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When my current MBP eventually dies, I'm seriously considering going back to windows. With the new Windows Linux Subsystem, it removes the biggest issue I had
by bit_logic 10y ago
When my current MBP eventually dies, I'm seriously considering going back to windows. With the new Windows Linux Subsystem, it removes the biggest issue I had with windows. Apple hardware was always superior for a long time, but PC laptops are finally becoming just as good (maybe because of the strong push by Microsoft Surface).
- eknkc 10y agoYeah I also considered that. Got a VM instance and tried a couple of times. It works when it works. There are a lot of rough edges. Now, if we give that a couple of years to mature. I might go back to Windows too. Seems like a reasonable setup if it works perfectly.
- slantyyz 10y agoIt depends on how nitpicky you are, but I switched to Windows 10 and like it a lot. I haven't tried the new Windows Linux Subsystem because I've been using Cmder since I switched, and for -my- needs (ymmv), it's just as good as Terminal on OSX. My overall workflow on Windows is about the same as it was on OSX.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoI brought up the Linux subsystem on my Surface book, copied over all of my embedded systems development tool chains and it just worked. (previously I'd boot a Linux VM and run from there). So for that limited test case it worked flawlessly and it means I don't need putty any more (just use ssh out of the shell).
- eeeeeeeeeeeee 10y agoWow, can you let me know which Surface book and Linux distro? I like the look of the new Windows laptops too but figured they would never run Linux :)
- ChuckMcM 10y agoThe unexpected thing is that it isn't a "distro" it is part of Windows 10. Microsoft created a kernel shim, which is part of the standard release now, that creates a Linux ABI into the NT kernel. As a result, Linux userland code just assumes its running on Ubuntu and as far as I have been able to ascertain it just works. All my bash scripts, all my perl code, all my python code, just runs. That said, I've not used tools that open windows so I've been all command line.
- eeeeeeeeeeeee 10y agoGotcha, but you haven't tried a GUI or anything?
- ChuckMcM 10y agoNope, there is no xserver so really nothing to talk to locally. For grins, and because you asked, I did an install of gimp and verified I couldn't figure out how to get it to run :-)
- majewsky 10y ago> Nope, there is no xserver so really nothing to talk to locally. I think the relevant Google keyword for this is "vcxsrv", an X server running under Windows. I saw something about people using it in WSL to launch regular Unix applications talking to X, but don't remember where.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoI actually have a license to xwin32, I wonder if I can get it running under windows 10 ...
- eridius 10y agoI have it running on my Windows machine, and I've definitely hit some big limitations. I don't remember offhand what they were, but there was some software that completely failed to run. I do remember that tmux is completely unable to figure out what the current working directory is, which means when I restore my tmux session after restarting, all of the panes are reset back to the home folder. Additionally, the terminal that comes with it is pretty crappy, but my internet searches don't turn up any way to get a better terminal that works with it. I also can't figure out where the Linux Subsystem filesystem is stored on my drive.
- guelo 10y agoWhat's the package manager situation in that subsystem?
- Tiksi 10y agoIt's more or less a headless Ubuntu install, so you have apt for package management.