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I still have a hard time with bash-backwards name: "Windows Subsystem for Linux". Its a Linux subsystem for Windows.
by ape4 10y ago
I still have a hard time with bash-backwards name: "Windows Subsystem for Linux". Its a Linux subsystem for Windows.
- dragonwriter 10y agoIt's a subsystem of Windows (hence Windows Subsystem). And, among all Windows Subsystems, it's the one for Linux, hence Windows Subsystem for Linux.
- yarrel 10y agoYes that still doesn't work.
- TillE 10y agoBut that (a subsystem "for Linux") would only be referring to the small compatibility layer for syscalls and stuff, rather than the whole Bash environment which "WSL" typically means.
- GhotiFish 10y agoWindows Subsystem's Not Unix.
- greglindahl 10y ago... which might fit well with IBM's not quite Unix thing AIX, which acquired the nickname "Ain't unIX".
- EpicEng 10y agoYeah it's the 'for' in there that makes it wrong. It's not 'for' Linux, it's for Windows. I know what it is and I _still_ think of it backwards every time I read it.
- yakk0 10y agoit's the subsystem for running Linux. It's not actually Linux, and after enabling the subsystem you still have to actually get the Ubutntu image. That image is the Linux part.
- Someone1234 10y agoWe all understand how it works. Repeating that is unconstructive. It is a bad name that is bad English. It was bad when it was "Windows Services for UNIX" too as an aside.
- JdeBP 10y agoNote that this subsystem never actually was "Windows Services for UNIX". That was another subsystem, another personality on top of the Windows NT kernel.
- Someone1234 10y agoPer context, "it" was the name of the thing. "It" (the name) was a bad name then and is a bad name now.
- WorldMaker 10y ago'for' is heavily overloaded as an English preposition. You are expecting a connotation of "for [the benefit of] Linux" versus the connotation of "for [the purpose of] Linux". Another example in English might be the relative meanings of 'for' in "this gift is for you" versus "this gift is for good behavior". Other languages use multiple words or different cases for some of these situations. English leaves it ambiguous.
- EpicEng 10y agoThe fact that there are so many of us discussing it implies that it is a failure of a name. After all, what are words for if not communicating? We can debate semantics all day, but in the end, it's obvious that many people find the phrasing to be confusing.
- throwaway91111 10y agoThis explains one interpretation but it doesn't excuse the ambiguity.
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoI have only ever seen "<foo> Subsystem" used to mean a subsystem that does foo, not a subsystem for foo.
- mixmastamyk 10y agoMS is horrible at naming things, WOW64 anyone?
- douche 10y agoOr the needless confusion when everything needed to have .NET tacked onto the name. Or after they bought Skype, and rebranded the unrelated Lync as Skype for Business. Not to mention that Lync is a homophone of LINQ, which was coming out around when Office Communication Server became Lync... Or lately, when you had Visual Studio 2015, and what is now Visual Studio 2017 being called Visual Studio '15 while it was pre-release. Naming things is hard.
- cmarschner 10y agoI guess it is Visual Studio 15 (as in version 15), and that still holds.
- ygra 10y agoYep, while in pre-release they always just use the version number and that only happened to be similar to the actual product name in VS 2010, I think.
- akulbe 10y agoIt's still the Windows kernel. No Linux kernel here. Just Linux userspace. The name may not sound good, but it's technically accurate. :)
- milcron 10y agoBetter than "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows".
- petecox 10y agoGNU/NT
- metaobject 10y agoIsn't that Cygwin?
- yjftsjthsd-h 10y agoCygwin is also GNU/NT. If you like, it's the same as the ways of running GNU on the FreeBSD kernel; there's Debian/kFreeBSD, which is Debian compiled against the FreeBSD ABI, and there's the Linux compat layer that can run Linux ELF binaries unmodified. Both of those are legitimately GNU/FreeBSD systems (or subsystems).
- hdhzy 10y agoYes, but names starting with a trademark are a no-no. See [0] (bitcrazed works on WSL) and [1]. Also IANAL. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13697918 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13697918 [1]: https://www.andreas-jung.com/contents/dont-use-docker-in-github-repo-names-or-as-twitter-handle https://www.andreas-jung.com/contents/dont-use-docker-in-git...
- mustpax 10y agoIn that case Windows Linux Subsystem seems like a good compromise.
- throwaway91111 10y agoIt's never going to happen. :(
- criddell 10y agoShouldn't that be Windows' Linux Subsystem?
- dheera 10y agoHow about "Windex"? Oh wait ...
- greglindahl 10y agoI thought that both "Windows" and "Linux" were trademarks?
- jcwayne 10y agoMaybe "Windows's Subsystem for Linux"?
- tankenmate 10y agoWindows is plural so it should be Windows' Subsystem for Linux.
- jcwayne 10y agoI'd argue that it's singular in the same sense that Williams[1] is singular, despite have origins which imply it describes a plural concept. Plus, "Windows's" sounds funny. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_(surname) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_(surname)
- gerdesj 10y agoTry: "Window's Subsystem for Linux" instead of "Windows Subsystem for Linux" and see if that helps. It's still grammatically shit. Now who can come up with the justification for an abbreviation of "whine"?
- Old_Thrashbarg 10y agoYes, my first reaction to the title was "Oh, I can run some kind of Windows component on my Ubuntu machine now?".
- rodgerd 10y agoWhich is why I have a GNU/Windows sticker on my laptop.
- emmelaich 10y agoThey could use Windows Linux Subsystem.
- fellellor 10y agoThen why not Windows's Linux Subsystem?
- partycoder 10y agoWhatever name is better than "Bash for Windows", the worst possible name and the least tech-savvy way of describing what is going on. A real embarrassment. They justify their choice saying they had a survey where the most popular option was Bash for Windows. Well, surveys also led to a boat called Boaty McBoatface...
- sgift 10y ago> Boaty McBoatface A glorious name and a perfect example that surveys are a good idea. So - what's your point?
- PhasmaFelis 10y ago"<anything at all> for Windows" would at least accurately express what operating system it runs on. "<foo> for Linux" on a program that is not for Linux is just awful.
- frou_dh 10y ago↑↑↑ Bikeshedding ↓↓↓
- ryenus 10y ago"Windows Subsystem for Linux", though a confusing name, is still better than "Linux On Windows", because the later would lead to LOW, which is unfortunately very true, in terms of performance, they just don't want you to ever think in that way. Edit: seriously, I'm just kidding
- torrent-of-ions 10y agoYes. I saw this title and thought "oh, wow, they've now made a Windows Subsystem for Linux!"... Nope, it's the Linux subsystem for Windows.
- bambax 10y agoYes! It sounds as if they're talking about Wine...
- gozur88 10y agoSadly, having a "Windows Subsystem for Linux" is only what they should have done.