Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10

Desmond

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What the hell is Microsoft up to?

According to sources at Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, and Microsoft, you'll soon be able to run Ubuntu on Windows 10.
linuxonwindows.jpg

This will be more than just running the Bash shell on Windows 10. After all, thanks to programs such as Cygwin or MSYS utilities, hardcore Unix users have long been able to run the popular Bash command line interface (CLI) on Windows.

With this new addition, Ubuntu users will be able to run Ubuntu simultaneously with Windows. This will not be in a virtual machine, but as an integrated part of Windows 10.

The details won't be revealed until tomorrow's morning keynote speech at Microsoft Build. It is believed that Ubuntu will run on top of Windows 10's recently and quietly introduced Linux subsystems in a new Windows 10 Redstone build.

Microsoft and Canonical will not, however, sources say, be integrating Linux per se into Windows. Instead, Ubuntu will primarily run on a foundation of native Windows libraries. This would indicate that while Microsoft is still hard at work on bringing containers to Windows 10 in project Barcelona, this isn't the path Ubuntu has taken to Windows.

That said, Canonical and Microsoft have been working on bringing containers to Windows since last summer. They've been doing this using LXD. This is an open-source hypervisor designed specifically for use with containers instead of virtual machines (VMs). The fruits of that project are more likely to show up in Azure than Windows 10.

It also seems unlikely that Ubuntu will be bringing its Unity interface with it. Instead the focus will be on Bash and other CLI tools, such as make, gawk and grep.

Could you run a Linux desktop such as Unity, GNOME, or KDE on it? Probably, but that's not the purpose of this partnership.

Canonical and Microsoft are doing this because Ubuntu on Windows' target audience is developers, not desktop users. In particular, as Microsoft and Canonical continue to work more closely together on cloud projects, I expect to find tools that will make it easy for programmers to use Ubuntu to write programs for Ubuntu on the Azure cloud.

So is this MS-Linux? No. Is it a major step forward in the integration of Windows and Linux on the developer desktop? Yes, yes it is.

Source: ​Microsoft and Canonical partner to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10 | ZDNe
 
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Desmond

Desmond

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Porting DirectX to Linux would mean relinquishing their dominance of PC gaming to Linux. I doubt they'd want to do that.

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kg11sgbg

Indian Railways - The Vibrant and Moving INDIA
Now this is something, getting serious.
Especially,if Ubuntu could be run from within Windows OS without any virtualization software!!!
MS + GNU/Linux are coming together???

Are we moving towards HYBRID OS?

What will Richard Stallman say now???????????????????????
 

josin

In the zone
We need a " penguin " button in keyboard.. Hit it you get Ubuntu..hit windows button you are back to win 10

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Desmond

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I fear Microsoft is running their tried and tested 3E formula to squish out Linux.

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kg11sgbg

Indian Railways - The Vibrant and Moving INDIA
I fear Microsoft is running their tried and tested 3E formula to squish out Linux.

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Apprehending your fear,Desmond that's highly unlikely to occur.
We know MS is used by the majority of ordinary(naive) users globally,as for personal use.But big corporations use GNU/Linux besides MS,and Linux OS after decades though no match for Windows,has still emerged as an alternative OS (user friendly)for many users and countries alongside companies for reliability and cost effectiveness. The huge no of developers (backed by profit run corporates)of Linux worldwide cannot be ignored or brushed aside as simple as that. Hopefully and wishfully,MS won't play a risky game as stakes are too high for it.
 
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Desmond

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You are right, it's highly unlikely that MS would do something to damage Linux's market share. But MS is MS and god knows what they could be up to.

Some people speculate that this has something to do with Docker and containers. So far Docker only runs perfectly on Linux. Other OSs require VirtualBox for the same. Also, Microsoft is a supporter of Docker and wants it to run natively on Windows.

Seeing that containers and microservices are currently the trending technologies in enterprise and corporate systems, its understandable that they want a piece of the action.

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- - - Updated - - -

Update:

I have been reading news that only bash is coming to Windows 10. This supports the Docker theory since Docker runs in the command line.

However, I am wondering how this would be different compared to Cygwin or MSYS/MINGW?
 

gameranand

Living to Play
This will have a global influence on computing. [MENTION=5007]Desmond David[/MENTION] Docker theory is the only explanation that supports this. MS already have very big market share but Docker they don't have. With Canonical on their side, they might make that happen.
 
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