The newest
Windows 10 Fast Ring release, 14316, includes Ubuntu and Bash. It may
not have a Linux foundation, but this is close as a Windows PC has ever
come to also being a Linux computer.
Yes, that's Ubuntu with the Bash shell running on Windows 10. Miracles do happen!This beta version of Windows 10 is the forerunner of the next major Windows 10 update: Windows 10 Redstone 1 (a k a Anniversary Update). This release, AKA Windows 10 SP1, will be out this summer.
In
the meantime, Ubuntu and the Bash shell, are optional. The only thing
"Linux" that's installed by default is the Windows Subsystem for Linux
(WSL). To give WSL a try, the first thing you have to do is become a Windows Insider.
Then, you need to switch your Windows 10 system to the Fast Ring. You
do this by going "System Settings > Advanced Windows Update options"
and selecting your Insider Preview update setting to the far right. This
sets your Windows 10 update to the the Fast Ring.
After this
check for updates, apply all of them, and restart your PC. This gives
you its beta operating system so don't do this on your production
machine. Microsoft makes many updates to its Fast Ring releases and
adding WSL, Ubuntu, and Bash are only part of them.
Then, you must turn on Developer Mode via Settings > Update &
security > For developers. Next, search for "Windows Features" and
choose "Turn Windows features on or off" and enable Windows Subsystem
for Linux (Beta).
After that, to install Bash, you must open the Windows Command Prompt and type "bash." You'll be asked to accept the terms of service and download Ubuntu.
The typical Ubuntu download is a bit less than one gigabyte. So, if you
have a slow Internet connection, be ready to wait. Once installed,
you'll be running a userspace version of Ubuntu 14.04 on top of WSL.
Technically,
you're not running Linux. It may look like Linux and squeak like Tux,
the Linux penguin; but, it's not Linux. That's because the Ubuntu
userspace is running not on a Linux kernel, but WSL. WSL provides the
API hooks to look like Linux to Ubuntu and Linux applications, but it's
not the same thing.
That said, for high-level developers it sure looks like
Linux. Besides being able to run Bash shell commands, you can run Bash
scripts, Bash shell tools such as sed, awk, and grep. You can also run,
according to Microsoft, "Linux-first tools like Ruby, Git, Python, etc. directly on Windows.
You can also access your Windows filesystem from within Bash allowing
you to work on the same set of files using your preferred Windows tools
or Linux command-line tools."
Dustin Kirkland, a member of Ubuntu Product and Strategy team, has added that you will be able to run pretty much the full gamut of Linux shell tools such as "apt, ssh, rsync, find, grep, awk, sed, sort, xargs, md5sum, gpg, curl, wget, apache, mysql, python, perl, ruby, php, gcc, tar, vim, emacs, diff, patch, and most of the tens of thousands binary packages available in the Ubuntu archives!"
Besides
the Linux shell fundamentals and programming languages, developers
should notice that it includes support for server programs such as the
Apache webserver and the MySQL database management system. This is a
very full Linux development environment that just happens to be running
on Windows.
Will people be running a Linux desktop, such as
Unity, Cinnamon, KDE, or Gnome, on this hybrid WIndows Linux software
stack as well? That's not the plan. This stack is meant for developers.
But, programmers being programmers, I'm sure we'll soon see people
trying to port all Linux userspace programs, including desktops, to
Windows. We live in interesting times! Related Stories:
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