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bitcrazed | 5 years ago

Hi. Microsoft PM working on WSL, Terminal and Windows.

WSL2 literally runs user-mode distros (and their binaries) in containers atop a shared Linux kernel image (https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel) inside a lightweight VM that can boot an image from cold in < 2s and which aggressively releases resources back to the host when freed.

So when you run a binary/distro on WSL2, you are LITERALLY running on Linux in a VM alongside all your favorite Windows apps and tools.

If some of the tools you run within WSL can take advantage of the machine's available GPUs etc. and integrate well with the Windows desktop & tools, then you benefit. As do the many Windows users who want/need to run Linux apps & tools but cannot dual-boot and/or who can't switch to Linux full-time.

This will (and already has) resulted in MANY Windows users getting access to Linux for the first time, or first time in a while, and are now enjoying the best of both worlds.

discuss

FeepingCreature|5 years ago

The question isn't asking whether you, a Windows user who runs Windows, benefit. The question is asking what it does to Linux users who don't run Windows even a little. (And I think you know that.)

monocasa|5 years ago

That's like asking whether Linux users who don't run ESXi benefit from their paravirtualized drivers being upstreamed. No, they don't, but they were accepted with way less bruhaha. And that's despite VMWare blatantly violating the GPL for more than a decade.

hibbelig|5 years ago

With DirectX on WSL, you can do new things when Linux is running on Windows (via WSL). But these new things aren't possible when Linux is running another way (e.g. on the bare metal).

So people who use it are married to Windows.

I think folks would be absolutely excited if this was an initiative to allow writing DirectX applications on Linux, and available for Linux on bare metal. But as people realize this marries them to Windows, they go meh.

monocasa|5 years ago

They're not intending d3d to be the client library, they ported Mesa for OpenGL and OpenCl, and are working on a Vulkan port for all of that.

Wowfunhappy|5 years ago

I think the concern with this DirectX implementation is that it only works for WSL users, not standard Linux users. So, it's a software API that will only work in your ecosystem, not the overall Linux ecosystem.

If DirectX on Linux could also work on bare metal, the conversation here would likely be different.