Microsoft has astonished numerous in the Linux developer community in recent years. Surprises have included conveying things like the Bash shell to Windows, or native OpenSSH in Windows 10, and notwithstanding including Ubuntu, SUSE Linux, and Fedora in the Windows Store. Microsoft is presently going much further, with plans to transport a full Linux kernel legitimately in Windows 10.
“Beginning with Windows Insiders builds this Summer, we will include an in-house custom-built Linux kernel to underpin the newest version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL),” explains Microsoft program manager Jack Hammons. “The kernel itself will initially be based on version 4.19, the latest long-term stable release of Linux. The kernel will be rebased at the designation of new long-term stable releases to ensure that the WSL kernel always has the latest Linux goodness.”
Microsoft’s integration of Linux in Windows 10 will interface with a userspace installed by means of the Windows Store. It’s a major shift for Microsoft, and marks the first time when that the Linux kernel will be incorporated as a feature of Windows. It sounds like this Linux kernel integration will be accessible not long from now, with a Windows 10 update that is codenamed 19H2.
For developers it ought to drastically improve the performance of Microsoft’s Linux subsystem in Windows. Microsoft is additionally encouraging to update this kernel through Windows Update, and it will be completely open source with the capacity for developers to make their own WSL kernel and contribute changes.
Microsoft additionally declared Windows Terminal today, a new command line application for Windows. It’s intended to be the central location for access to environments like PowerShell, Cmd, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).