Yes, they kept the name. "NT Subsystems have always varied in nature of how they operate." Not sure what you mean here. There were classically three environme

Yes, they kept the name. "NT Subsystems have always varied in nature of how they operate." Not sure what you mean here. There were classically three environment subsystems and they all fit in to the architecture in a consistent manner: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Windows_2000_architecture.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Windows_... The fact that if you look at the full callstack and address space of a regular Linux process running in WSL2 you won't see the "classic" NT Kernel anywhere feels like a pretty big difference to me. Yes they are still supporting WSL1. Microsoft's support policies are generally excellent. But it seems very unlikely there will be an interest in providing OS emulation or compatibility at the userspace/OS kernel boundary using the classic subsystem architecture, as a technical direction for the Windows team to invest in going forward. It's an architectural dead-end.