No, it’s not April 1 and this is not an April Fool joke.
You’ll soon be able to use Linux command lines natively in Windows 10. You can kiss goodbye to third party tools like Cygwin, Cash etc because Windows 10 will soon have Bash Shell running on it, for real.
Microsoft loves Linux!
Stop rubbing your eyes. Microsoft has been very generous towards Open Source in general and Linux in particular ever since Satya Nadela assumed the office. There is a paradigm shift in Microsoft’s narrative and its approach towards open source ever since.
After open sourcing a number of its products, Microsoft today dropped the bomb by announcing the arrival of Bash Shell on Windows.
#BashOnWindows
At Microsoft Build Developer Conference today, Kevin Gallo announced:
“The Bash shell is coming to Windows. Yes, the real Bash is coming to Windows…..This is not a VM. This is not cross-compiled tools. This is native. We’ve partnered with Canonical to offer this great experience, which you’ll be able to download right from the Windows Store.”
Aimed at developers
Windows too has its own command line but it is certainly not as powerful and not as used (and loved) as its Linux counterpart. Of course, most open source command line tools could not be used in the Windows command prompt. This was one of the problem developers often faced because they could not use those cool open source tools in Windows.
With Bash Shell coming to Windows, this will be a dream come true for developers. This means that you can actually run Emacs or Vim in Windows. Don’t believe me? Here is a screenshot of Emacs on Windows in Bash Shell. Image taken from Microsoft’s Scott Hanselman’s blog.
Vi, Emacs, sed, grep, awk etc, all could be used inside Windows. You can also use apt-get to install new tools. I think that would be valid for command line tools only.
All thanks to Canonical (of Ubuntu fame)
Ubuntu’s parent company Canonical has partnered with Microsoft in the recent past to work on Big Data among other things. And once again, it is Canonical that has helped to bridge the gap between Microsoft and Linux.
The Bash Shell can be used by downloading ‘Ubuntu on Windows’ when you use Developer mode in Windows 10.
The feature will be coming soon to Windows 10 in its Anniversary Update.
Is it another nail in the coffin of desktop Linux?
Don’t get me wrong. I am happy that Windows can now run Linux command line. This is a win for Windows. But what about Linux, especially desktop Linux? Will this move enable Windows to keep some Linux users, mainly developers to itself?
Roy Schestowitz of Techrights had been critical about Microsoft’s SQL server n Linux announcement as well. And he has valid reasons for that.
What do you think of this announcement?
[polldaddy poll=9368512]
