Conference, Microsoft announced the next generation of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Starting with builds available this summer through the company's Windows Insider program, Version 2 of WSL include a custom Linux kernel to boost performance and add native support for many protocols. In an essence Windows 10 users will be able to take advantages of both Windows NT and Linux kernel.
According to Jack Hammons, Program Manager, Linux Systems Group at Microsoft, “The kernel provided for WSL2 will be fully open source! When WSL2 is released in Windows Insider builds, instructions for creating your own WSL kernel will be made available on Github. We will work with developers interested in contributing to help get changes upstream. Check back in a few weeks for more information.”
Microsoft is using some clever tricks to run both Linux and Windows NT kernel on the same system. They have fine-tuned their virtualization technology to run the Linux kernel inside of a lightweight utility virtual machine (VM). According to Microsoft, users will experience high levels of integration between Windows and Linux, extremely fast boot times, and a small resource footprint -- all without VM configuration or management.
WSL 2 will be available in June.
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