Ubuntu (CLI) now available on the Windows Store

[Deozaan]

You can now download the Ubuntu command-line interface (AKA shell) from the Windows Store, with some caveats.

The store listing appears, but it says it's only compatible with Windows 10 version 16190.0 or higher, which is only available as part of the Windows Insiders program at the moment.

Even still. This is an interesting and useful development for anyone who ever fired up a VM just to run a few Linux commands.

[wraith808]

I hope they don't get rid of the current way of doing it without Windows Store involved.  I have software that I've purchased from the store, and I never use it, because I hate having to go into the stupid interface of the start menu in order to get to them.

[Ath]

I can't fully comprehend why I should want to have an ubuntu in my Windows? If I want that now I'll use Cygwin, on any Windows release I like, not just that insider preview. If I want a full Linux, I'll run a full, official, distro in a local or hosted VM, or on bare hardware. And using shared data from both Windows and Linux is as 'easy' as using shared storage. So, can someone please enlighten me?

[wraith808]

I can't fully comprehend why I should want to have an ubuntu in my Windows? If I want that now I'll use Cygwin, on any Windows release I like, not just that insider preview. If I want a full Linux, I'll run a full, official, distro in a local or hosted VM, or on bare hardware. And using shared data from both Windows and Linux is as 'easy' as using shared storage. So, can someone please enlighten me?

There's a fundamental difference:

In Cygwin you have to re-compile the Linux program from source in order for them to work with the integration layer that Cygwin provides.

That's fine, as long as you only want to use open source projects and don't mind compiling them yourself, or if they're available in cygwin's repository.

With the new bash/Ubuntu integration, actual Linux executables will be able to run directly in Windows without the need to recompile anything, and with access to Ubuntu's humongous repository as well as third party repositories.  Now that I've gotten into firmware level programming, it's very welcome to be able to use the linux toolchain to build a linux executable rather than cygwin's toolchain which builds windows executables.

Explained better here: http://hackaday.com/2016/03/30/windows-and-ubuntu-cygwin-can-suck-it/

[Ath]

But what's wrong with building software on a real Linux system?

I'm not building software on/for/with Cygwin, just using it as a bash-like scripting environment to avoid the horrible cmd scripting, and re-use it on a real Linux box, if I want it. Powershell isn't going to fix that in the near future, and I'm not fixing the PS-blindness in my head for a while either

Most of the stuff I build is either Java or C# (also on Linux, see SedTester ) and a really small portion of C/C++ (next to a sleuth of other languages like Cobol, Delphi and whatnot), and a lot of that can also run on some taste of *ux OS.

The current offering is still quite restrictive, and keeps being restricted to insider previews it seems, I recall it was available a year ago, before the 1607 release of Win 10? Or was that another incarnation/beta. (MS policy: Buy our next version!) ?

[wraith808]

But what's wrong with building software on a real Linux system?

I'm not building software on/for/with Cygwin, just using it as a bash-like scripting environment to avoid the horrible cmd scripting, and re-use it on a real Linux box, if I want it. Powershell isn't going to fix that in the near future, and I'm not fixing the PS-blindness in my head for a while either

Most of the stuff I build is either Java or C# (also on Linux, see SedTester ) and a really small portion of C/C++ (next to a sleuth of other languages like Cobol, Delphi and whatnot), and a lot of that can also run on some taste of *ux OS.

The current offering is still quite restrictive, and keeps being restricted to insider previews it seems, I recall it was available a year ago, before the 1607 release of Win 10? Or was that another incarnation/beta. (MS policy: Buy our next version!) ?

It's not restricted, I have it on my Windows 10 installation, and I'm in the slow ring.  It works for everything I want it to do- building firmware and flashing hardware, and developing for remote systems and testing it before dockerizing it.  And I don't have to maintain a linux system.  I want to work on it, but don't want to maintain it.  That was one of my biggest stopping points when I tried Linux before.

[Deozaan]

The current offering is still quite restrictive, and keeps being restricted to insider previews it seems, I recall it was available a year ago, before the 1607 release of Win 10? Or was that another incarnation/beta. (MS policy: Buy our next version!) ?

Before, you had to enable some advanced and somewhat hidden features within Windows 10 to enable the Linux shell. Now it's as easy as joining the Insider program and clicking install from the Windows Store. I suspect that in the future it will no longer be restricted to Windows Insiders and anyone will be able to install it from the Windows Store.

I have software that I've purchased from the store, and I never use it, because I hate having to go into the stupid interface of the start menu in order to get to them.

I'm not sure what you mean with this one. Are you not able to create shortcuts for Store apps? I rarely use the start menu these days anyway because it's so much easier to just press the Windows key and type the first few letters of whatever I want to open.

[wraith808]

I have software that I've purchased from the store, and I never use it, because I hate having to go into the stupid interface of the start menu in order to get to them.

I'm not sure what you mean with this one. Are you not able to create shortcuts for Store apps? I rarely use the start menu these days anyway because it's so much easier to just press the Windows key and type the first few letters of whatever I want to open.

You weren't able to make shortcuts for store apps before.  They backdoored a fix for this in one of the later releases.

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/5328/windows-10-tip-create-shortcuts-for-universal-apps

It's still a pain, but at least it's doable now.  I don't use the standard way of launching - I use truelaunchbar, so I need real shortcuts.  But even with that, I wonder about integrating in to ConEmu or Console64.  Currently, it's easy to set it up as a different shell.  Not sure how it will be with this.

Looking at it, you still have to go through the same steps, which is strange.

[Deozaan]

Looking at it, you still have to go through the same steps, which is strange.

Hmmm, yeah, I missed that. Interesting.

[4wd]

Before, you had to enable some advanced and somewhat hidden features within Windows 10 to enable the Linux shell. Now it's as easy as joining the Insider program and clicking install from the Windows Store.

This is just a different way to get the Windows Subsystem for Linux that was available after the Anniversary Update, isn't it?

No special requirements other than Anniversary Update and 64bit - that's all I had when I installed it.

[wraith808]

Before, you had to enable some advanced and somewhat hidden features within Windows 10 to enable the Linux shell. Now it's as easy as joining the Insider program and clicking install from the Windows Store.

This is just a different way to get the Windows Subsystem for Linux that was available after the Anniversary Update, isn't it?

No special requirements other than Anniversary Update and 64bit - that's all I had when I installed it.

That's what the text of those big pictures say above. 

[4wd]

Before, you had to enable some advanced and somewhat hidden features within Windows 10 to enable the Linux shell. Now it's as easy as joining the Insider program and clicking install from the Windows Store.

This is just a different way to get the Windows Subsystem for Linux that was available after the Anniversary Update, isn't it?

No special requirements other than Anniversary Update and 64bit - that's all I had when I installed it.

That's what the text of those big pictures say above. 

Yeah well, I only come here to read the ASCII